Italy - Part 5: the trip, Florence

Florence:

We arrived in Florence later afternoon/early evening. The hotel, Donatello, is located right outside of the Florence old town, so location is nice, but the parking was expensive and 2 blocks away.  Since everything was walking distance away, the location of the parking was not an issue.

Since we got in just in time for dinner, we asked at hotel for a good place for dinner and they've suggested a restaurant close by: Al Chirola Di Jimmy. That was great advice:  food was excellent, wine was great. I think it was only one restaurant in the whole trip that we visited twice. Of course the fact that there was a gelateria (you can guess what it is) next door did not hurt :)

On the first day in Florence we had a tour, as planned. Tour was very interesting. Did you know that there are no trees inside old city. The reason is simple: Florence was fighting a war against Pisa. So, to defend the city, they had to build a wall. All new buildings needed to be protected inside the walls. So, all the trees were cut to create room for the buildings. The war is over, Italy is united, but trees are gone.

In the middle of the city, there is a huge church. All roads in the city seem to end at that church. The tour guide showed us that we can climb on the top of the dome. So we thought we would do it on the last day in Florence, but we totally forgot :(

NOTE to everybody who plans to visit Florence: CLIMB THE DOME!!!

The plan for the second day was to visit wineries, after all we are in the middle of Tuscany and that is where the Chianti is made. I booked an all day trip to 2 wineries and truffle based lunch. The tour guide was local Italian guy, who spoke pretty good Russian. From what I understand, he also spoke English and German. He took us to 2 wineries: Cosimo Maria Masini and Leonardo Beconcini in San Miniato. For lunch, we stopped at Osteria l'Upupa, where we had lunch with wine, followed by espresso. Everything was great: the wine testing, the lunch, the view of the village and surroundings. For anybody who plans to visit Florence, it's a must! Allocate a day and you will not be disappointed.  I am sure there are different places that organize this kind of tours, but we used  http://www.ariannandfriends.com.

Next stop: Pisa.

Italy - Part 4: the trip San Marino

San Marino.

For those who don't know, San Marino is a country inside of Italy. It's located North East part of Italy on the top of a mountain. So on our way to Florence from Venice we have decided to take a little detour and stop at San Marino. Drive up to mountain was not very eventful, except we have decided to follow GPS instead of road signs. We ended up taking a small detour, but it wasn't that bad.

After we crossed the boarder (little sign welcoming us to San Marino and no passport control) we started to see some gorgeous views.  But I am jumping ahead. After parking the car we started walking around, mostly up the hill. All streets are small with a lot of stores, with Russian speaking sales people. I never expected that.

Another interesting thing was that there were weapon stores (not real weapons, the airguns). We talked to sale person and he said that they have a lot of sales because taxes on the weapons in San Marino are a lot lower then in Italy.

Another first for me: we saw (and used) self-cleaning bathroom. For 50 cents you go in, do you business, and when you leave it sanitizes itself before the next customer. That was unusual.

Again, the pictures are on Google+ and Flickr. Views are awesome!!!

Next: Florence. 

Italy, Part 3 - the trip: Venice

I am finally back in my time zone! But let me describe our trip.

Short version: it was awesome!!!

Now for a detailed version:

We arrived in Venice on time, got our luggage and went thru passport control with no issues. Then we went outside to wait for my cousin. At this point I've decided to call him and let him know that we've arrived. Thanks to T-Mobile, I got coverage and data roaming. I've downloaded magicJack app that was supposed to work over the data, and it did! But I got a message that there were no money on the account to make international calls. That got me "little" upset, since I've put money on the account before we left. So, while we are waiting, I had to login to the magicJack site and figure out what's going on. By the time I did, my cousin has arrived! So, at least I've got my phone working!

The first surprise occurred when we arrived in our hotel. Instead of 1 room for 2 people we got 2 rooms for 1 person each! That meant 2 bathrooms! But we did not go to Italy to stay in the hotel room.

The day 1in Venice included a tour of the city. The tour was very interesting and informative. A lot of information about history of Venice.  The guide also told us how the houses were built, after all they are all in the water and have been standing there for centuries. Not a small or a quick process. The architecture is very impressive, but it's true for everywhere in Italy.

This was the first day for gelato (ice cream) and wine. We found couple of restaurants that had seatings outside and we used them pretty much every evening. I tried Italian pizza. 30+ years when were in Italy and tried pizza we did not like it at all. This time it was a different story. I liked it this time :) It's either my taste buds or 30 years ago it was a different place. I go with my taste buds that made the difference.

On the second day, we went back to the island. We found Jewish ghetto and took a tour. Since there is not a lot of land, the synagogues were built inside buildings. The first floor is usually where the stores and offices are, then there is a synagogue, then the living space.  There are 2 functional synagogues, but they only work half a year each. It's not a problem since they are both on the same plaza, just a different building.

Then we were off to look for a knitting store. Using Google maps (little advertising for Google), we found the store.  Of course we got something, we can't go to the knitting store in Venice and live empty handed :).

At some point we got lost in Venice. I have to admit I was again impressed with Google maps. It got us to the bus station via some non-touristy streets.

Pictures have been posted on Google Plus and Flicker. Let me know if you have any issues accessing pictures. They are organized into folders corresponding to the cities visited.

Nest stop: San Marino. And you thought it would be Florence :)