So we had quite a long drive from France to Italy, and lots of very high bridges - which mum didn't like too much lol - and lots of scenery. We got a really good nights sleep the night before so we didn't really feel like sleeping the long journey away, so instead we enjoyed the scenery of Italy heading to Florence, or as they call it in Italy - Firenze.
The first thing we noticed upon entering Italy was that all the houses were the same colors. They are all yellow, pink, orange or white. It's like they ran out of paint colors and all use each others paint tins to save on buying more! It's kinda cool tho cos a blue house would look really out of place here.
Once we arrived in Pisa we were accosted by people trying to sell us umbrellas and touristy things. This is really common throughout Europe but more so in Italy we have found. They wait for the tourist buses and then as soon as you get off they are shoving things in your face asking you to buy and they are very persistent believe me!
The leaning tower was great to see but strange as it is just in the middle of a grassy paddock type setting with a few other buildings around it and all these tourist camps and restaurants. It's amazing in Europe how they can have such famous statues, works of art and buildings just out in the open and everyone can usually touch and climb these things and no one seems to have ruined them or tried to graffiti them, etc. we keep saying its a shame we could not have this in Melbourne without someone trying to ruin it. Fairly pessimistic view of the world but sometimes very true sadly...
We didn't go up the tower but people can go up of they want to. Mums fear of heights wasn't diminishing any time soon, so we decided to eat pizza looking up at the tower instead. We ordered a margherita with fries and it was so cheap, yet soo good! It was wood fired and very little topping so just how we like it.
We each bought another scarf to add to our collections, and we both bought genuine Gucci bags for €15 each! Amazing - we will pretend they are genuine Gucci anyway.
After lunch we headed to Florence which was another hefty drive. On arrival we went to view the city from an lookout above the city, and tomorrow we will be seeing the statue of David in person, which will be another highlight of our tour I'm sure.
Oh yeah, the first stop we made in Italy for toilet and food I saw a packet which looked surprisingly similar to twisties so bought them. They are called fonzies here and they are yellow and not half as yummy. I thought an obligatory fonz thumbs up was in order too!
Wish I was there, its stunning, brings tears to my eyes :-)
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