This second 'Lonely-Planet' trip started on 20Oct, I flew to Pisa airport early in the morning and arrived about 8 or 9am. It felt so surreal that I was actually there, in a place that I have read on books since young.. Starring at the Leaning tower, I can't stop smiling~~It was not a dream come true, it was like I was still in the dream!~~
The tower is really leaning. It really really is..that was all I can think about at that time.. the degree of inclination was really dramatic, I am pretty impressed that the scientists managed to keep it standing till today. They were not many tourists there that day, guess it was not the tourists season, which worked well for me because I do not have to fight my way through the crowds for a picture~ :D
The Duomo and Battistero together with the leaning tower stood on the beautiful Piazza de Miracoli. Along the Piazza, there are rows of stalls selling souvenirs. Not far from the Pizza runs the sparkling Fiume Arno, or Arno River. The whole city was compact but beautiful~~ Love Italy!~Woohoo!
My hostel was in Florence, so I have to take a train from Pisa to Florence or Firenze as the local would call it. Florence is one my favourite cities in this few months in Europe. There are so much things to see in the city, and everything was just so pretty! My favourite 2 museums (so far) are situated not far from each other in the centre of Florence - Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery.
The Uffizi gallery is the house of the famous 'Birth of Venus' and "Primavera'by Sandro Botticelli. I stared at those two paintings for so long...they were simply beautiful. There are many other famous paintings in the gallery too. There are works of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and many many more~~it was like an art heaven to me!!! Absolutely loved it!!!
Accademia is where the world famous statue of David stood. It was so gigantic - 5.17m! I can't imagine how Michelangelo did it! Every little details on the sculpture was powerful! The post, the position of the hands, every twist of muscles, the slight frown on the face..everything brings David to life! It was truly impressive!!
The other sights such as the Duomo, the Orsammiechele, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio etc etc are all amazing! I just LOVE the city!!!! O and one thing that should not be missed out is ICE CREAM!!! Italy is famous for its delicious, low fat Ice cream, or Gelato as the local would call it :)I had at least one everyday!! they costs from 1.5 per scoop to up to 9 Euros~~ Regardless of where you buy them from, they all taste amazing! And of course, Pizza and Pasta are needless to say - GREAT!
Another thing that really made my trip was the wonderful Hostel I stayed in. It is called Danny's house, it is located 15min walk from the city centre. It is a really small hostel with only 2 rooms - one private suite and one 12-people dorm. There is a kitchen, a bathroom and a common room and that is all. It is truly a 'house'! Because it is so cosy, everyone will gather in the common room at night and chat. The hostel provides free wine and cakes as supper, so we would all sit together and eat while figuring out something to do together. For the first night, the whole hostel (all 10 of us, from Netherlands, Argentina, US, Canada, Australia, Poland..) went to an Italian bar together and had great fun! The second night, we went to the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge) to take pic of night scene. Along the way, we past by Piazza della Signoria where a lot of sculptures were situated at, and took a lot of funny 'sculture-picures'..LOL..The third night, we stayed in and had a movie marathon (free DVDs played on Free X-box, both provided by the hostel~)! It was so fun hanging out with those guys! Loved my hostel! Highly recommended!!
Siena was a town near Florence. I went there on my second day in Italy. I loved the old stony roads there. They were narrow and uneven, but very nice to walk on. And the most fun part of the Siena trip was to join a Parade!! It was not a fun-fair parade, but a Protest Parade!! The people there were protesting against the government's decision to build a new airport in Siena which would destroy part of its beautiful scenery. People were holding banners, flags, and marching with drums, loud speakers and whatever that can make noises. There were even people juggling fired sticks among the marching crowd (I have no idea why..LOL)
The whole trip was really pleasant! Until a strange guy showed up and totally destroyed my day :( I am not going to write it in my blog, cuz the story is tooooo long. But if u wanna know, u can ask me, I might be willing to tell..haha
Anyway..no more flying or train for the next 2 weeks until my exams are over!!!Jiayou!!!
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