Florence

Florence

So next we went to Florence, we caught the train there and found our hostel; archirossi
We then went for a wonder and to find some food!! Foodwise, we found a little street side restaurant; I had seafood rissoto and Rosie had spaghetti with a wild boar sauce. They were both so good.

So after a sleep in our 9 bed dorm we went on the free tour that the hostel offered. It was a 2 hour tour taking us round the best bits of Florence and explaining it. It was really interesting and was really enjoyable too. We went across the ponte vecchio bridge and over to the pitti palace vis and ice cream parlour! In the afternoon, we walked up to the michael angelo piazza, which gave us great views out over the city. We made our way back to the pitti palace and had a look in the museum and around the gardens. The gardens are huge, and a great place to visit if you have a spare few hours, or want somewhere to read a book in the shade. We headed over to the Duomo. The Doumo in Florence is huge, you turn around a corner and it literally takes your breath away. The intricacy of the carvings on the outside is amazing. The inside is equally impressive but in a subtler way, and seems much smaller than the outside. You can also climb up the dome for a small price, it is like climbing a small hill, up a steep winding staircase, which emerges on the inside of the dome where you can clearly see the paintings on the dome, it then takes you up between the outer and inner shells of the dome until you are brought out at the top. The views are incredible, the only 'modern' building in site is the station, apart from that it is just terraced roofs and Tuscan hills in the distance.

We made our way back to the hostel for a quick shower and went to find some more fabulous Italian food. We found a rustic looking restaurant with enthusiastic and welcoming waiters and decided to share and spicy sausage and spinach pizza and bacon, tomato, onion and egg spaghetti. It was the best food we had eaten on the trip.

Verona

Last week my sister and i went to Verona, Florence and Rome over a week long period, it was lovely to have a week of hot and sunny weather!

We started in Verona and got there at about 11 and went straight to the hostel. We got up at about 8 for a simple breakfast of jam and a roll and left the hostel to explore Verona.
We 1st went into the central piazza, Piazza Bra and went to the information centre and got a map. Seeing as we were in Verona we had to go to Juliet's balcony. We arrived in the courtyard where hundreds of people had written on the walls notes to lovers.
We went into the house, where they had some of the clothes used in the original film and some of the quotes from the play, and of course, the balcony.

There is also a postbox where you can post letters to Juliet and get a reply! It is quite an odd concept really, all these people coming to see the balcony and the tomb (which we went to next) to see the remains of someone who didn't exist. But the story of Romeo & Juliet lends itself to so many people on different levels, i understand why they, we all go there.

After our visit to the tomb we grabbed some lunch from a vender and walked across the Ponte Scaligero.

It is a great bridge with steps up to the top ramparts and a good view along the river. We walked along the other side of the river and crossed over to see the Duomo (cathedral) which has an unusual red and white layered brickwork on the outside. The inside is huge and it has 3 organs! It also has 2 smaller chapels in the back and a baptistry. We then walked up to Castel san Pietro, where there is a great view of Verona.

We headed back to the hostel for a quick shower and back out for dinner and the Opera!

We headed into the Piazza Bra and had a lovely dried beef and rocket pizza with a bottle of wine :)

We headed to the Arena and found some nice stone seats to watch Carmen. The opera was amazing, 4 hours of amazing singing and music. The opera was all in spanish so we got a programme which translated it and made it much more enjoyable as we could understand it.

At about 1.30, we wondered home under the moon and over the bridges and collapsed into our beds.

Next stop-Florence!