I forgot that I took this one!
It’s like a picture from a postcard but…no edits, no filters….nothing but a beautiful city during a brief break from rainfall.
Day 18: Siena
Off to explore Siena today! Our tour leader bought our bus tickets and helped us catch the bus there (about an hour from Florence, very easy to do) and then gave us a little tour, including the main square.
We were then left to our own devices with a return bus timetable and prepaid tickets. First ofF, we paid 12€ to explore all the parts of the cathedral and climb the facade. The views were beautiful from the top, overlooking both Siena and Tuscany. Damn all those stairs though! We were very lucky the rain cleared for about an hour and not only did we get the stunning view, we also got to go all the way to the top for the first time that day.
Lunch was another delicious Italian food experience at San Desiderio Ristorante near the back of the cathedral. B had penne with pork ragout and I had amazing braised beef. With drinks and a service charge it was only 30€ so not bad for such a touristy area. 
We then explored inside the cathedral and museum, which had a beautiful stained glass window from around 1200 AD that had been preserved during the war and never moved back to the church. The building itself is huge and is one of the largest cathedrals in Italy.
On the way out, we stopped and bought me some lovey Italian boots (yay!) as the weather is starting to get consistently wetter now and it was always my plan to buy a decent pair of ankle boots at this point in the trip rather than lug them around up to now.
We caught the bus back to Florence easily enough and had dinner at the Centrale Mercato with two other members of our tour….again. Can not recommend it enough….the pasta….omnomnom.
Tomorrow: Rome! The farewell dinner for our intrepid group is tomorrow 😦 it will be back to travelling with just us until we come back in two weeks. We still have Rome, Venice, Naples and Paris to go.
Mel
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, Europe, Florence, food, intrepid travel, Italy, siena
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Mercato Centrale: a must do eating experience in Florence
A must do! Amazing fresh food, so many choices. Kinda like a fancy food court….with alcohol! Location and opening details below.
B and I split our meal, so entree was delicious tortellini cooked fresh right in front of you (12€)
Then there was the wood fired pizza (10€):
Followed by banana and chocolate chip gelato (3€ each)!
Others in our group tried a huge variety of food including:
Ginger and orange juice, cucumber and kiwi fruit juice and kiwi fruit and apple juice
Fresh cooked scallops with salad
Raw meat pate with salad (ewwww not for me)
Two types of fresh cooked soup
Cannelloni
Other gelato flavours and a mixed desserts plate
Not to mention the wine! 🙂
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, Europe, Florence, food, gelato, intrepid travel, Italy
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Day 17: exploring Florence
Definitely a big fan of Hotel Ester in Florence, the free breakfast at a local cafe was great value. I topped it off with some banana gelato!
selfies with banana gelato
Our day started with drizzly rain as we explored the cathedral and the square again in daylight. We then headed off with our reserved tickets to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria Academia. The line for reservations was about 30 people, compared to the general entry line which was about 300! Well done us on paying the extra 4€ and having a reserved time. The statue was amazing, really astounding to see that sort of craftsmanship up close.
what nice eyes you have…
token tourist mel
After seeing David we walked up the road to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and B got his geek on admiring all the cool, life sized replicas of Da Vinci’s inventions. He also added to his ever growing collection of laser cut blocks (I collect postcards from every location, just in case anyone was wondering).
my beloved doing his thing
Then it was lunch time. The place we chose was shit and touristy, but the afternoon wine tasting more than made up for it (more on that later). I went off to do some shopping and B climbed the bell tower and the Duoma (dome), which I had done on my last visit to Florence. He got some amazing photos:
view of the duomo and city from the belltower
Then it was wine tasting time! We went to the wine bar Entoca Alessi on the recommendation of our tour leader with another member of our group and holy crap it was amazing. Five wines, all indigenous to different areas of Italy plus this amazing food platter.
omnomonom
sniff them they said…it makes you an expert they said…smells like wine to me!
Tonight will be dinner at the local market place and then off to Siena for a day trip tomorrow.
Mel
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: art, barcelona to rome, david, Europe, Florence, food, gelato, intrepid travel, Italy, wine
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I’m Day 16: Pisa and Florence
We left the town of La Spezia at 9am and headed for Pisa on the train and local bus. After visiting the famous tower and cathedral, we wandered around the local square and had lunch at an AMAZING local sandwich shop.
the cathedral and its famous belltower (the leaning part)
no cheesy tourist photos from us…Percy on the other hand….
