Florence

9th March

The night before we figured out how to get the train ticket to Florence and wrote down the times. That paid off as we confidently strode towards the station and bought our ticket from the machine.

We rode one stop then swapped to the train that'd take us all the way to Florence. It took 3 hours but was much cheaper than the fast train and we were both ready for some quiet time after our crazy busy time in Rome.

Unfortunately someone who yells on the phone had a very long phone conversation part way through the journey. It was extremely irritating.

As soon as we reached Florence we found the information centre and asked for advice on where to stay. We tried a few hotels but they were very expensive and quite booked out. An hour later we returned to the train station where we'd found a food court with free WiFi and booked accommodation our usual way - through the Internet.

Ten minutes later we reached the accommodation but noone was there. However there was a phone number. A friendly passerby made the call for us and told us someone would be there in 5 minutes.

When the owner arrived he explained that we were meant to put our arrival time in the notes and that he ran a B&B as well. The place we were staying actually has no reception. He let us in and explained the keys, checkout and breakfast.

We then set out to explore Florence. We saw some churches and the ourside of the famous Duomo Church. By the time we arrived they'd just closed so we decided to return tomorrow to see the interior.

I had read about a food market in the Lorenzo area. We wandered around taking in the sites but couldn't find it.

We came across a market selling handbags, belts and shoes along with other tourist and leather products. Behind it was a building. The bottom was closed so we ventured upstairs. I was so happy.... The food market!!

We wandered around and I wanted to eat everything. Eventually we chose to share a pizza. We planned to share something else afterwards but we were too full!! So Jay promised we could return the next day.

After dinner we were tired already so we headed back to the hotel.

10th March

Today we started with the Uffizi Gallery as Mum said it was a must. It had almost 100 rooms of very similar paintings and statues. It was okay but not worth €20 per person due to the lack of variety. Also I think a lot of the art came from old churches and the current churches has stuff that looks the same to me. Obviously this is due to my ignorance  We made the most of it and spent 2 hours here making sure we saw every room. However I wouldn't recommend it.

After that we wandered around and explored the area around the gallery. Then we went to the train station and booked our tickets for Venice the next day.

After that we lined up to see the inside of the Duomo church. The line moved quickly which was good as it was quite long.

The day before we had bought a sim card and some credit and although the phone was working the data wasn't. So while we wandered around we called customer help which was a hilarious experience in itself because we can't understand the options  Eventually we found a someone who pushed the right options to get us through to a person (she was Spanish but spoke great English and understood some Italian). They said they'd transfer us to someone who spoke English  A minute later it hung up on us. We wrote down the options that the Spanish lady had selected and tried again. Eventually we got through. They told us that a SMS with a code would come through then a second message would come through where we needed to enter the code and then the data would work.

Long story short the text never came and we ended up going through the whole process twice more each time being promised a text we never received.

Hours later after dinner Jay said it was the fourth time and why couldn't we just do the setting manually? Two minutes later the data was working  Whew!

We did go back to the Lorenzo market where we bought a triangle type pizza and an arancine (stuffed rice ball). They were delicious!

We then went home for a rest so we'd have some energy to go for a walk and see the city at night.

On our way back to town Jay spotted a shop of automated dispensing machines. It had the usual drink machines and hot coffee machines  But it also had two pasta machines where you could buy a hot pasta meal!

We meandered along the river and strolled around the city taking in the sights at night before heading back to the hotel for bed.