DAY 12 FLORENCE

I was very tired but I hardly slept on the train coz we had to watch out the strangers in our carriage. We sat on the window side and in the middle there were a German mother with a girl and on the aisle side there were 2 Italian men.

But the German mother and the girl got of the train in the midnight and there were only us with 2 Italian men. We were a bit worried coz they looked a bit scary LOL But finally we started to talk together and their destination was Rome. On and off some people came into our carriage and left, I fell asleep for a while and tried to walk on the aisle to keep myself awake.

When we arrived Florence, it was early morning!! I was a bit disappointed that it rained in Florence!! We looked for the bus station and took a bus to the hostel. We missed 2 stops so we had to drag our luggages and walk back to the hostel.

The roads in Florence were so rough, it was not easy for us to drag our luggages under the rain!! The hostel was not conspicuous, we kept walking around and asked the local people where it was. When we arrived hostel, it was nearly 9am. We wanted to take a shower coz we were wet and sweaty but they didn't have early check-in. So we just let them to keep our luggages and start to visit Florence.


Florence is not very big, it is good and easy to stroll around this historical city. We crossed the bridge to Piazza della Signoria. And then we visited Duomo, San Giovanni and Giotta as well.

The design of Duomo looked so special and grand!! It was even bigger than I expected. We took some pics and then walked around the shops. The leather goods are famous in Florence and for sure we had to buy something!!

Shopping around until noon, we were so hungry and had lunch in a Italian restaurant. Surprisingly there were many Japanese tourists in the restaurant! I think maybe the Japanese guide books recommended this restaurant.

We ordered a seafood risotto and T-bone steak. The risotto was so delicious!! It was one of the most delicious risotto I ever had!! And the T-bone steak was good too!! We enjoyed this meal a lot!!

After lunch, we walked around again and then we visited Chiesa di Santa Croce. The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world.

The Arno river is in the Tuscany Region which passes through Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The view or Arno River and the buildings were so great when we took pics on the bridge.

Nearly evening, we took the bus to Piazzale Michelangelo, it is the most famous tourist attraction in Florence. And you can see the magnificent skyline of Florence!! So beautiful!!

We took a lot of pics there and we just sat down to relax and waited for the sunset. What a wonderful moment!! I like Florence!! What a shame we couldn't manage to visit Pisa as well!!