WEATHER: SUNNY FLORENCE 27C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Tuscan dinner – free flowing wine
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The crazy payment system at the nightclub
BUYS OF THE DAY: Statue of David magnet for the fridge, nothing like a naked man on the fridge!!!!
WORD OF THE DAY: - “CON-TIKI”
It was great to catch up with the guys yesterday, after being in my room from 7.30am till 7pm – I really think it was a good idea to get out. I didn’t leave the room at all, all day!!! It sounded like they all had a great day, even though the public transport was on strike for most of the day, they managed to get around in taxis and it didn’t seem to cost them too much. It also seems some of the attractions like the Coliseum and the Roman Forum closes at 1pm, so a lot of them didn’t get a chance to go into these, which is a shame, but that is Rome for you!!!
We went for drinks last night at a pub just up the road from the hotel called Moe’s, I kid you not – and I guess it sort of looks like the Simmo’s pub! Anyway after 2 steins and 2 wines ( I joked I was going to consume another 6 steins – yeah right, not in this life time ). I was home by 12.30am, it made a nice change to actually get a good 4 hours sleep (when did 4 hours become enough sleep – Contiki has created a monster) and feel great this morning. There were a lot of sore heads on the coach, and a lot of throwing up stories from people, so a good night was had by all, judging solely on that…..
Off to beautiful Florence today with the obligatory 5 hour drive we pulled into a stunning view stop, where we got our group photo taken for the trip. I also go the group to do a Bernstar jump! It is really difficult to get 50 people to fit into the shot and I thought it would be hard to get them all synchronized into a jump, but it was actually not as hard as I thought! I got a few frames and even though it isn’t the Bernstar jump, I have a great shot with most people off the ground, so it will definitely make the album for sure. Thanks guys for doing it, it is appreciated.
Down into the city for a leather demonstration, as Florence is renowned for its leather. It was actually quite interesting in how the jewelry boxes were made, without glue, all purely leather and 4 nails and the process can take up to 8 weeks to finish, depending on the size of the box of course. She also explained how to tell fake leather from real leather so people don’t get swindled. The main 2 factors are the lining, the outside can be re-produced but the lining of leather will always be suede, whether it a bag, jacket, wallet – it will have suede lining. If it doesn’t them it is a fakie and save your money. The ‘genuine leather’ seal will be stamped on the actual jacket, not on tag, as the tag then is genuine leather and the rest of the garment will not be. And finally the good old fashioned burning myth. This has been busted and real leather will burn. If the seller even pulls out a lighter to show you it is genuine leather because it won’t burn, turn around and save your money – it is fake. If they really are pushing the fact, get them to hold the flame in one spot for 5 seconds, it will bubble to jacket and then you know it’s real, and then you won’t want to buy a damaged jacket anyways, so I would probably then run!!!!
Free time before our walking tour, we decided to get some gelato (just for a change) as it is our last full day in Italy, we headed straight for the gelato shop one last time. This stuff is just so so good! Why aren’t the Italians bigger, with all these gelato shops everywhere, it would be too much temptation for me to not eat it every day!!!
Florence really is a walk able city. All paved with stone and most known for its statues. The most famous is the statue of David. As our guide put it, back in the day David was what the Eiffel Tower is to the French and it was a big deal back then. When he was unveiled it was quite shocking that he was nude!!! Michael Angelo was 29 when David was completed and is one of his most famous pieces of work. The statue that stands in the square today is a replica, the real one is in a museum on the other side of town, but the replica was done over 100 years ago and in itself is a work of art for a copy!!!! We also did a visit to the Ponte Vecchio. Florence straddles the Arno River and the view from the Ponte Vecchio is pretty amazing. It was such a great day the photos look like postcards! Our last stop was at the massive church called the Duomo. It is a combination of a baptistery, a church and a bell tower. It took them 170 years to complete the massive church and it was the biggest in the world when it was completed. It now stands 4th on the rankings after St Peters, St Paul’s in London and there is a Duomo in Milan. You can get to the top of both the church and the bell tower ( 473 steps ) but the lines were too long for both, so we decided to double back to the Uffizi Museum, where for free you could get into a section to see original drawings of Michael Angelo, Leonardo Devinci and other famous painters. Some of them were just drawings; others were drawings for their famous paintings. It was amazing that we were looking at original drawings over 500 years old – it was pretty mind blowing actually!!!!
We had our Tuscan dinner tonight and it was amazing. Besides the food, which was awesome, they had free flowing wine all night! The wine was in 1.5L bottles and we managed to get through 2 of them before the night was done. They had 2 opera singers that were awesome and a guy (Giuseppe Mario) playing tunes all night and Italian ones like Volare and Shut upa ya Face (our request). All in all it was an AWESOME start to the night which was only just beginning, as we then headed into a nightclub called ‘Space’. They have a funny payment system here. When you walk into the club, you are given a drink card and this is what you use to purchase your drinks with, so in turn it is a cashless system in the club – BUT you can only have 3 drinks, before you have to settle your account, then they give you another card, which is different colour and when you’ve had you three drinks on that you need to settle your account again! The flaw I see is you have your three drinks and then have no money what do they do then? You can’t give the 3 drinks back right? Weird but I guess it works for them. I know I got to the next card, but after that the rest of the night is a blur. I know I got upset when I got back to the hotel, but I think a combination of things just took its toll and I let the tears roll. I think also because it is Mother’s Day today, it just reminded me how much I miss my mum……….. We’re only human after all.
Goodbye to Italy and hello to Switzerland – busy day ahead………………..
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