21 Aug All roads lead to the Duomo

okay quite pissed with blogger because my whole post wasn't saved locally and now i have to retype everything so i'll just cut to the important parts.

Did a morning central city tour today with the city. Ended at Loggia dei lanzi at the Piazza della Signoria. Loggia is like an open air museum and it housed the original true copies of the sculptures there.  

Finally went to the Uffizi Gallery and queued for 2 hours. OMG. Admission tickets goes at 11 Euros. I'll advice getting the advance tickets for another 4 Euros if you want to avoid the 2hr queue. By the time we got to the counter, the board said the estimated waiting time was 3hrs. Uffizi Gallery was one hell of a galleria. It housed the largest collection amount statues/sculptures in Europe and had an extensive collection of art pieces since the reign of the Medici family in Florence. I recommend getting the audio guide or downloading the paid audioguide app so you have an idea of what the art pieces represent. I regretted not spending more time there as we were rushing to get to the Santa Maria del Fiore before it closes. But we were too late haha.

I recommend getting the combined ticket that consists of the Cupola(dome) tour, Terrance tour and smt else over the Baptistery, Grottos, Museum and Bell tower. 

Florence is indeed a place that I'll return to next time (perhaps honeymoon hehehe). Its an artsy city which is rather unique, the indescribable feeling that you're in another time with that huge Duomo, mixture of renaissance, ancient and byzantine inspired architecture, those cobblestone carriage ways surrounded by the old renaissance buildings and the alfresco diners. 

Basilica di San Lorenzo - first  cathedral in Florence. It used to be outside the city. Imagine how much Florence has grown since then

One of the first public libraries in Europe, funded by the Medici family

Medici Coat of Arms. The Blue sphere with lilys is the French insignia and was allowed for use by the Medici family because their funding won them wars in Italy. Can me seen throughout Buildings in Florence as the Medici family's way of reminding the citizens who developed the city.

Chiesa di Dante aka Dante's Church where he met his true love Beatrice. She represented true love between a man and a woman amongst many other contributions. Write a note to her if you have love troubles.

Reading of Dante's book by a lookalike

Street Art: Drawing of Mary

Loggia dei Lanzi, the open air Museum that houses the original true copies that were placed there in medieval times.

The corridor of the Uffizi Galleria

All roads lead to Duomo

Interior of the Duomo

clock inside the Duomo

the birds of Florence

omg. its like 39 frigging degrees. was telling toad that if you drop a droplet of water down, it would vaporize upon contact with the ground. Bought our tickets to La Spezia with a transit at Pisa to peektures. Bout 7 per ticket.

Headed down to the Duomo about 1630 and realized that most of the attractions close at 1830. Went to the Baptistery of San Giovanni for the first stop. Its the oldest building in the square. The tradition that the Baptistery was once a Roman temple becomes understandable once we enter the building. In general arrangement, this vast domed space recalls the Pantheon and in fact it is enriched with elements taken from ancient monuments. By contrast, the floor evokes the Islamic world. The geometric wall decoration combines late- Imperial patterns with others of Germanic origin. The sumptuous mosaics of the dome, on the other hand reveal the influence of Byzantine art in central Italy. The overall effect reflects the magnificent crossroads of civilizations that was medieval Europe. The stories told by the mosaics on the dome is truely fascinating and i think if given the time, i can spend hours just looking at it. 

Next, we headed to the Giotto's Bell Tower, a tiresome climb up to the top but were greeted by a good view of Florence. 414 is the magical number of steps to count if you want to reach the top. The city is perserved so well that the only relatively new building that i could tell is the train station. and the bell rang at 1815, their way of trolling us when we headed down after not hearing the 1800 bell. Rushed back up to try get a video (in video log) of it but that toad took my gopro and i missed the shot of running up the narrow stairway to the bell chamber. haha. well he was smiling (inside joke). With that, we just sat up there talking cock till we were chased out by the guard at closing time (1830)

Well, its dinner time! Pizza @  Pizzeria O’Vesuvio (Via del Cimatori), some place made even more famous by Jersey Shore, an american thrash reality tv show. Portions were huge! Do try their recommended pizzas. They're not bad. Had umbra (wild boar salami), Tricolore (combi of 3 types of cheese), Molisana (mushrooms) and 1 more. Aint as good as Pizzerium in rome, but better than most pizzas we've had.

What other way to wash down the pizzas with some beer. There was some no name micro beer house (Piazza de Cimatori 12) round the corner and it happened to be happy hour (1900-2100) too! Grabbed some stools and just sat outside the shop like a baus soaking in the florentine atmosphere before heading back early to the hostel. 

tmr we hit the musuems!

