Florence Filagree
We’ve spent three days meandering through a labyrinth of canals, gorging ourselves on cold meats and wine. Now it was time to catch the train to Florence… travelling through the Italian countryside, we arrive to a hive of activity. It is so busy and as it turned out, we had arrived the weekend of a large football game so the city was alive with activity.
Our accomodations in this beautiful city was everything I imagined living in Florence would be like and more. We were staying in a quaint apartment located on a little piazza not far from Ponte Vecchio. Beneath us was restaurants and bars, people walking hand in hand, laughter and the sound of scooters zipping through the cobbled streets.
Whilst the atmosphere was everything i had anticipated and more. It was the ‘more’ part that became a bit too much in the evenings when we wanted to go to sleep. The window pane was very thin and the amount of noise that bounced its way through the piazza was a little much when trying to get some sleep.
We had six days in this amazing place. We explored the city - its cathedrals, city streets, markets and shopping! Whilst in Florence, I had to buy some Florence Filagree jewellery. It’s something unique to the area and so pretty.
On our first night, we discovered a fantastic restaurant called Osteria Cinghiale Bianco where I stuffed my face with black truffle pasta whilst washing it down with chianti. Ahhh... food heaven.
We also used Florence as our base to go on day trips and see other parts of italy. We used the opportunity to visit Cinque Terra. Sienna, San Gimignano, Pisa and the Tuscan country side. We ate in a rustic wine estate, tasted world famous gelato, saw some amazing coast line and countryside (albeit on some of the days there was a lot of rain).
On one of the nights, we ordered the Florentine Bistecca - the speciality of the house! The steak was 1.5kg and was seared on the outside, blue in the middle… It was not one of the meals we really enjoyed, given both of us don’t like raw steak. To top it off, the steak cost us EURO90!!! Probably not my favourite dining experience to date (on holiday and in life…).
It was six jam packed days and it went by in a whirlwind of activity. My favourite moments are too many to count but seeing David was one of the real treats for me!