Wednesday 17 August 2011

Pisa/Florence

Wow what a day!  We thought that we jammed a lot in when we saw Rome, but Florence we just barely got started.  Our day started at Pisa.  We were able to get tickets to walk up the Leaning Tower.  294 steps in the blistering heat, every minute was worth it.  I cannot tell you how weird it felt walking up the steps.  It was a little vertigo-ish.  The last 20 steps to the very top of the bell tower were freaky.  It was really steep, and narrow.  Once at the top the view was amazing, and walking around it had its own sensation.  We found a shady spot at the top had a quick cool down period then headed back down.  I have to say that this has now become one of our favourite sites.
Off to Florence we went.  We saw the statue of David (can you all just hear Tim say – Hey that’s me!)  I did not know that it was so big.(Tim got in trouble twice for continuing to take videos)  Pretty amazing sight.  We saw all of the top sights – too many to list.  We hired a private guide again and was worth every penny. There was no way we could have done this on our own.  We would love to come back and spend a week in Florence.  We drove through the shopping district and Vhari and I peed a little when we saw all of the shops.....I guess we will just have to come back next year. J
It is amazing to me that what we eat at Italian restaurants at home, are nothing like what they eat here.    The food is very fresh/simple ingredients and not over done with garlic.  Tim had the classic Tuscan dish which was wild boar in a tomato sauce.  He said it was absolutely delish.  We walked by a little market and Vhari bought some cherry tomatoes still on the vine and strawberries.  They were both so sweet.  They actually tasted like tomatoes and strawberries.  Italian’s are all so skinny, and eat so well.  I guess it is true - real food in moderate portions is the way to live.  It is very rare that we see any fast food restaurants here.  We also stopped at the best gelato restaurant in Florence – yum-a-yummy
As we usually do, we bought a bottle of wine from the region to drink this evening.  Our guide picked it out for us – should be good.   Off to dinner for us.  We are going to try to make it to at least 10:30 tonight before going to bed.  Man, we are always so tired..........

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