FLORRRRY TOIIIMMESSS (Florence)

Next, we made it to Florence (affectionately termed ‘florry’ by Paul Gearside), and the weather was less than great – it was cold with a slight drizzle. We found our hostel easily enough and checked in etc. then went off to get some food. In the street down from ours I got the most delicious pesto gnocchi – a great start to our time in Florence.

The first morning we discovered the epic buffet that the hostel offered – complete with lasagne and tiramisu! After smashing a few plates of free food we decided to go on the free walking tour offered but the hostel. It was run by an English speaking Italian woman who didn’t really offer any insight as to whether what she was saying was serious or a joke, leaving all of us thoroughly confused. We were also accompanied on the tour by an Egyptian man that decided it was appropriate to take selfies at every possible moment with his Ipad… with which he was also constantly jotting down the tour guides ‘fun facts’. Hilarious. On the tour we saw the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the most famous bridge in all of Italy, which was beautiful with many jewellery shops jutting off the edges. We also stopped at an excellent homemade Gelato shop where I got pear and grapefruit gelato that literally tasted like frozen fruit (yumm), and Rosie chose their specialty sesame flavour that interestingly tasted like peanut butter. We also saw some amazing grand palaces that put any building in Australia to shame. We finished up in the shopping district and naturally hit H&M and Zara for a few hours of browsing. We then proceeded to get thoroughly lost and exhausted trying to find our way home.

Ponte Vecchio

 Gelato flavours

Eventually we made it back to our hostel, stopping on the way to pick up some vodka, and proceeded to drink with homemade dinner of bread and dip and some fruit. When we had had enough to drink we headed out to the Lions Fountain Pub that was PACKED with American students on their university exchange. There was however one Australian guy who seemed to only talk about cocaine and where he was going to get his next hit. When he learned we weren’t regular coke users he was genuinely surprised and asked us with real concern what we did with our lives and what we did to have fun on the weekends. Great guy!! What made the night further more enjoyable was when a girl decided the floor would be a nice place to throw up. After watching a few girls literally do a slip and slide through the vomit, we decided it was time to leave. However, before this could happen I was innocently standing around waiting for Rosie to go to the bathroom when some drunken American guy knocked over an extremely heavy wooden stool that fell on my pinkie toe. TOETALLY PAINFUL… thought it was broken and limped all the way home in absolute agony… it was toe much.

The next day was spent recovering and resting my toe… was a huge bummer because I really wanted to do the Cinque Terre walk but unfortunately it wasn’t going to happen with my toe (I still can’t wear any shoes other than thongs almost 2 weeks later, but it’s not painful to walk on anymore so that’s a plus!). However, we did decide to book a Tuscan wine tour, which was an awesome day! We met with our tour guide Valentina and around 12 others to go on the ‘Grape Escape’ at about 10am… by 11am we were pretty tipsy of all the wine we tasted! We also got to try out truffle oil (seriously delicious), balsamic vinegar and olive oil. We then headed on to a cute little town called San Gimignano, where we tried ‘the best gelato in italy’ (debatable.. it was good but we tried better later on) and saw the best view of Tuscany! After the town we went to a little old Italian man named Gianni’s house in the countryside. He spoke absolutely no English but greeted us wearing an ‘AUSTRALIA’ t-shirt and two kisses on our cheeks. Here, we tasted more wine and had the most delicious meal. We had a starter platter of cheese, bruschetta and panzanella salad, and then had a main meal of tomato and pesto pasta, and finished with Lemoncello. So good. We said goodbye to Gianni and then were dropped back at our hostel, where we were too tired and hungover to do anything but rest.

 Wine tasting with olive oil, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar

 Enjoying 'woine toime' a little too much

 'The best gelato ever' - not the best but still pretty epic

The beautiful Tuscan countryside 

 

View overlooking San Gimignano

 

Table set for starters at Gianni's

 Authentic Italian pasta for the main course at Gianni's

The next day we did more exploring of Florence, including the beautiful Duomo and a long walk uphill to the Michelangelo Piazza. I think with these pictures can explain more than I ever can.

 At the Duomo

View from the Michelangelo Piazza - Nature side

 View from Michelangelo Piazza - city side.

The day may have started off great but it soon went to shit as we realised we had a new roommate who we will now refer to as Snorlax. Snorlax was an overweight, sweaty Asian who spoke no English and smelled very, very strongly of feet. However, we didn’t realise how much of a problem he would be until we attempted to sleep that night. It was then we realised we were actually sharing the room with the devil. His snores were nothing that I have ever heard coming out of a human’s mouth. They make my dad’s snores sound like that of a tiny baby.  It was excruciating to listen to and meant that I probably only got 3 hours sleep that night. The guy in the bed next to me got none and the next morning told us that was his first and last night to spend in a dorm. Don’t blame him! We prayed and prayed that Snorlax would check out the next day, but to no avail. The only remedy for this was a busy day to tire us out, earplugs and alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

So to Pisa we went! The train took about an hour and the city was so small it was no trouble finding the tower without a map.  Just follow the swarms of people…! The tower leans a lot more than it looks like it does in photos, you do really wonder how it stays up! It also looks a lot newer than I thought, it was still a bright white colour after all this time. But I think the best part about Pisa is watching all the tourists miming hilarious ways to incorporate Pisa into photos. If the tower weren’t actually there you would think these people were psychos. There were people lying down with their feet in the air, people sticking their hands in the air in random positions, people kissing the air, people making faces at the air… people everywhere really! We did manage to get some shots ourselves as it’s something everyone needs to do… typical tourist shot. 

