walao.org: EUR04-Florence

Florence

Firenze is quite easy to navigate, we visited 2 main shopping streets near Plazza della Repubblica, 2 leather markets, 2 museums, some Medici family buildings, and 1 Duomo.

Porcellino, lucky bronze boar near leather market 2

David by Michelangelo, Accademia Gallery

David has a small dick and a big head, there is a reason for that, but I am not going to tell you. You can skip the long queue outside the gallery by paying an extra €4.

Medici library, near Basilica San Lorenzo

imaginary creatures

Medici family was a very rich and influential banker family in Florence. I saw many crazy silver and gold items in the vault and chapel. There is a family library with lots of ancient manuscripts/books and often will be exhibited based on different topics, one particular topic that caught my attention was the "imaginary creatures".

Duomo 2

The queue and audio guide, Uffizi Gallery

The queue outside the old and famous Uffizi art gallery is pretty scary, you can buy a more expensive "reservation ticket" and enter the gallery at a specific time. The audio guide is easy to follow and you can see nice view of Arno river from one of the halls. "The Birth of Venus" painting is also here. Click here to see it in Google Museum Project.

Pisa

The Tower of Pisa is basically a fail bell tower for a cathedral (too heavy for the soil it is on). Many people go see it because it is leaning so it is a win instead of a fail now.

inspired by Shawn Sor

you will see many people doing this post

baptistery, cemetery and cathedral

cathedral

Medici coat of arms on ceiling

The Miracle Square actually has 4 buildings: the baptistery, the cemetery, the cathedral and the bell tower (leaning). The ticket office used to be an old hospital. So, one can come to this world in the hospital, get baptised, go to church, die and get buried in the cemetery, 一條龍服務.

Old Bridge

Arno is an important river in Florence, Ponte Vecchio is on the narrowest point of the river and is also the only surviving bridge after World War 2. All other bridges were bombed.

You can find lots of jeweleries and souvenirs here, and the happiest person gotta be the jewelry designer in training, i.e. Lisa.

Food

Don't remember where, but nice self serve food

traditional soup? (yeah, I was shocked too)

~~liver~~ stomach (portion too big)

t-bone steak (bistecca alla fiorentina), got 豬公味

tiramisu

Trattoria Marione serves typical homemade Florentine cuisine at a very reasonable price, therefore the line/wait is very very long. Get a bottle of Chianti, then your dinner is ready. This is where I found out tiramisu is not Japanese... its Italian, I failed for so long.

Hotel

Hotel L'Orologio is an interesting hotel, the 主題 is watches and clocks. The common area near lobby is decorated with antique Rolex and Patek Philippe. It is close to the Santa Maria Novella Basilica and the Santa Maria Novella train station.

I think each room is decorated differently, our "King of Saudi Arabia" room has a picture of a Saudi guy in a watch. The breakfast included is best, good selection of food and 很有誠意.

However, the air condition in the room will turn on automatically and maintain a very warm temperature, e.g. 28 ˚C. Also, the toilet has a "see through" feature from outside which I find very weird!

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