Europe 2013 Day 7 & 8: Florence, Italy

DAY 7: 19 MAY 2013
Our first day in Florence was spent touring all the famous sites.

Our first stop was to visit the tourist information centre, which was located just opposite

Firenze S. M. Novella station, and the Tabacchi shop to purchase our bus tickets.

They provide tourists free maps, ticket bookings to Uffizi Gallery and discount coupons to 

certain attractions like the Leonardo Da Vinci museum.

Right after that, we visited the first stop in Marco's personalised tour route,

Piazza Del Duomo.

 

 

Unfortunately the line to enter the Duomo was too long, and so we did not get to visit it.

Anyway, we were all fine with it since there are many more duomos to visit

in our remaining weeks.

Right around the corner of the Duomo is a Lindt retail shop.

They sell a huge variety of chocolates and sweets in the shop, and

they even have an ice cream corner which we happily patronised.

 

After having our chocolate ice cream, we walked towards the

Piazza della Signoria, where the Statue of David is present.

Palazzo Vecchio

Loggia dei Lanzi

Hercules and Cacus

Perseus with the head of Medusa

Face of the sculpture Benvenuto Cellini behind the head of Perseus

Statue of David

Face of Michelangelo at the Piazza del Signoria

After roaming around the Piazza, it was time for lunch!
We found a famous sandwich shop located two blocks away from the Piazza,
called All'antico Vinaio.
The shop is easy to spot due to its famous long lines during lunch hours.
For only 5 euros, we got a huge delicious sandwich.
Futhermore, they have a self-service wine bar with a wide selection available.
For 2 euros, you get a glass of wine of your own choice!

Line outside All'antico Vinaio 

Roasted beef sandwich

When we were all done with our sandwiches, we continued exploring a

different part of Florence.

Exhibit showcase outside Uffizi Gallery

Ponte Vecchio

View from Ponte Vecchio

Shops along the bridge

Weaving stall at a weekend market   

Artwork at the Rose Garden

Bird's eye view of Florence

 

Church of San Miniato al Monte 

As we were making our way down back to the bus stop,

we passed by several leather goods store and a Pinocchio shop!

The writer of Pinocchio is actually from Florence, and thus, the reason why

Pinocchio souvenirs can be found everywhere in Florence.

The day ended with a nice home cooked tortellini with mushroom sauce

and a nice cup of yoghurt for dessert.

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DAY 8: 20 MAY 2013

The day was mainly allocated for shopping in Florence.

After a week of travelling, it was a little bit difficult to get out of bed on time.

This time round we set off a little later than usual, around 10am.

And our first stop was San Lorenzo Mercato Centrale.

Nutella and Nuts muffin

Pasta and spice shop

I just love markets in Europe.

There are so many yummy grab and go snacks and food for you to choose.

The people in the market are really friendly too!

I managed to get a bottle of truffle for around 9 euros, a bottle of truffle paste

for around 8.50 euros and a package of heart-shaped pasta for 1.67 euros from the market.

I was really excited about my great buy since truffle is generally expensive in Singapore!

After shopping at the food market, we went on to visit the Leonardo Da Vinci museum.

This is a small scale interactive museum which allows visitors to touch and 

play with the exhibits.

Students get a special entrance price of 5 euros too!

As I probably am going to become a physics teacher in two years' time,

visiting this museum was special for me as it was a really good material for interactive

classroom learning.

 

Right after visiting the museum, we went to The Mall for outlet shopping!

The return bus ticket costs 10 euros, and each ride took close to fifty minutes.

It was a cold and wet day and it totally killed my mood for shopping.

Initially we contemplated on returning to central Florence since we couldn't find any

Prada retail store here.

However, we spotted the Prada sign from afar and decided to catch the later buses instead.

Like any outlet around the world, the shop was filled with lots of tourists.

We met several Singaporean air stewardesses and tourists there as well.

After contemplating for ten minutes,

I decided to get a fuschia Prada keypouch for my mum, my first Prada purchase ever,

and it costs 75 euros.

Michelle got herself a wallet for 240 euros, which was quite a good buy!

That sums up our shopping day and our very last day in Florence!