Franchi Hotel Florence

... Pistoria.. Tried to find a shop open to buy beer (not stubbies) as cans are huge…and tissues for runny nose etc… seemed like an easy task but it is a very old town.. Very narrow streets.. A Sunday and nothing open… but we did see a bit of the town… some bits more than once as we went round and round and round… anyway found that there was a shop open in next town Monsummano… got supplies and then tried to find the B& ...

... to me was pretty cool. My dorm was just a two room apartment, with 11 beds. My bed was basically in the kitchen. It was cozy and I liked it, impossible not to make friends in a place like that. And the Australians were back in full force.

My first night I went out for dinner with a few people from the hostel and had what I think is the first full fish dinner of my life. Full fish meaning head included, looking ...

... The various groups of people failed to meet up in time, so the group I was with decided to head to our vantage point and hope everyone else knew where to go. Miraculously, somewhere along the walk, the two other groups managed to meet up with us at the same time, from different directions. We called it The Perfect Storm. It was weird, and one of many things adding up to a 10/10 night.

The ...

... too, and it really contributed to the experience. We also toured the Pitti Palace and stumbled upon some famous art we didn't even know was there. Among the cheap wine and free food, we learnt cool facts about this medieval place and the ruling of the Medici family. Also, (we didn't go into any) but Florence most likey has the best shoe shopping in the world. And a shoe museum. Just saying......Italy was off to a sweet start.

Now.. your Rome update!

Jus and Mur

... Ponte Vecchio was also the only bridge not to be destroyed by the Nazis in 1944. Today it is just full tourists and overpriced shops.

We made our way up to Piazza del Duomo where the cities most iconic land mark is, the Duomo. One of the worlds largest Cathedrals (the fourth to be exact) its red tiled dome dominates the Florence sky line. Personally the mix of Green, Pink and White just doesn't ...

... villages (Cinque Terre = Five Villages. Saying this name aloud and ordering Spaghetti con Sallumi Toscani is the closest I've ever felt to speaking Italian!). It is a stunning hike that takes about 5 hours, complete with breathtaking views and diverse terrain along a cliffside path. Considering its popularity with tourists and the thousands to travel this path before us, you'd think it would be easy to follow. We got lost. We ended up hiking about 15km further up a random hillside, but ...

... 8230;there was no car. Dad, Alex and I went on a mission to find out were it had gone to and we found out that it had been towed. So we took a nice cab ride nearly collecting bicycles, scooters and nearly hitting a bus to the local cop shop were we paid our fine but then found out that the car was in an impound lot another 45 minutes from where we were. We collected the car and went back to the hotel to have another roadside dinner.