ola: ITALY: Part 2

SIENA

Ah Siena. A lot of our time was spent relaxing in Siena, as there really isn't all that much to do. We spent 2 nights there, probably only needed 1 but I guess you don't know these things until you get there! We arrived on the bus at lunchtime Saturday, found our hostel, and went for a wander. The streets are small and windy and we walked through a lot of them in that afternoon. It was quite busy in terms of people, but the shops were mainly cafes and gelato places. There is a Sienese delicacy called Riciarelli, which are little biscuits made from almond meal, sugar and egg whites. Gluten and dairy free! I had a few. That night my buddies very kindly trekked it with me to a restaurant that served gluten free food, so I got a bread entree (see photo!) and a pasta main (see photo!). It was deeeelicious. The next day we saw all the sights Siena has to offer (a church and a square) and watched a drumming, flag waving parade with lots of Italian men wearing tights (see the video), which was to do with the horse race they hold twice a year called Palio, we left about 4 days before the 2nd race! It's a huge deal in Siena and we found out from talking to a tour guide in Florence (who was born in Siena) the parade was to do with the Palio race and the colours relate to that district of Siena.

FLORENCE

After the peaceful and calm 2 nights in Siena was got exactly what we wanted in Florence, excitement, sights, alcohol and an amazing hostel.
We stayed at a place that was once a monestary, then a school and is now a hostel. The walls in the corridors are covered in drawings and words from floor to ceiling, which I thought was a little bit spooky, but it gives a great effect. It was right in the middle of the action, had free breakfast and free waking tours! We did 2 of the walking tours, one that was 'off the beaten track' and one of the main attractions. We saw the Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge that has jeweller after jeweller on it, we learnt about the powerful Medici family who ruled Florence up until the 18th century, and how they had a corridor built to connect two of there palaces running through the city (and through some people's houses). We climbed the Torre san Niccolo (tower of St Nicholas) which had amazing views of what is a really beautiful city. Our guide for the tower (the one from Siena) told us a lot of the history of Florence; it was the capital of Italy in the 1870's when Italy first united, it was once a walled city and was once one of the most populated cities in the world, it had 100,000 inhabitants when at the same time London only had 50-60,000. Anyway, I could go on for a while as we did learn a lot of stuff. One of the coolest things we did was see was Michelangelo's famous statue of David! There are plenty of copies around Florence and we made fools of ourselves thinking one in a courtyard was the real one. When really its in a museum. Obviously. It was very large, and really detailed; the veins on the hands and arms looked so real. You're not allowed to take photos so I've put one up of the pink and yellow David that was in the museum courtyard.
Anyway, food: gelato was, according to legend, invented in Florence and I did have some pretty delicious mango sorbet during our waking tour. We went out to some fun bars and learnt the following:
• Lots of the locals don't speak English, which is a change from lots of other cities we've been to.
• Lots of the local males don't understand the word 'no'!
• I am a complete dork as evidenced in this video I made waking home. I wasn't going to put it up but it really sums up the night / how lame I am so I did. EDIT: YouTube doesn't like me, so I'll add it to this post when I can get it to work.

Florence is in contention for favourite city for all of us, and ignoring the awkward part when we saw a naked man in a park, we had a ball.

PISA
We stopped here on the way to Nice for an hour or so. Took some
pretty original photos I think you'll agree.

We got the bus to Nice today, which took 9 hours all up! It was pretty amazing though as we drove through Monaco and the view was incredible. We drove past the spot where Grace Kelly died, and saw the church that Bono and The Edge were married, to there respective wives. We're going to visit Monaco tomorrow and have a swim! We're all very very tired so will be asleep in but a moment. Sorry the photos aren't in any kind of order, it's very hard and I'm very tired. And thanks to Sophie for letting me use her computer in exchange for a sip of my soy milk tomorrow morning. Laters X

Florence: a small door just large enough for a bottle of wine to fit through, they used it during Plague times so customer and merchant didn't have to touch!