I said I’d be back and that I did 🙂 I really made sure Florence is included in my itinerary, there’s no way I’m going back to Europe without dropping by. When I think of the many reasons why I love Florence I don’t know where to start so I’ll begin with the people, I find them warmer than people from Rome, the city is much easier to walk around (cobblestones for laaaayf), the towns of Siena, San Gimignano, Chianti region, the wine, cheese, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oy, I wanna go back!
The last time I went to Florence I only stayed for 3 days and I didn’t get to visit Mercato Centrale which was a total bummer because we have something similar in Ortigas (if I’m not mistaken). On this trip I made sure I go there for a meal and I was actually surprised when I got to the place. It’s nothing like what we have in Manila, it’s air-conditioned, and the stalls don’t look anything like your market stalls and the food was pretty good. Glo and I shared a pizza and caprese salad and you can absolutely taste the freshness of the ingredients, I even saw my pizza dough being prepared in front of me.
I don’t know about you but I’ve known of Cinque Terre for a while, I’ve read it from books, seen it from TV, I had imagined the place to be very Tuscan (if that’s even a description), quiet, country; seeing it for myself I now realise it’s nothing like I had thought and not exactly in a good way LOL. It is made up of several towns and I can’t remember all of them anymore because everything happened in a blur, literally. First, we had bus problems and we had to wait for the replacement, when we got to the first town there were TONS of people before us (the place itself was less than spectacular #sorryNOTsorry) and we had to wait for our turn to get on the train to the next town. We then had to hike a mountain (which wasn’t a surprise but I was out of practice) to cross another town and by the time we got to the last town, the place was literally covered by teens and other tourists. Would I do it again? Um, I’m not 100% certain.
The best part of my trip, even though the weather wasn’t cooperating, was a drive along Chianti Hills in a Fiat car. I was supposed to drive my own car BUT when I test-drove, I couldn’t really reach the pedals #shortgirlproblems so a driver came in and helped us out (her name was Julia). Part of the tour was a visit to one of Siena’s villages, Castellina in Chianti, and there we met an Italian couple who can speak Tagalog! We were busy taking photos when all of a sudden we hear someone say “Mga Filipino kayo? (or some greeting)”, it was pretty surreal. I just love this town so so so much.
For the first few days of our trip the weather wasn’t exactly pleasant, it rained! Hard! So while I wanted to get a photo of the Duomo from Palazzo Vecchio, I had to contend with a walk around town.
And here are some photos I took ❤ :
it begins with a step 