August 17th, 2009

Florence day 1 and 2

Posted by ver0n1c4 at 04:04 PM on August 17, 2009.

We were a bit sad to leave Rome. We were just starting to feel familiar with the city. The road name, the bus, the large Termini session. But it is time to go to Florence. We woke up early because we are still uncertain about which train we need to take. Since we don't have any reservation, we can't just take any train to Florence. So we just went ahead to Termini, bought Panino, and walked to the train platform. Talking to Italian is another challenge because if they don't understand English, they will just walk off and we might think they are offended or angry.

To cut the story short, we manage to find regional train (with symbol R in the timetable). We were happy because that means we don't have to worry about train anymore throughout the journey. As soon as we reached another city we just need to check the timetable to know which train we need to take to another city. The journey to Florence was memorable. While chatting and telling stories, we remembered there was a Ch*na guy sitting in the same wagon. He tried to talk to us because we are Asian but we pretended that we don't understand Chinese. We just kept talking in Indonesian (for time like this, it is lucky to have mother tongue other than English =P). In the middle of 3 hours journey, that guy started listening to Ch*nese song without earphone. And the worst part is, he kept listening to the same song LOL.

Anyway we arrived in Florence, hungry and sleepy. The central terminal in Florence is Santa Maria Novella. No subway in the city. Only bus. So we alighted there, checked the train timetable to Venice, and realized that this time we need to make a reservation because no Regional train to Venice. While waiting for Merry to make a reservation, I am looking around the terminal trying to find a cheap map of the city. Oh I think I skipped the part where we left the Florence guide book in our Rome hotel room (refer to the previous story where Merry read the book before sleeping =P). After that we walked to the hotel. We got a room in level 2 but again we started from level 0, and there was no lift, so we had to climbed the stairs twice.

Florence was a small city. We managed to finish our itinerary within half a day only. After getting some lunch, we went to Santa Maria Novella church. Had to pay EUR 2.50 so we skipped it. I only thought, this church couldn't be better than Sistine Chapel =P so we headed to the Duomo. I think placing Florence after Rome is a but unfair to Florence. The city looks too simple and dull if we compare it with the basrelief and sculpture in Rome. Same thing with Duomo. There is not much to see. We have two options there. Went up to the tower or went in to baptistery. Merry took the first option while I took the other one.

Above are the Duomo and Santa Maria Novella.

From there we went to the shopping area. There were so many shoes and leather stall. Merry managed to get new shoes while I got some cute and unique mini wine bottles. Then we went to Piazza della Signoria. We saw the reconstruction of David (not the real one) by Michaelangelo which is said to be the most perfect masterpiece with perfect human body anatomy. There are some other interesting sculptures but too bad we don't know much of the story behind it.

We also took a walk by the river all the way to hotel. After that we were just too exhausted. We went to sleep as soon as we finished taking a bath and touched the bed.

The second day was dedicated to Pisa. We took the train to Pisa Centrale, get a seat, and suddenly everything was turned off. Some people started to alight from the train but we didn't really understand of what is going on. Then few middle age woman walked pass our wagon while saying "Uno Parto". The man beside us said it means the train was not departing. Being away from internet and newspaper made us didn't aware of what happened around us. Turned out that there was an explosion the day before. The train consisted of fuel was exploded. It felt out of the rail in the area where the train to Pisa needed to pass by. So all trains to Pisa were not departing that day.

We had few options. Went to Sienna (another small city nearby) or stay in Florence. But what is left to see in Florence was only either Academia or Uffizi Museum. I think our level of arts was not that high to spend the whole day looking at the painting or sculpture =P Then we went to the officer to ask some question. We just said, we wanted to go to Pisa. Then he said that we can take the train to Livorno. I asked, "Is it going to Pisa?" He answered, "Yes, why not?" in high tone. Haha they are just being Italian ^.^

So we took the train to Livorno which eventually went to Pisa. Pisa was even smaller city that we were confident to walk without a map. We just walked straight for around 20-25 minutes and arrived at Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is not that leaning. Turns out that not only the tower which was leaning. All the building nearby were leaning too. Nothing is too spectacular there so that I thought that if it is not leaning, people would surely not going to visit this city. Then we had a lunch and took a train back to Florence.

That day I realized that I am very tired and I had some rashes due to sunburn so I decided to take a nap at the hotel, while Merry was visiting Uffizi. Too bad she can't take any picture there so I have no idea about Uffizi. But according to her, her level of art was upgraded to next level because she can now appreciate paintings hohoho. We met again for dinner at Kebab place. Happy to see rice again ^.^

That was all about Florence. Sorry if any of you have Florence as your favorite city. But to me Florence was not as exciting as Rome. ^.^

xoxo McJuicy

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