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!