Video log! + Bell Tower

the last judgement

the intricate mosaics that lace the dome of the baptistery

shearn dying haha.

 the roof of the duomo

birds eye view

 on top of the bell tower

giving rain to the people like old days

hipster duomo

wow wow we wow. thats high. 

Pizzasssssssss

some micro beers

20 Aug Morning Florentine Tour

wow. had a hard time waking up today. But you can't miss the free breakfast and walking tour! I feel that Archi Rosi really gives you the bang for your buck. I wouldn't say breakfast was awesome but at least it kept Vern from being hungst till after noon. haha. Our walking tour brought us around the river side to places like Basillica di Santa Maria Novella (identified by its crest as a sun) and Ponte Santa Trinta to name a few.

Florentine architecture is greatly influenced by the renaissance period and many renaissance buildings can be easily identified by their huge grey columns spaced evenly from each other giving such beautiful geometry. Was a beautiful morning to walk around but it got hotter towards noon. what else to cool down with a cup of authentic gelato at  Gelateria Santa Trinita (Lungarno Guicciardini 1), one of Florence oldest and highly rated gelato! Apparently you can tell good gelato from how they're displayed in the shops. A good one would put the gelato in a metal container instead of a plastic one. Try their fruit flavors here. Its all refreshing and good! The original flavor is cream but its nothing fantastic. 

Ended the tour at Palazzo Pitti, the biggest palace built by the Pitti family to show the Medici family that they weren't the richest and most influential family in Florence. However, the irony was that they ran out of money before its completion and was bought over by the Medici family. Headed for da bao lunch at the Roasteria. Machiam like chup chai peng. Sweet and sour pork, fried rice, fried prawns, giant chicken thigh and more for 4 euros/pax! The aunty selling to us was chinese and maybe gave us more discount haha. 

I guess its too hot to do anything today. 39 degrees. time for a tactical break.

View from Ponte Santa Trinta

via del tornabuoni, the most expansive road in florence with all the expansive brands there!

View from Ponte Vecchio

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

Gelateria Santa Trinita

the iron rings to hold horses 

Note:

Musuems are closed on mondays

Florence the city of romantics

okay as i type this, shearn is snoring quite loudly below my bunk bed. today was basically free and easy after we arrived in Florence. Florence is truly a beautiful city and a really romantic one indeed, after all what more can you expect from a city which is renowned as the cradle of the renaissance for its palaces, churches and museums. Its just the feel of the place that makes it feel different. If i had to choose places to go for my honeymoon, this would defnitely be in the list. 

Florence spots different types of architecture influence and is centered around the Duomo, this massive church in the center and yes its beautiful. Down the road, there's the Piazza della Signoria where the infamous Uffizi musuem can be found and also the Palazzo Vecchio. Florence is like an open air musuem with public art pieces littering the Piazzas. We had a good busking display outside the Palazzo Vecchio where we sat and chilled for almost an hour. (see video) 

video log!

our bunks at archi rossi hotel!

Finally some cheap and good food! 

Street stalls selling leather goods

Duomo

Girls gonna love it here!

hehehe

chilling like a baus

street jazz outside the Palazzo Vecchio

awesome gelato! Grom (Via delle Oche 24/r)

Ponte Vecchio

Nice Italian dinner @ La Grotta Guelfa (Via Pellicceria 5/r)

try their wild boar pasta. everything is good but their home made pasta. abit too salty

19 Aug

Selamat Hari Raya to my muslims friends out there. What did ya know, our host in Rome is a muslim too! Today we head to Florence! Donning our humongous backpacks, we stomped out the front ready for a new adventure, but true enough, we were defeated by the weight by the time we reached the train station.

Took awhile to figure out how the train information system worked and before we knew it, it was boarding time! Felt so clumsy navigating through the narrow aisles, okay maybe not so narrow but just that we had huge bags and got to our seats! Met a Mexican couple who had been traveling Europe for 2+ months. He was so apologetic about his limited english but i guess as long as you can get the message through its fine! O ya and the best thing is, the train has WIFI! so here i am travelling along the Italian countryside (maybe even where the romans used to march) excited bout the next leg of our italian journey and blogging! Attempted to so some photo filtering but its just too much! maybe i'll do it on the way to Pisa. You know the saying, the only constant is change. well i think procrastination is definitely another constant. haha. wonder how will it be like in Florence. see ya later. ciao!

Just leaving the hostel with our massive packs

Rome Termini

blogging from Frecciargento 9416.

new friends!

Note:

You should check the availability of tickets online for there might be sale fares. Bought this ticket for 9 Euros (up 40 Euros). If not just get it off the ticketing machine at the station.