Our first 6 days…Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, & Greve…

Well, it’s been an interesting first week (almost) so far. After flying to London, we had to change airports. We flew into the Gatwick Airport, and needed to fly out of the Luton Airport. We landed at 10:30 am and our flight left Luton at 3:15 pm. We thought over 5 hrs would be more than enough time to get through Passport Control, and catch the train to Luton. We failed to factor in the time it would take to get off the plane, get through passport control, get to the train station, buy our tickets and get on the train to Luton…which was an hour and 20 minute ride. Needless to say, we didn’t make our flight to Rome. I was more upset than Paul. I had planned everything out, and this just put a hitch in those plans. Paul just shrugged it off, said we would get a new flight out the next day and get a hotel room for the night. Really I was just tired, hungry and sweaty from the plane ride from Edmonton.

The next morning, after eating, showering and sleeping, I was in a much better mood, and we had no issues catching our flight to Roma. Once we arrived in Rome, we stored our luggage to go explore. This exploration ended up being about 15 minutes once we took he train to Roma Termini. Honestly, we should have just saved ourselves the money, but cest la vie! Once we got back from exploring Rome, we had to board our train to Florence. Besides sitting in the wrong seats to begin with, and then being stuck beside a snoring, old, sweaty Italian man, we had no issues with our 2 hr train ride to Florence.

FIRENZE

Our digs:

Paul and I decided to stay in AirBnBs for the majority of our trip. Most times, it works out to be cheaper than a private room in a hostel. This was my first experience, and I quite like it! We stayed with Dario, a young guy studying politics at the University in Florence. Our room was great, clean, comfortable (besides the lack of AC for the first few nights), we had our own bathroom, and Dario give us some space in the kitchen and the fridge. It was about 20 mins outside the centre of Florence, but easily accessible by bus. Despite Paul’s aversion to public transit, we faired quite well, and quickly got the hang of things. After settling in and showering, it was time to get some food. Upon Dario’s recommendation, we took a quick walk down the street to find this hole in the wall pizza place and ordered a pizza to share. Prosciutto e Panna (I think) which was basically ham with a cream sauce on top. One word…delicious! It was then time to call it a night. We had a busy day of exploring ahead of us!

FIRENZE DAY 1

For our first full day in Florence, we wanted to explore. So many people told me to take advantage of the free walking tours in various cities, and I knew this is what I wanted to do for our first day. Get our bearings and we could then decide what we wanted to go back and see. We decided on the Renaissance tour which started at 11 am at the Santa Maria Novella Church and was about 1.5 hours. We saw the Duomo, several Piazzas and got some good information about Florence’s history. Both Paul and I thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Our guide, Daniela was knowledgable, funny, and we would definitely recommend anyone to take advantage of this as the guides simply work off tips. Whatever you think the tour was worth, that’s what you give!

Santa Maria Novella Church

The Duomo

Following our tour, we headed back to the Duomo, found a small restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat. I had been craving pasta since we got to Italy, so this was the time. We started our meal with some drinks, I had a Spritzer (prosecco & aperol) and Paul had a rum and coke (typical Paul drink). Don’t worry Paul and Dorothy, these aren’t the drinks for you yet! 😉 I should also point out that neither Paul or I could finish these drinks. They were so strong! Apparently we still have to get used to the way Italians mix drinks.

For food, I had tagliatelle with a bolognese sauce and Paul had spaghetti in a white cream sauce, with bacon and ricotta cheese. Very good! Although I’m still craving the Cavatelli with a lamb neck ragu from Cibo back home. Seriously has to be some of my favourite pasta.

After lunch we headed back to the flat to shower and change for our Authentic Pizza and Gelato Cooking Class. We met up with our group and instructor Giuseppe at 6 pm and went on a quick walk through the streets of Florence, before arriving at the kitchen for our class. When we arrived, we met David, our other instructor and from there, we started to maka da pizza! (To be said with a thick Italian accent like Super Mario and extravagant hand gestures!)

We made the dough from scratch, and got to pick what toppings we wanted. We were told that salami and ham traditionally aren’t found on the same pizza, but I prefer to go against the grain, and it was worth it! Our pizzas were delicious!

FIRENZE DAY 2 – San Gimignano, Siena, Greve & Chianti Wine Tasting

Our second day in Florence was spent on a tour to visit San Gimignano, Siena, Greve and to attend a wine tasting at a winery in the Chianti region! This had to be my favourite day in Florence. San Gimignano was gorgeous, but Siena was my all time favourite.

For those who don’t know, Siena hosts the Palio Race every year, in honour of the Virgin Mary. It’s a huge horse race that the entire town participates in.

Siena is divided into 17 Districts or Contradas, that are all represented by a different animal or object. For example there is the Dragon Contrada, the Caterpillar Contrada, the Turtle Contrada, who’s natural enemy is the Snail Contrada, among many others. If you are born in Siena you are born into your Contrada, are even baptized in that Contrada and you stay with that Contrada for life.

It just so happened to be in Siena 3 days before the race is scheduled (July 2), and it was the same day of the lottery of the horses. I SO wish we could be in Siena for this race. It would be an incredible experience, but at least we were there for the lottery.

We finished our day with a wine tasting in the Chianti region of Italy. We also got some pretty spectacular views of the Tuscan Countryside.

FIRENZE DAY 3

On our last day in Florence, we got on the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus and drove around the city. One of the stops was Piazza Michaelangelo, which has the most spectacular view of Florence. These pictures truly do not do it justice. The view was so stunning!

We then went back to the Duomo to have a coffee, some pastries and to people watch before we headed back to the flat to freshen up before dinner at Buca Mario for some Florentine steak!