Firenze part 2 & A Pit Stop in Pisa

After a wonderful terrible sleep in a wonderful terrible hostel, Stefy and I were well and truly ready for a big fat cappuccio and an even fatter chocolate brioche. We packed up and went to find a cafe that wasn't going to charge 500euros per sip of coffee. This ended up not being too difficult to find! 

Luckily our brekkie wasn't as expensive as these guys'

 Turns out, we were in a quite a handy location for pictures.

Palazzo Vecchio 

Fontana del Nettuno

David the fake

 Cellini's Perseus

Next was a quick photo of the Ponte Vecchio by day and then onwards to find Piazzale Michelangelo. 

We'd been warned about the many many steps to find the amazing viewpoint…such is life in Italy! Huffing and puffing Steff and I tried to pretend we weren't dying inside. Mainly because we didn't want to liken ourselves to the cringe American behind us who whined the whole way up. We did, however, take a quick break to meet this guy:

Sadly he never made it up the steps.

We did though!! 

Coconut&Tiramisu for my efforts

We sat on the steps and looked out at the view for ages, chatting & (on my part) scoffing gelato. Not to be too British and harp on about the weather, but it really was amazing! As in, we took our coats off. In February. 

When we headed down, we walked along the Ponte Vecchio. Although quite busy, most of the shops were closed as it was Sunday.

*(Something for my future Italian Stallion to remember.)* 

After wandering through the sunny streets we decided to grab a sandwich and head to our train. But obviously grabbing a sandwich in Italy is a far cry from that in England. You know how Joey Tribbiani is just obsessed with sandwiches in Friends? Well after this panino, we completely understood why!! We found this place on Saturday and it was so good that we went straight back.

thrilled to be back

We both went for the same thing - prosciutto crudo, stracchino & tartufato. Stracchino is a type of creamy cheese, but to compare it to philadelphia would be a sin. Tartufato is a truffle paste and is outttttaaaaa this world. 

 Prefered the view of my sammie to the piazza

Next up: Pisa! 

Even though I had previously been on holiday 20 mins from Pisa (7 years in a row!), we only ever visited Pisa once. This is because there is literally the tower and only the tower to see. It's a pretty impressive tower nonetheless...

Il Battistero

Duomo di Pisa

Again, the weather was SO nice. We settled down on the grass and sunbathed/took snapchat selfies. 

(Autocorrect just changed 'selfies' to 'selfless'. Ironic)

We could see everyone trying to take those cringe photos of them holding/leaning on/pointing at/hugging the tower. You name it, they did it. And we did too. 

Stefy's success

My absolute fail

The last time I was here, I was 9 years old and the photo evidence looks so fake it's offensive. It really looks like my parents superimposed me onto the photo. With this in mind, I thought I'd get one with Stefy and I in front of the tower and asked a lovely Italian woman to take it…

A LOVELY ITALIAN WOMAN WHO IS A COMPLETE IDIOT. 

Where the bloody hell is the tower??!!???!!??!?

Unbelievable. Seems we had to do it ourselves…so here is lovely Stefy with the tower:

I'm actually still in total disbelief at that woman. 

Anyway - it was only a quick pit stop in Pisa and we soon headed back to Genova. Hooray for Firenze, Hurrah for Pisah! 

Bella Firenze part 1

A couple weeks ago Steff and I decided we needed to get our travel pants on and actually go and explore Italy. Time is going far far too quickly for my liking and there is still so much to see and do! Florence is obviously an absolute must-see for everyone, but it will not be the top of my list in a few months when all the tourists arrive - a little trip in February was the perfect solution! 

First stop: Il Duomo

Spot the tourists...

In the week leading up to our getaway we had been constantly checking the weather forecast for Florence…and every time it said rain. Yet when we hopped off the train, we were greeted by lovely blue skies! 

Now I'm not gonna lie - this trip was never going to be a culture/museum-filled adventure. Jeff had one agenda for going and one agenda only. The San Lorenzo market. This market is the best market in the world. I had already been approx. 8273 times with my famiglia when we were on holiday in Tuscany. 7 years in a row. And every time we would head straight to the market and buy as much as possible. Pashminas, belts, bags, wallets, jewellery..you name it, we bought it. And all thanks to my Mamma's insane skills at haggling. Well now it was time for the student to become the master. Sadly I am nowhere near being a master yet as some charming bag seller decided to bollock me for asking for lower prices. I decided not to let this dampen my spirit though as we came away with 4 clutch bags, 2 'ciao bella' t-shirts, earrings, rings, another bag aaaaand I think that's it. And because I was so absorbed by all this shopping, I took zero photos. 

Anyway - you know that amazing unexpected weather we had? It went. Just as we bought our last bag, the sky suddenly went an ominous grey colour and it started raining and thundering! We scurried into a cafe and took refuge with a cappuc and spent an hour admiring our lovely new things! Once it had stopped, it was time to wander round to find some supps. 

Piazza Santa Maria Novella

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

The post-thunder sunset was so beautiful. Must have been some pretty delighted shepherds somewhere in the Tuscan hills.

Florence is actually quite a small city, so it didn't take us long to find somewhere to eat. We all know that I don't care that much I am obsessed with food. Since coming to Italy I really have eaten some amazing things. But I do have some rules for finding a great place to eat. 

1. The menu should be handwritten. 

2. The crockery shouldn't match. 

3. The tables should be squished together and higgledy-piggledy. 

4. The restaurant itself should look like a house/hospital wing/generally not presentable.

I'd say if you can get at least two of these in a restaurant, you're gonna have a good time. As it happens, we found all 4 in a cute trattoria and had the BEST meal. 

Pecorino con miele e pinoli

Pappardelle alle cinghiale

Before we even found the trattoria we knew we wanted something with cinghiale (wild boar) and the main course did not disappoint! It was so rich and delicious and needed absolutely nothing added to it. 

Torta al cioccolato 

This was like eating 11 of the most velvety truffles in a row. My kind of pudding. 

After supps we needed to fare un giro as we had eaten sooo much. Hannah had been to Florence the weekend before and told us about a cocktail bar near Louis Vuitton which was a must apparently. She wasn't lying. It was quite chilly out, so finding the poshest green house I've ever seen with even posher cocktails was wonderful. 

Spritz for Stefy and Fashion Colle bursting with raspberries and fresh mint for me. 

The people in this bar were the epitome of chic. The infamous Italian style is certainly not a myth. Boys and gals alike looked so effortlessly cool…it was a bit depressing. Whilst sipping on our drinks we did some boyfriend shopping too - I think we found at least 3 potential suitors each. 

Before heading back to the hostel we wandered round the streets and did some window shopping in the likes of Prada and Gucci and then found ourselves on the Ponte Vecchio where we found our engagement rings that the potential suitors would one day buy for us. An enjoyable and practical trip!! 

We then headed back to our hostel, which I'm not going to talk about as it takes away the lovely chic feel of the trip. Let's just say it was hard to get our beauty sleep for the next day's adventures thanks to a snoring man...