I left Rome for Florence on Friday morning. I got to the station almost an hour early and after saying goodbye to my favourite tour guide, I literally stood in the middle of the station staring at the arrivals/departures screen. My train hadn't even been allocated a platform yet.
It was here that I met Cameron. He asked where I was from - in hindsight it is a strange question to ask. It would've made more sense to ask where I was heading, no? Anyway, Cameron is from South Carolina. Now that is an accent I love. He got sick of the corporate life, picked up his bags and is now on the road for 5 months. He told me about his adventures so far including scaling mountains in Nepal. He'll be I'm Australia for a month in August. You really meet some crazy people when you're travelling.
And another thing, Italian trains are so strange. I bought my ticket online and was automatically allocated a seat. When the train finally pulled into the station, I got on carriage no.6 as per my ticket. The row numbers of every carriage begin at 10 (who starts counting at 10?) and finishes at 18. My seat was 19C. I managed to find the conductor who advised that 19s just sit wherever there's a vacant seat. What???
Anyway, Florence is approx. 90mins away on a direct train. It's interesting how different it is to Rome even though the two cities are quite close together. Florence is a medieval town with a lot of Renaissance history and influence. It's the home of Michaelangelo and is where he was buried. By the time I arrived it was almost 3pm and due to my SIJ hurting, I decided to just take it easy. I strolled through the markets and arrived at the Duomo.
As you can see, the artistic influence is just so different to Rome. Roman buildings are quite minimalist from the outside whilst this was the most flamboyant building I'd ever seen!
It started to rain and so I went back to rest...and cos my SIJ still hurts and I need to sit down.
I visited San Gimignano - a little town that has preserved some of its medieval characteristics. In those days, rich families had towers. The richer you are the higher the tower. A lot of the towers were destroyed when Florence conquered but 14 remain untouched.
After San Gimignano we went to Chianti, home of Chianti wine. It's where they produce Chianti Classico. We stayed for a 3 course lunch.
Fun fact: You know how Aussies dip ginger nut biscuits in their tea and Mum dips plain biscuits in her Chinese tea? People in Chianti dip their biscuits in wine! Weird - I was not a fan.
I had to take a sneaky picture. This guy owns the vineyard. He arrived on a Ducati, put on an apron and started talking about wine with his hands...you don't get more Italian than that.
After Cianti we went to Siena. I just love Siena. The whole of Siena is actually a world heritage site. I went to see the Siena Cathedral which is decorated and designed just like the duomo in Forence. Siena is the city of banks. It's home to the oldest bank in Europe. Interestingly, a lot of the statues face North. This is because Florence is about 60km north from Siena and during that time, they were supposed to protect Siena from Florence invasion. They failed.
This is what happens when you travel on your own. Randoms take terrible photos.
Siena is home to an annual horse race. The winner gets €1 mil. and the race can be won without the rider. It's also where the colour "Siena brown" came from...that's the colour of the sand that the horses race on.
We made one last stop before heading back to Florence - Monteriggioni. This is a fortress that was built between Florence and Siena to act as a battle ground, protecting Siena from invasion. It was built a distance far enough to intervene but close enough so that they would have enough time to send an alert/warning out. Fittingly, it started to pour when we were there.
By the time we arrived in Florence it was already 8. I met up with one of my room mates from Rome (well, she's from New Zealand actually, not Rome) and together we headed up the mountain to catch the sunset.
Florence is such a romantic city. I can see why people love it. As soon as the sunset we both agreed that "It would be nice to have a boyfriend like...right now." Haha. Whilst Rome is a very busy and happening city, Florence has a perfect pace. Cycling around the city just as the sun is about to set is such a relaxing activity.
Anyway, I'm exhausted and tomorrow I have another full day of sightseeing before heading to Venice. God bless me and may my SIJ be less sore tomorrow.
Bye now.
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