We then headed back to the local station where we had stored our luggage and onwards to Florence! The hotel here (Hotel Ester) is a gorgeous little B+B set up with a shared kitchen, huge rooms and a terrace with a view!
the view from hotel ester
After settling in (and B fixing every rooms TV because he’s a legend) we headed off to explore the local area and eat.
pretty florence!
the sculpture with no defined start point – you can look at it anywhere and it looks like the correct viewing angle could be obtained. Amazing detail, look at the butt dimples!
the start of the secret tunnel from one part of the city to another
100-200 years ago you would knock on this little door and the hatch would open, they would take your money and wine would appear!
ponte vecchio (bridge) at night, we need a daytime photo though
Dinner was at a tiny little restaurant that usually only serves lunch. Our intrepid tour leader knows the owner so he made dinner for our group. 25€ was 6 courses plus all you can drink wine and the food was AMAZING! No food pics but I think this image sums it all up perfectly (thank you my beloved for taking this stunner of a photo haha):
1.5L bottle of chianti….mmmm
Tomorrow: Visiting the statue of David, the Da Vinci museum, wine tasting and more in Florence
Steps today: 20614…not bad. Nowhere near enough to walk off the amazing food though!
Mel
P.S. Cold update: my snot seems to have improved but chesty cough is raging. B now has snot, but no chestiness. YAY TOUR GROUP BUG SHARING!
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, Florence, intrepid travel, Italy, leaning tower, Percy, pisa, wine
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Day 15: Cinque Terre!
Today started with our free breakfast. We headed out later than everyone else as I’m feeling quite unwell at the moment so took the option of a little sleep in, good call by me. Turns out that of the two restaurants we could choose to have breakfast, the “better” one (caffe elite) with a breakfast bar had pigeons POOPING IN THE CEREAL. Nope. So we went to the little one and just had a brioche and coffee. No poop there.
Then it was off to Monterosso. Up to this point I had still been relatively undecided on whether I would attempt the Cinque Terre trail hike or not…I want the views but the trail is quite hard and includes 600+ steep, narrow steps as well as the narrow walking tracks. My cold has moved into my chest though which decided for me, I would be training it between villages. I did get a photo at the start of the trail though for fun 🙂
the start of the monterosso to venazza path…600+ steps uphill argh
Cathy (my non-walking buddy) and I had a little paddle around in the Mediterranean Sea while the others started their walk:
sefies in the sea
We then happily set off for Vezzana on the ferry and got some fabulous photos.
leaving monterosso on the ferry
the coastline
arriving into Venazza On the ferry
panorama of the venazza square
We met up with the rest of the crew in Vezzana to say hi and then caught the train to the next location (Corniglia) while they continued hiking. Our mission was to sample the local wine and let them know if it was any good. Mission successful!
cinque terr bionco vin! delicious
While we were exploring the small villages, our other travel buddies were hiking the two tough trails! B took some amazing photos for me to share:
After their second hike (1hr 10 mins for the first leg and then about 47 mins for the second) we all had lunch together in Corniglia and then caught the train to another stop (Manarola) on the trail. Unfortunately, you can’t walk here anymore since the floods in 2011 as it is too dangerous. More amazing photos and scenery around here.
manorola
Tonight dinner is on our own so the odds of it being peanut m&ms and coke since B hiked 6.5kms of hills today and I’m super sick are pretty high…although I will likely be tempted out of hibernation by the prospect of more delicious pasta.
Mel
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, cinque terre, coast, Europe, intrepid travel, Italy
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Leaving the South of France – final thoughts
Favourite things about Carcassonne, Provence and Nice:
– the food was absolutely unbelievable…so amazingly good! Arles in particular was a real standout although Nice had some very nice food once you were able to avoid the expensive touristy places
– there’s no such thing as bad wine. Seriously. Even a 2.70€ bottle from the supermarket is nice! House wine can be as little as 2€ a glass as well and the best by is you can buy 1/2 a litre of wine for yourself at a restaurant and nobody minds
– lazing on the beach with cocktails was a nice break from doing “stuff” while we were in Nice
– there are some stunning villages and locations in these region, some of them (like Gordes) I had never heard of. I am so glad I got to see them!
Not-so-good stuff about Carcassonne, Provence and Nice:
– as it is pretty much off season now (they don’t seem to have a shoulder season), we suffered a lot in this area because of the lack of other tourists. At least half (if not 75%) of the restaurants were closed and the bloody bus and train timetables had all changed but there were no signs up. This led to a few stuff ups, including one that cost us 70€ as we had to get a taxi to meet our private tour guide on time or forfeit what we had already paid for that tour.
– French service leaves a lot to be desired, I almost walked out of shops multiple times as they are quite happy to completely ignore you and talk to their friends, file their nails or just keep chatting aimlessly away to other people…people not buying stuff…it was physically hard not to scream “just take my fricking money” at times
– We stayed in a lot of places where the owners spoke English but they would refuse to do so and spoke back to you in French. Didn’t really bother me until someone was trying to complain (rightfully) about a double charge and the hotel owner suddenly couldn’t speak English anymore…hmmmm….
another plus: as the wind was so cold i got to wear my very european scarf!
