I Love Firenze

Our room at the Miltontre had a typical high ceiling and large 10 foot window with wooden shutters. Next to the window was a small cute square wooden table which I looked forward to having our family breakfast on since our arrival. Maybe it was because we were in Italy, I was starting to love the little touches. The house keeper left us with a variety of juices, bread, and biscuits. I brewed a cup of tea, mixed oatmeal with honey, and cut up some tomatoes, cucumbers and peaches we picked up from the mini market last night. Breakfast was served and enjoyed!

After breakfast, we headed for Firenze town centre but without a specific destination in mind. We quite literally stumbled upon the biggest attraction here: the Florence Cathedral, although it was hard to miss. This church had a very in your face presence. Since it was nestled within small narrow streets, it couldn't be admired from afar to help one take in the grandness of the church in one frame. Instead we were "forced" to have a close encounter and we couldn't help noticing the awe inspiring elaborate and intricate exterior walls.

The lineup to get into the church wasn't too long at 10:30AM. 15 minutes later, we were inside. The inside was beautiful. But nothing compared to the outside or the interior of St. Peter's Basilica. We did notice another line up coming from another entrance. We exited the church to find out what it was. As suspected, it was for going up the to the tower via some over 400 steps of stairs. The lineup was way longer and moved slower than the one getting inside the church. Drake was not going to tolerate that. We didn't even bother checking the admission cost and instead opted for another gelato break next to the really long line.

We walked around the streets of Firenze aimlessly sprinkled with a little souvenir shopping.

Before we knew, it was time to pick a lunch spot. Drake fell asleep in his stroller so we ate in peace at Carrozze Olim near Piazza Santa Trinita. Greg had the mushroom pasta. I went for a nice salad with fine vinegar and olive oil (only option for salad dressing in Italy and the only way to eat salad).

Drake woke up just before we finished our lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to feed Drake his lunch in the piazza. While Drake chowed down on cheese, two street performers were setting up to perform. The skinny blond woman started belting out the haunting tunes of Ave Maria with a man on accordion. They had the attention of the entire piazza. We sat and allowed ourselves to love this moment and love Firenze.

The opera singer was about third song in before a tiny police car showed up. She gave the cops a very sad look and knew they now had to pack up. It was probably a good thing for us since we would've probably stayed forever.

We then moved on to see THE Ponte Vecchio. The colourful and picturesque bridge was so quaint from a distance until a closer look. The bridge was full of gold jewelry shops and packed full of tourists.

More just aimless wondering the streets of Firenze. Drake was out of his stroller and running around like a wild man. I noticed a wet spot on his khakis pants. Indeed he had peed through his pants. We found a discreet corner and quickly changed Drake's diaper. We have gotten this changing diaper without a flat surface thing down to a system, a routine. But I forgot to pack a pair of spare pants so the aimless wondering now had been upgraded to mission-find-Drake-pants. Lucky we were not too far from the shopping district. For 15e at Zara we got Drake a pair of skinny euro-jeans. We had to put it on him right at the till. It was a little embarrassing. Oh well, we couldn't be the first parents who had a pants-less child in public.

Downgraded back down to aimless wondering again we stumbled upon Palazzo Vecchio, the old town hall where the original David statue by Michelangelo used to reside.  It's since been moved to Gallery of the Academy but a replica of the statue has been replaced in its original spot. We didn't bother going in as it was getting late in the afternoon, but there were many statues outside and around the piazza to enjoy.

We wrapped up our day after getting a book of masterpieces from Uffizi Gallery souvenir shop for my dad.  Unfortunately, there was no time for us to visit the gallery itself.

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Location:Florence

Ciao Roma, Ciao Florence

It was our last day in Rome. We booked a late afternoon train to Florence, so we still have the morning to explore Rome some more. There were still a lot more interesting old things to see in Rome, but clearly Drake had no interest. The poor little guy who had been spending a lot time in a stroller needed some nature and a place to run free. Monte Mario was a short metro ride outside of Rome and sounded like it would provide a nice hike and a good view of the city.

We took A Line and got off at Cipro station. After walking north about 10 minutes,we were at the foot of Monte Mario. Going uphill wasn't too bad since it was just a gradual windy road. About half way up we could no longer continue, road construction had blocked the road going up. We still were able to have a nice view of the city but no where to sit or relax and most of all nowhere for Drake to run free amongst the construction material laying around.

Disappointed we headed downhill. I'm sure there must've been another way to the top of the hill. But without a car, we were out of luck finding another route. To make ourselves feel better, we had to have a pre-lunch gelato.

We made our way back to Rome on the metro in time to figure out what to have for lunch. Did I mention I was a bit tired of the same Italian food? We opted for McDonalds. Now I got why hubby had to have KFC when we were in China.

We picked up our bags from our hotel and headed for Roma Termini again to catch our regional train to Firenze aka Florence. There was no Frecciarossa train (which we assumed was the fast train) available during the time we wanted. The regional train didn't allow us to pick seats, we were a bit nervous about how dog-eat-dog this was gonna get. Despite our two large backpacks, two day packs, one food bag, and one stroller with a toddler in it, it turned out to be pretty easy. There were plenty of empty seats so we took up 4 seats without feeling too bad. Drake was antsy like any toddler. He wanted to explore constantly. It was tiring trying to make sure he didn't dig too far into the garbage can, bang his head on the metal chair, or pull on stranger's bags. Normally Drake is not allowed to watch TV or any electronic devices. But in this case, we had to pull all the stops and calm him with some technology.

A hour and half later we arrived in Firenze SMN station. It was still early. We decided to take the bus to get to our hotel. We found the #13 bus just outside the station and hopped on. But we couldn't figure out where to buy the bus tickets and all the bus driver said to us was to buy them at a store. We had to get off the bus while I go running around the train station looking for a place to buy tickets. It turned out that tickets (1.20e each) were sold at any newspaper stand.  I rushed back to the stop in time for us to catch the next #13 bus.

A 20 minute ride dropped us off across the street from Miltontre Guest House. Miltontre had no elevator and was located on the 4th floor. Our host showed us our room and recommended a restaurant called Tito for dinner.

We settled in and set up Drake's crib before we ventured out to the town centre which was about a 15 minute walk. We found Tito no problem using the CityMaps2Go app. We were early to arrive just when they opened and they gave us a table without a reservation. A typical restaurant here, the front of it looked small and intimate. Then a hallway led to the back revealed a spacious brick room with 10 foot ceiling.

We ordered brusatta with home made anchovies to start. It was oily, but very yummy. The 4e half litre house red wine kept Greg very happy too. For main, I went with the meatballs. I tried really hard to like this dish but it was way too salty. Not even Drake could stomach more than 3 bites. He was more content with the bread and flirting with the waitress who gave him a big piece of biscotti after dinner.

After dinner we strolled back to Miltontre and tucked in for the night.

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