Florence, a beautiful place with some beautiful building, magnificent artworks, fantastic food and the weather? BLOODY HOT! It peaked at about 36 degrees in the afternoon in Florence. We started our day by driving from our campsite into the City - most of our accommodation is a fair way outside the city. Once we got there we had to go and meet our local tour guide - Florence is one of a few places in Europe where the Topdeck leaders are not allowed to guide.
Alessandro... Oh Alessandro, he was one of the most hilarious Italian tour guides I have ever seen. He had a very good sense of humour and he seemed a little penis obsessed haha. He showed us around the Palazzo della Signoria, which currently is where the Mayor of Florence works from and houses and exact copy of Michelangelo's David and many other very famous statues from when the Medici's were in power in Florence.
We walked through the streets of Florence looking at all the shops (making mental notes of where we wanted to come back to) and we continued on to the Duomo, one of the most beautiful buildings in Florence. It consists of a bell tower, the cathedral and a massive dome. It wasn't all that amazing for me because I have seen it before but I really enjoyed seeing how excited and impressed the other topdeckers were with the awesomeness that is Florence.
Alessandro took us to a leather factory and left us back with Noddy for a quick leather demonstration. They explained how leather is made and shaped into the products that are made in Florence. They also told us a way to spot fakes when dealing with vendors in the leather markets - which was where we wanted to head in the afternoon!
We had the rest of the afternoon free in Firenze to go back and see the things we wanted to see. But we were STARVING so we found a restaurant in a back street and enjoyed some delicious pasta and some Florentine Steaks. I may have come to the conclusion that Italian wait staff, bar staff and general hospo staff are rude and don't really want to serve their customers - we waited 20 minutes for our bill - hopeless.
We walked past a gelato shop on our way to see the real David at the Gallerie Academia, so of course... We had to go in. Just for a quick scoop. We kept walking towards the Academia and we came across some MASSIVE lines... People had been waiting 2-3 hours to get even close to the door. We didn't have that kind of time to wait so we settled for the Fake David. Oh well.
We were about an hour or so walk from where the bus was picking us up so we very slowly walked back and did some shopping along the way. We walked past a massive leather market and I knew I had to go in. It was a total success though - found myself a gorgeous pair of leather gloves and found Luke (that sexy boyfriend of mine) a wallet. PS- I am a haggling QUEEN. It really was so very very VERY hot and we all walked back feeling like we were melting. It was not fun at all - but a freezing cold litre of water kind of helped the situation!
We returned back to the campsite and decided that we definitely needed to go for a swim. Alysha and a group of other girls wanted to do horse riding through the grounds (vineyards, sunflower fields, etc) so myself and Megan went on the hunt for a pool. There were two on the campsite (which was massive) one that was close to where our bungalows are and one that was very VERY far away and a hike up a mountain. Guess which one we ended up at?? Yep. The mountain hike. I arrived at the pool bright red and pouring with sweat. Thank god that I could get straight in the pool.
We had a massive feast at the camping ground restaurant with mountains of pasta and the biggest pizzas that I have ever seen and they kept bringing them out until we exploded from pizza overdose. It was a great meal but it actually took about 2 and a half hours... Oh dear. We were definitely ready for bed after that. Off to Roma tomorrow. We will need our rest.
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