 After Pisa we headed back to the hostel to drink ourselves a serious night cap. Snorlax was in the room looking at photos on his computer of Pisa so I thought I would try and start friendly conversation that would hopefully lead to me telling me I hated him and want suffocate him in his sleep… it didn’t go that way unfortunately:

Me: “Did you go to Pisa today?”

Snorlax: “Yes”

Me: “Did you like it?”

Snorlax: “Yes”

Me: “We went too. It was really beautiful.”

Snorlax: “Thankyou”

UMMMM SNORLAX BABES THE LAST THING I WOULD WANT TO DO IS TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! GOD!!

That night I may have had a little too much to drink in my attempt to drown out Snorlax’s snores. Sadlt, that little too much made me lying in bed clutching my stomach all night, again resulting in little sleep. The next day we were off to Rome and saying goodbye to Snorlax forever, and to be honest I couldn’t be happier. Ahh the joys of hostels!

Xx Andie

In Transit & Venezia

A 3am wake-up call to begin my trip was welcomed with teary goodbyes but also excitement for my two month trip to Europe! It was a shaky start from the get-go as my plane's engine decided to malfunction before we had even left the terminal. Two hours later we were finally in the air, and with two seats free next to me I was stoked to be able to lie down and stretch out and actually be comfortable on a plane... a luxury I'm sure all those over 5'10 will appreciate.

Unfortunately this comfort was short lived as a pushy woman who spoke next to no English complained to me that it was unfair I had three seats to myself when she couldn't sleep sitting up (babes... you're not the only one...). She soon got a flight attendant to back her up and due to my inability to speak up for myself I was soon moved to a different (more crowded) seat for the remainder of the flight...dayum.

I arrived in Rome at 10.00pm (2 hours later than expected) freaking out because my hostel had a 11pm lock-out time and I had no idea if I would make it on time. Luckily I experienced the kindness of strangers early on and met some people who were more than happy to share a transfer with me for a pretty good price. I arrived in my hotel safe and sound looking forward to meeting up with Rosie and Carly the next day.

After a 3 hour superfast train, I arrived in Venice on Thursday and was greeted by the girls who took me to the shuttle bus that led to our accommodation for the next 3 nights. We stayed at 'Camping Jolly', a campsite about a 15 minute drive out of Venice. Our room was a canvas tent with single beds and pretty much nothing else, but it was cheap and easy and had a pool, bar, restaurant etc. which was all very convenient. That night we shared bottles of cheap wine and I had my first authentic Italian meal...a Caprese salad which was pretty epic for cheap campsite food! We got pretty drunk that night, met some local Italians and some other travelers, and got told off by a security guard on a bike... soo very intimidating. The bar sold cocktail buckets and we were so drunk we didn't finish one... they were pretty pricey so Rosie decided to 'save one for later' and proceeded to put it in the corner of the room promising to drink it in the morning for breakfast. The bucket was of course still there when we checked out.

The next day we hung round by the pool in the morning and swam off our hangovers after having the most heinous buffet breakfast which cost us 6.50 euros and consisted of a selection of rubbery eggs and stale bread... delish. Around 3pm we headed into Venice to do some exploration and get very very lost. I have to say it was unlike anything I have ever seen before... so many tiny alley ways and beautiful shops filled with freaky and beautiful masks and gorgeous glass ornaments. After exploring for a couple of hours we returned to the campsite and had an early night because I was still suffering from pretty bad jetlag.

Saturday we hung around till about midday and then went back into Venice, this time deciding to go to an island about 15mins away by ferry called Murano. This is the glass-making island of the region and we spent a few hours walking around looking at all the amazing glass art. We headed back a little too slowly and missed our bus... so had to catch some other random bus which got us very lost. In the end we made our way back home and once again had a drunken night talking shit about people from Adelaide. When you meet Australians who are massive dickheads it's so easy to ruin their facade by telling everyone else at the table that the place they are from is a joke (sorry Nikki if you are reading this hahahaha).

We had to pack up the next morning and say goodbye to Carly who was off to Amsterdam before going home, and then catch a train into Florence which is where we are at the moment! So far the trip is amazing and I'm really looking forward to having more adventures and seeing more of this beautiful continent over the next few weeks.