Under the Tuscan Sun (for real this time)

After four nights in Firenze, I can safely say I am in love with Tuscany. In our time in Florence we managed to pack in two day trips to the Tuscan countryside, taste some Chianti wine, eat some amazing (and cheap) food and drinks, haggle our way through the leather markets, and even catch a sunset over Florence.

The city itself is really beautiful. Mike and I are amazed how you can travel just two hours in Italy and everything seems different.. Back home two hours will only take you to Sydney, and that's just the same, except with less beaches and a billion tourists. We both agreed that the difference between Florence-Rome is very similar to what Kyoto is to Tokyo- a more relaxed, cultural place rather than a bustling city.

SIGHTS
On our first full day, we tried to pack in as many of the main sights as possible- we walked to the Duomo, took photos of the really awesome architecture (one of the most impressive churches we have seen so far), and then managed to snag it in line to the cupola at a pretty quiet time, and got in within 10 minutes. The cupola is the massive dome in the centre of the church, and you can pay to climb up the steeeeeeep spiral staircases (with something like 400 steps) and then eventually you get to the roof and have an amazing view over the centre of Florence. The effort is definitely worth the reward-we were here just when it struck midday and heard the bells of every church in the city chiming at once.

Afterwards we walked and walked and walked until we had basically covered all of the main sights from the outside- we thought Rome was an easy city to get around, but this was even better! We stopped for a well earnt gelato in Piazza di Signoria, where there is also a replica of Michelangelo's David. After weighing up the 'cost vs are we actually that interested in art' scenario, we decided to skip the galleries and spend our money elsewhere- the Uffizi (a €19 entrance fee) required advanced reservations and a lot of time to appreciate it all; while the Accademia gallery's most famous possession is the real statue of David, and considering that's all we wanted to see, we were happy to track down the two fakes in Piazza di Signoria and Piazzale Michelanglo. We wondered how many tourists took photos of these replicas, thinking they were the real David?

We finished the day off by walking over the Ponte Vecchio (the only bridge the Nazis didn't bomb in WWII) to catch a sunset over at Piazzale Michelangelo. Though it was a bit of an uphill walk to make it there, this was definitely one of the highlights for me. We took up a nice and tasty €2 bottle of red and just sat for about 3 hours taking on the view. There was also a busker putting on a concert on the steps, so wine, views and entertainment all for just €2.

PISA & LUCCA DAYTRIP
On our second day we decided to navigate the Italian rail system and take a train to the small walled village of Lucca. Once we realized that all trains bypassed Pisa on the way, it was hard to pass up the opportunity to be ultimate tourists and take a photo with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. See proof:

The tower was cool to see on such a lean, but the best bit was watching everyone try and line up their photos and try different poses. I remember I saw something on the Internet once (see above) that had a picture of people in front of the tower, and the lyrics to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' underneath it, because when everyone is pulling the same pose it looks like they are doing the zombie-inspired dance from the film clip. After seeing it first hand, I couldn't agree more, and much to Mike's pleasure, I couldn't get Thriller out of my head while we there. Lucky Mike.

Lucca itself was a great afternoon. It's a tiny city that still has walls surrounding it from medieval times, and around the top of the wall is this beautiful path that circles the town. We hired bikes when we got off the train and rode through the streets (which was good because there weren't too many people, as I realised my people dodging skills aren't that good on a bike), and rode the ring around the top of the city as well.

CHIANTI WINE TOUR
No trip to Tuscany would be complete without trying the wine which the region is famous for: Chianti. Since we saved on gallery entrance fees, we put a little money towards an afternoon tour through the Tuscan countryside to a Chianti vineyard. We were a little bit skeptical about what sort of crowd we would be joining (and admittedly when we arrived, the average age looked about double our age) but as more people joined it didn't seem like a bus full of geriatrics. Phew. We toured through the small country towns of Monteriggioni and Castellina on our way to get a taste of 'typical Tuscan life', and then we arrived at Sant' Appiamo vineyard. I have only recently (as in, in the last month) begun to get the taste for red wine, and luckily, because Chianti vineyards produce a particular type of grape that is used only to make red wines. We had a taste of about 4 wines with some bruschetta, meats and an olive oil produced by the winery, and I have to say I definitely like the reds now!

SHOPPING
Piazza di Mercato Centrale: an entire area of Florence dedicated to leather. Shopping in Florence was by far the best looking variety that we have seen in Italy- all the big brands on the main streets, some nice looking little boutiques that were out of backpacker-budget, and a whole area devoted to leather goods. After one day scoping out the markets, on our last morning we decided to try our luck haggling for some leather goods. We were originally looking for a bag Mike's sister was after, but I soon caved and found one that I wanted as well. The markets were quite strange- 90% of the stall owners were from Bangladesh, and the little Italian I was using ("quanto costa"- how much; "sto solo guardo"- I'm just looking, and "e troppo caro"- that's too expensive) soon became redundant when I realised they couldn't speak much more Italian than I could. Mike managed to make it through the shopping alive, and eventually we bought two leather handbags from an Italian that seemed the most genuine and his bags looked the best. At €55 he wasn't going to budge any more, and was quite adamant that 'if you want to save €5, go buy off a Bangladeshi guy', so we gave up haggling and just paid that much. I was happy, because I got a nice new bag.. ( and Alex, yours will get home eventually!).

FOOD, NIGHTS & EVERYTHING ELSE
Shopping and sights aside, one of the best finds in Florence was food. We had some of the tastiest gnocchi so far in a place our hostel/b&b owner recommended, and one of the best gelato flavours ever:one ice cream containing pear, mascarpone & nutella! But our best food buy was following the Italian tradition of aperitif: you go to a bar and pay for one drink, and then you get unlimited access to a buffet of fresh Italian food. We found a place called Kitsch, where we got cocktails for €8.50 and a ridiculous amount of good food- there was not a single soggy sandwich or stingy portion in sight. There were two tables of fresh food (hot and cold salads, pastas, bruschetta, chicken, risotto, and my favourite- roasted eggplant and mushrooms), as well as fresh fruit and gelato to top it off. It was the best value we have gotten so far in Italy, and we walked out feeling full all for the price of one drink.

After four nights our time in Florence came to an end, and now we are on to our last stop in Italy: Cinque Terre.