Florence & Siena

 On the day of our (sad) departure from Cinque Terre, we found out that Trenitalia, (the only train provider in Italy), had decided to go on strike for the weekend, with rotating strikes happening in four hour blocks across the country...great. After many false starts, mystery trains that never showed up, and a diminshing patience for everything Italian, we made it to Florence!! The upside was our hostel had free A/C!

Though crawling with tourists, Florence is still an incredibly beautiful city, with seemingly every building having some major historical significance; I was in awe. Not only is Florence a city of monuments, it's also a city of fashionistas, so Jodi and I put on our best duds and shopped for gold & jewellery on the bridge pictured behind us (Tom wasn't as keen!) Though a major tourist trap, it was still fun to pretend :)

 Thanks to Jodi's travel guidebook, we found a gem of a restaurant tucked away from the typical tourist zones. For 13 euros, we got a 'primo' plate, a 'secondo', 'contodori' (veggies), wine and water. It felt like the real deal, with big tables full to bursting with multi-generational Italian families, and the waiters spoke almost no English. As you can see from the photo, we didn't stray too far from the traditional Italian meal :)primoprimoprim

 After stuffing outrselves with homemade pasta with truffle sauce, we ambled up to the look out, which turned out to be a (not-so) hidden gem! There was a dramatic heat-lightning storm playing out in the clouds behind the Duomo, (Florence's famous cathedral), though it was impossible it capture it in a photo!

After grabbing a delicious gelato (see below), we came across a very Italian scene: a beauitful woman singing Bocelli's 'Con te partiro' accompanied by an accordian player in the middle of an ancient stone 'palazzo'...incredible.

The most delicious gelato can be found at Grom, which uses only the best, and often organic, ingredients for their gelati. Crema di Grom (cookies and cream a la Grom), lampone (raspberry), limone...the list goes on! And apparently, there are Grom locations worldwide - check out the yellowpages and cross your fingers that there's one near you! I wonder if they do franchises...

 How stereotypically Italian is this street?!

 When in Italy...go big or go home!

Here on the left, pecorino & pear gnocchetti, while on the right we have quattro formaggi pizza! I love Italy.

On our last day in Florence, we decided to take a day-trip to Siena, which is only and hour and a half away by train. Siena is, for me, the quintessential Tuscan town, with terracotta tiled roofs and gentle rolling hills in the horizon. Fun Fact: for all you Crayola crayon users out there, the colour 'Burnt Sienna' was inspired by the colour of Siena's buildings!

 

 Oh ho hum, just standing in front of Siena's old town hall, birthplace of the Renaissance. 

Siena was originally Italy's hotspot, and Florence's main rival, until the 14th century when the plague wiped out almost half the city's population, making Siena forever the 'weaker' of the two cities. The Black Death aside, Siena was still an incredibly important cultural center, and just walking down the maze of cobbled streets brings you back centuries.

Inside the Cathedral of Siena was the Piccolomini Library, complete with amazingly detailed frescoes, statues, and orignial hymnals dating back several centuries.  

 After all that culture, refreshments were in order! Jodi found a pizzeria specializing in Neapolitan-style pizza: we're talking seriously thin-crust!

 A view of Siena from the top of the museum, a building which was orignially going to be a church built to rival Florence's Duomo, but after the Plague wiped out the workforce, the plan got scraped - now it serves as one of the best vantage points for tourists!

Caffe coretto: the perfect way to end an incredible Italian adventure! Coretto means 'corrected' with alcohol - usually an espresso served with grappa, but after trying it with unsuccessful results, we opted for amaretto, which proved to be a delicious digestif :)

That's all for our whirlwind Cinque Terre-Florence-Siena tour...next stop Chioggia and Venice! More to come.....