When we arrived in Florence we walked out of the train station and into Macdonald, where we waited, drinking coke... until Mum and Kirst arrived! I hugged mum for a long time ofcourse and kirst too and then we walked to the taxi rank where we took a taxi to our hotel. The hotel was where I stayed with school two years ago so I knew it was beautiful but this time we got an awesome room, very big with very high ceilings!
The hotel lobby is decorated in blue and white and old chairs covered in beautiful fabrics :) ❤
We cleaned up at the hotel and relaxed for a bit and then went out for dinner to a resteraunt suggested by the hotel receptionist which i don't think the food was very nice at but anyways :) ! after dinner we took a walk to the other side of Florence and saw the beautiful city at night including Ponte Vechio and the river, then we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep....
The next day, it took us a while to get moving, but before lunch we visited Palazzo Pitti, the old residence of the famous Medici family and now a museum. For lunch we ate panini and made the mistake of ordering coca cola which were 6€ a glass! rookie tourists haha, but I have learnt to always check the price of the drinks, even if the food is cheap!
After lunch we walked to the Academica where the famous statue of David is held, along with many other statues and famous artwork, as I had already seen it 2 years ago I got a surprise to see a very modern price of artwork, where a man (who was fake but scared everybody because he looks very real) is kneeling over a pond and looking into the pond with his eyes dripping tears into the pond! very clever!!! :)
We began to walk towards the duomo, where we got to skip the cue by paying a few extra coins and walk straight up the very tall spiral staircase which had us puffing and stopping for breath haha! but once arriving at the top it was very worth it!
The lookout was packed with foreigners as you can imagine, and one boy heard kirstie and I talking and asked us where we were from, when we both replies "Australia" his face lit up and he replied "same" in the most Aussie way possible, as I hadnt heard this classic Aussie accent in so long I got very excited over this! The boy was part of a school group and they were doing a tour of Italy just like I did two years ago, attending school in Florence. The group was from Sheperton :) On the way down I made an American friend and it was so good to hear words like "sweet" and "OhMyGod" haha ! so I was happy :)
Then we went to the Gelateria and I got strawberries and whipped cream and we relaxed for a little!
We went to the market at 6pm, only to be informed that it closed at 7pm so we decided we would return the next day instead!
That night we went to a classic Italian resteraunt and ate pizza and pasta, I had my favourite Tagliatelle con Ragu!! Buona!
Then we went back to the room because we were to worn out to do anything else, so we went to sleep!
On Saturday we packed our bags up and left them at the hotel, then we went to the duomo and inside the cathedral which was beautiful :) and then we met with mum and spend the morning wandering through the market :) ! we ate lunch at a little cafe and then I went back to the hotel where I waited for my Australian friends to arrive, they took their time but once they did it was so gooood to see them :D but unfortunate after one hour I had to leave so we could catch the train back to padova, it wasn't a sad goodbye as I knew I would see them in a few day :)
on arrival in padova, Gian picked us up at the station and we went back to the house to have a typical Italian dinner! :) for parts of my two families to meet was beautiful for me :) !!!
the drudis really made an effort with dinner and it was lovely :) first we had nibblies and spritz, then swordfish and salmon and then pasta bake and then tiramisu !!! oh mi dear!!! tutti buona :D
Gian drove my mum and sister back to their hotel and we all got a good night sleep before going on the buchiello the next day! :)
The first stop of the buchiello was Villa Pisani, which I saw two years ago but it is so beautiful I could see it a million and one times! :D
then we boarded the boat and stopped at another beautiful villa! back on the boat with the sun shining and at the next stop we ate lunch that giulia had prepared :) taking in the surroundings and talking between sipping on coke and munging on Sangas! (see I'm still very Aussie ;) )
the boat took off once again and we went through the grand canal toward Venice, a very beautiful view especially with the sun shining :)
In San Marco square the boat docked just for Mum, Kirst and I to descend.
For my third time in my life I was in Venice :D
We walked the beautiful narrow streets and bridges until finding a semi descent resteraunt which i knee was still very touristy as it had a pizza with pineapple on the menu, haha ! :) but we ate pizza which wasn't bad and then after asking the waiter for times and directions to the station, we ran following the signs and with me asking someone at every corner "Dove la stazione?" we finally made it to the station with only minutes to spare... only to find out that there was another in 20 minutes! hahaha
So we relaxed and bought our tickets, found our platform and boarded the train back to Padova :))))
Monday: Allesandro and I went through the rain, to the station by motorino :)
We met only mum there, because kirstie was sick so was going to meet us at 1 in Venice.
So off to Venice for my fourth time at only 17 years old (Very lucky!) . On the way there Ale and I talked music and shared songs and artists :) When we arrived we didnt want to venture to far because we had to meet kirst at the station at 1 anyway :) So we looked in the shops and stalls and took coffee at a little bar :)
We met kirstie and then went to a pizzeria recommended by the locals, but ale and I (us Padovians ;) ) thought the pizza had too much cheese so we decided that Pizza in Padova was much nicer :)
After lunch we went to "Grom" a natural gelateria and purchased gelati and then trekked towards Ponte Rialto, the famous bridge of Venice which is very big with beautiful views to be seen from it :) ! we spent some time there being tourists with the camera, haha and then a gondolier offered us a very cheap price so we took it beceause soon it was going to rain.
This was my second time in a Gondola as I went two years ago with school, they are worth the money though :)
After going through the tiny canals and under bridges of which the Gondolier must duck we arrived back on the island :) Where we looked in shops on our way to find a bar because we wanted to be under cover when the rain hit :) ! and lucky we were as the rain hit hard so sitting inside a caffe watching it was much better than the alternative!
We waited out the storm over spritz and coffee and then went for a short look in the ghetto before wandering back
to the train station to catch a train home to Padova :)
once in Padova we went back home on the motorino again and I went straight to sleep :) !
Tuesday: I rode my bike to the tram stop near my house (Assunta) and then I caught the tram to Ponto Romani and from their walked to the street corso Milano where the hotel of my and kirst is. We ate breakfast in the buffet together and then we walked from the hotel to Sant Antonio where we took the red tour bus of Padova all around the city to see the sights :) and ofcourse Padova is beautiful! We then met with Francesca and ate kono pizza which is pizza in a cone as it suggests :)
I hate a sweet cone with nutella they are the best! :D only in Padova can you get kono pizza :) my mum enjoyed them very much :)
We then met with Allesandro and we all went to cafe pedrochi to bring coffee :) cafe pedrochi is "the cafe without doors" because in the past it never closed, it was open 24 hours!
Then we went to the university to see the famous medical theatre but unfortunately it is closed at the moment :( Instead we ran into one of Alessandro's older very elegant friends who gave us a tour of the university:)
Then We went into a very old building in Padova which in the past was the court :)
Mum, kirst and I took the team back to my house and then took Maya to the park where Kirstie photographed her.
We relaxed at the house for a little bit and when everyone returned home we ate home made Lasagne for dinner and it was very goood :D
Then kirstie got to ride on the motorino of allesandro when they went to bring gelati from around the corner :) we ate and laughed like a big happy family and then it was time to say goodbye to my mummy and sister because the next morning it was time for them to go to Germany :) It was a bit sad but I will see them in a few months, for me it was more sad to watch Ale, kikka and Giulia say goodbye to them as they don't know when they will see each other if they do at all :(
Wednesday the Australians arrived and I will write about that in my next blog because I am much too tired! but I am very happy :) ciao ciao !