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: arles, barcelona to rome, carcassonne, france, gordes, intrepid travel, nice, pont du gard, provence
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Day 14: arriving at (okay, near) Cinque Terre!
Today was all about trains. A tram to the train station in Nice at 7:30am, a train to Geneva and then another train to a little town near Cinque Terre where will be based for the walking of the trails/train riding between towns tomorrow.
We arrived in La Spezia around 1:30pm and had a break for lunch/siesta-ing. The pizza we had for lunch was the equivalent of fast food (quick service) but geez it wasn’t bad. I’m looking forward to more Italian pizza. Of course, our choices were limited as only two things were open in this tiny little town on a Sunday!
Our room here at Affittacamere the Tramp is not a hotel but more of a room rental arrangement, it seems to be an old office building or bank that has been converted into a few short stay rooms. Interesting design…and the key to get into the hallway (read: vault entrance) is huge.
At 3:30pm we met to catch the bus to Portovenere (30 mins) where we planned to go on a sunset boat cruise and have dinner, this was done as a meet up with another intrepid group to make the cruise cost effective. The views were simply amazing and B made it through the whole boat cruise with no sea sickness! Read back to the Hamilton Island entries in Jan 2015 to see how bad he suffers usually. The kind people on our tour pooled their resources with ours and with a mix of Maxalon (stemetil), travacalm and some wine he was good to go!
The best part was we saw wild dolphins, including a little baby!! No photos of that though as the iPhone wasn’t quick enough.
Tomorrow: B and some of the tour will be walking the hard level trails at Cinque Terre.
As the beginner ones have been washed out since 2011 (it would be nice if they updated their advertising material), myself and at least one other tour member will wander the towns on the trail on our own. We will be using the train to travel between them and meet up with the others for lunch and dinner 🙂
Mel
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, cinque terre, coastline, intrepid travel, italian riviera, Italy, la spezia, portovenere
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Day 13: visiting Eze and lazing on the beach of the French Riviera
Beautiful weather here, 20C and very sunny. The warmest we have come across so far so definitely a shorts day – woohoo!
Today was a free day (no tour leader to help us!) and we started off travelling as a group to the medieval village of Eze. This involved a tram and a local bus but we managed it with a team effort. We all then wandered around the local fort/castle which was very pretty but basically a giant hotel. Some of us found the lookout point but most of us didn’t (I was included with the latter mob) and then our groups split up. B and I headed back to Nice with another group member while the others stayed to walk some of the local trails.
exploring the medieval castle/hotel at Eze
the purple flowers Eze is famous for
After a tasty lunch at Hard Rock Cafe where I added to my glass collection, we headed down to the beach and paid the extortionate 10€ each to snag a sun lounger and enjoy a siesta + cocktails. As expensive as it was….it was pretty freaking nice to just laze in the sunshine and drink.
lazing on the beach in Nice
people in the water were crazy, it wasnt that warm!
Tonight’s dinner: a picnic down on the promenade! Should be delicious
Mel
P.S. Head cold is progressing from sore throat and feeling achey all over to just snot. So much snot and congestion and snot. Pharmacies here are useless (different laws mean no good drugs without a script) so all I have is strepsils and some nasal spray.
P.P.S. Percy had a great day today:
percy loved his mango and banana cocktail
laaaaazy
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, beach, Eze, france, french riviera, intrepid travel, nice, Percy
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Day 12: Nice! (The location, not the adjective)
After an included breakfast at the hotel (where I ate my body weight in baguettes again…French bread is tasty) we headed off for a day of train riding. From Arles to Marseille was about an hour, then we had a lunch stopover at the train station followed by another 2 hours on the train to Nice.
After arriving, we walked to our hotel and had an hour of downtime before going on an orientation tour of Nice. The sunset views from the lookout point and the old castle were pretty amazing, an iPhone doesn’t do them justice.
Then it was off to dinner at Taca d’oli which was absolutely amazing. B calls it as equal to the delicious casserole we had the other night in terms of taste and when you add in the spotless service…we might have a winner so far on the trip!
Bs entree of octopus salad. and my stuffed. veggies
my main of amazingly tender roast beef and gnocchi, B had two types of fish on a skewer
Tomorrow: exploring the village of Eze and then relaxing on the “beach” here in Nice, assuming my head cold (thanks sick people on our tour) eases up
Mel
Note: wifi is crap at our hotel here so will check in again in a few days when we reach Cinque Terre!
Categories: Europe 2015
Tags: barcelona to rome, france, french riviera, intrepid travel, nice
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