Hi ya’ll! How is everyone?

Am heading to Verona tomorrow morning, after spending the last (wet, rain-y and gloomy) week in Florence so thought I would update you all on what’s been happening over here!

s***, just realized that I totally forgot to blog about our quick stay in Milan! Eeek! Well, there isn’t a lot to say really – the weather was TERRIBLE so we really didn’t do a lot (were meant to do a city walking tour but we bailed cause of the rain and did a shopping tour to Switzerland instead lol… yeah that actually sounds a lot more fun that it was. Put it this way – we couldn’t afford s***t, and it was an outlet mall too…. Gucci and all that shizz!). We stayed in a fab hotel though, and I say fab because omg the free stuff they gave out everyday – it was ridiculous (in a good way!). Breakfast was a buffet and actually really good (fresh fruit platters, eggs, bacon, breads, coffee (real Italian coffee), tea, fresh juice, CAKE, veges… and the list goes on!); the front desk was always giving out sweets and apples etc etc, and there was free coffee 24/7. Love it. Hahah yeah so, “what did you do in Milan” can be answered by “Ate. A lot”

Okay, now back to Florence! Weather has been avvvveeerage. Well less than to be honest. We had a pimping apartment about a minute walk from the Uffizi Gallery; it’s a lot nicer than our one in Barcelona (thanks to my booking skills this time around – Mum has been banned from booking accommodation after the Barcelona apartment…) We did all the usual stuff: Duomo, markets, old bridge, Uffizi gallery etc etc. Have enjoyed a lot of delicious Italian food (especially bruschetta, gelati (even though I feel sick after each one and make Mum promise me that she will restrain me from having another… which luckily she doesn’t actually do) and yummo Italian wine) and spent a lot of $$ on touristy s***t.

We also branched out of Florence and went to a few surrounding towns which was really cool. Our first stop was Sienna which is a medieval village in Tuscany, and known for its crazy horse race that happens twice a year I think, called Il Palio. We watched a video about this and holy hell it’s mental – the build up and all that. Can’t help but feel sorry for the horses actually cause the crowd goes so crazy jumping all over them and s***t! After that we went to San Gimignano (don’t ask me how to pronounce it!) which is also a medieval village and is known apparently for it’s 72 towers…. It’s dubbed the ‘Manhattan of Italy’. Which is weird, cause we don’t recall seeing any towers. How bad is that?!?! In our defense, it was raining like mad so instead of walking up the hill to the top of town we opted for the easier, more dry option: get a gelati from the WORLD CHAMPION gelati shop (yes that’s right! I had chocolate-grand marnier, nutella + yogurt flavours. Zomg) and then have an espresso and watch all the idiot tourists in the rain. So no towers were seen, but tummys were full and happy (kind of) when we left. Success. After this we went to Pisa. Yay Pisa! I won’t lie, even with all the tourists around, it was still a pretty cool sight to see! And all the markets selling tourist tack were great too! I love tourist tack!

Amongst these three villages (it was a LONG day, like 13 hours or something ridiculous!) we had a traditional Tuscan lunch at a traditional Tuscan farm. I use the term farm very loosely – the farm paddock things themselves were used for vineyards, the cows unfortunately were penned up in a tiny barn. I felt uber sorry for them; even more so when I found out that the Bolognese sauce on my pasta that lunch was made from the cow whanau in this barn. Sigh. On the bright side we got to try Chianti red wine and also a Chianti dessert wine that you dip biscotti into. Yum.

Ummm…. Where else did we go? Ooh, we did a trip to Cinque Terra also. This is a world heritage site along the coast of Italy, and it basically translates to ‘five lands’ I think. Makes sense because it is made up of five tincey tiny villages that are perched right on the cliffside. We drove into Riomaggiore and from there walked along a coastal path which is literally on the side of the cliff, to Manarola. The path is so cheesey, called “via dell’ amore” aka the lovers path, but quite cute really. It was a meeting point back in the day (like after WW2) for couples and people who went would graffiti their names on everything really (walls, seats, even the cacti!) and the tradition is to close a padlock with your partner on part of the trail. Needless to say there are like a million padlocks everywhere, but it is kinda cute. If not uber tacky.

We caught the train to Vernazza and had lunch there – omg we had the cutest and possibly the oldest waiter in the world! I love him! Seriously, looked about 90 years old! And then drove to Corniglia to have a coffee. These 4 of the villages are really traditional and all the houses are pastel coloured etc etc. The “marina” for the fishermen is basically just ocean and rocks. They keep their tiny little boats outside their houses and have to hoist them over the ledge into the ‘marina’ before sailing out to fish. It’s weird s***t man. And there are a lot of farms/vineyards along the cliffs – the farmers have built these crazy ‘cable car’ monorail contraptions. Definitely do not have OSH standards over there, I felt physically ill looking at the rails! Can you say, vertical drop, no seat belts or anything. WTF.

Today was our last day here, we went to a chocolate and wine tasting in a super cute chocolate shop. It’s been going since 1936 I think and the chocolate was amazing! As you all know I LOVE chocolate. And I have never (that I can recall) been chocolate-ed out. Today I was. I am now sitting on my bed feeling still slightly ill (2 hours after the chocolate was eaten). Urgh. Amazing though. Yum yum yum. Okay, I feel sick thinking about it. I have to stop.

Tomorrow we head to Verona (yay)! Then off on the cruise on Sat. Not sure what internet access will be like on there so will try and blog before then :D hope you guys are all well. Probably hungry now since this blog has a very significant theme of food. LOL. Typical.

Love ya’ll xxxx