Vivahotel Fleming Florence

Tuscan Hills

The drive from Venice to Tuscany was eventful (as always). First we wanted to see the Adriatic Sea.. We knew we were near the coast but finding a road which led to the sea was not so easy… even our sat nav lady Shirley couldn’t seem to find the sea… all we wanted was enough sea to put the feet in and say we had been to the Adriatic Sea… please note wet feet in venice the day before could not be counted as Adriatic Sea ...

... it could jump off my plate at any moment… I had a bit of trouble de-boning the thing, but an Australian girl with much more fish eating experience helped me out.

On my only full day, I did the five town hike with two people from my hostel. The weather was not entirely cooperative, cloudy with a bit of rain. But the scenery was still amazing, colourful towns built into the cliffside, separated by ...

... Lisa (I am a lover of art). And the buildings were pretty awesome as well. I don’t think its possible to get used to drinking wine on the steps of some building so spectacular that it doesn’t even look real. Yeah, I got into wine in Italy. It is cheap and I like it.

On everyone’s last night, we all planned to get some wine and get together to watch the sun set over Florence ...

... 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

... do it for us, even in the best of times and we think it is pretty easy to say that this is definitely the best of times.

Our BREAKING NEWS! As we may or may not have told you we have decided to stay in Italy with Dino's family until at least January (Yeap you heard us right). We had planned on travelling through only summers (we didn't plan very well), so we have minimal winter clothes and with us ...

... messages from molly, stef, and kristina all saying the same thing in different words.
 
Molly: hey we're going out to dinner, wanna come?
Stef: hi bittttccccchhh. you wanna go get pizza? let me know. if you don't come i'll come beat your ass.
Kristina: come to dinner!!

obviously i couldn't say no with those invitations. we ended up going to this place nearby where we were literally the ONLY people ...

... and with it came the most memorable and delicious meal of the trip. Good food always seems to be so important on so many of our trips and we make it our mission to search out the most authentic experience we can find, complete with the local beverage of choice. That night we had the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina. Oh, my. Think of the thickest steak you can, cooked perfectly medium rare, and sliced to perfection and made to share ...

We arrived in Florence on Monday morning and Phil and I went back to my house. Piera was home and I forgot to call her, so she wasn't too happy with me, but she really enjoyed meeting Phil and everything. So this started my work as a translator between family members and Piera. Phil's Spanish helped, but it some verbs mean other things in Italian, so I was still needed. After that we rushed over to school and I did a mini tour of ...

... is chianti@machiavelliviaggi.it. We went to a couple of medieval churches, a museum, a walled city, a farm/ winery for lunch, and a 2nd winery in the afternoon that was the home of Machiavelli. Considering other tours I had found online were upwards of 75 Euros each, I was excited about this tour and I felt it did satisfy my expectations. The countryside was beautiful, and the tour guide was very friendly. The bus ...