We arrived in Florence about 3 hours later and caught the bus all the way up to the top of the hill to our campsite..amazing views of the city! Found our tent (a little difficult in the dark), which was pretty cool, and settled in for a chilly night with the mosquitos..
The next morning we walked from the Michelangelo square near our camp down into the city if Florence..strolled across the beautiful river, spotted with little bridges along its length..we had a coffee at a cute little cafe, got some bargains at the fresh fruit and veg market and headed to the other end of town to the meeting place of our free tour..the tour was really interesting, focussing mainly on the famous meirachi family which controlled Florence for so long...we saw a church which Michelangelo began to build but couldn't finish and hence saw the 'skeleton of a masterpiece'..learnt about the family fueds of the city and how the meirachi family had an above ground tunnel all the way from their place of residence, across a bridge to a palace on the outskirts of the city (so they'd never be seen/assassinated)..saw some pretty weird sculptures..learnt how the original gelato was made in Florence with ice, salt and fruit juice..once again appreciating a city much more by learning a little history! We went in to the beautiful duomo cathedral before trekking back up to the hill towards our camp..and there just so happened to be a gelato festival at the top for some motivation :P we had a little bit but decided to head back to camp, have pizza and Venetian wine before heading back to the festival and stuffing ourselves silly!! Some pretty bizarre flavours..fish and candied celery, egg custard, turmeric....weird! Nutella was the best :P ducked into a bar quick but soon bailed, feeling a little ill from our wine, pizza and gelato feast..
With sore tummies we up and left the campsite for a different hostel in town (the camp was closing for the season)..bit of a trek later we made it, dumped our bags, booked a tour for cinque terre the next day (a bit pricey but I knew it'd be worth it) and headed to the station to grab a train to the medieval town of lucca..which was super cool, a beautiful town with stunning old buildings, still fully enclosed by an intact wall..the old amphitheatre apparently Julius Caesar met with Naples for a forum..'twas an important place! We'd planned to go to Pisa but we were a bit pooped (and after all, it's just a building on a light lean and that's about it), so we went to catch the train, only to miss it by less than a minute!! Aaaaand it was an hours wait til the next one :S eventually we made it back to Florence and decided we should try the local food so I treated myself to a delicious cannelloni :) I then made myself a big pasta with beans to keep me going for the next few days and we attempted an early night (a tad noisy with a bunch of people playing twister and our room being a thoroughfare to the bathroom) for our early rise...
Today we went to the magical area of Cinque Terre! A cluster of five villages on the west coast of Italy..beautiful coloured buildings clumped together on the hills right on the ocean...the towns were originally places for sea merchants and trading and thus were targets for frequent pirate attacks! We climbed the castle tower which was traditionally made as a watch tower for pirates..pretty cool! As we were on an organised tour from Florence (it'd be a tricky place on visit on our own), we visited four out of the five villages and had time to wander at each..we even caught a ferry between two of them which was pretty sweet...went for a swim in the Mediterranean, tried some delicious wine from the area, taste tested some local lemon liquor which was a little strong, had some gelato in the magical afternoon sun by the harbour and headed back..I decided mum would love the place as I kept thinking of things/seeing things which reminded me of her..an awesome day, felt very blessed to have had the experience..we had some tea back t the hostel, chatted to some people and booked a hostel for siena the next day...
