So we're back and onto a very delayed part two of my sister and I's trip to Italy. This time I'm sharing with you our experience of Florence, which I surprisingly warmed to (excuse the pun whilst it supplied us with, what felt like, sub-zero temperatures) more than Rome, despite the bout of food poisoning filling up our ONLY full day there to explore and rendering us bed-bound for a large portion of the day. Welcome to anecdote number one of 'what went wrong in Italy'. You're gunna want to keep reading...
Arriving in Florence was no easy feat. We made it to Termini (huge, MASSIVE, can't-find-the-toilets kind of train station) in Rome pretty smoothly but if you're a Walking Dead fan, you can imagine I wasn't really looking forward to what we might turn up to, simply based on the name. Termini sounds a lot like Terminus and I was tired, cold and not really up for facing cannibals, okay? Turns out it's actually a pretty cool place and it had free wifi...which came in rather handy considering our train was delayed a total of 50 minutes by the end of it. On the plus side - it did have leather seats, plug sockets and MORE FREE WIFI on board, so 'every cloud', right?! If you are planning a trip to Florence however, I'd advise, if you've been travelling a lot and are hungry, not to arrive before 7pm. We had to stick out a good, few hours of starvation waiting for the restaurants to open because not a single one around our hotel served food before then. This was discovered, may I add, after walking around in circles for 40 minutes freezing our butts off, desperately clutching on to the hopes of a warm pasta. Florence said no. We did eventually (at 7.30pm) find a charming, little place that managed to squeeze us in a tiny corner of their fully booked restaurant. We were cold, we were hungry, we were aching and we were also a tad tipsy from the bar we'd stumbled into beforehand on empty stomachs so yep, the food didn't even touch the sides!
It was this following day that all hell broke loose. 6.30am and in came the extreme stomach pains. I laid there to dwell in them a little, thinking perhaps it was a bit of trapped wind (we all get it!!) but then it hit me. I'm talking violent vomiting. The kind where you can't stop yourself and your face can't keep up with it, so it ends up coming through your nose. Are you enjoying this visual? I really want you to be fully immersed in this experience...just as my head was, down the toilet. Anyway, this went on for the majority of the day until Alix (the one with the slightly better immune system) mustered up the strength to go and buy us some coke (a-cola), because obviously the pharmacy wasn't open to purchase any medicine. Coke and sugar truly saved us.
Not wanting to miss out on any tourist-opportunities, we forced ourselves out of bed, got dressed and hopped (cautiously, so as not to be more sick) onto the nearest bus to the town centre - where we stumbled upon the beautiful Al Duomo (picture 2), bejazzled magnums and the cutest, tiny cafe, offering us both warmth and of course, more sugar. We did also get shat on, after realising we'd walked under a tree full of tweeting birds, but that's another story and besides, the evening seemed to continue on rather pleasantly from there, even if we did get lost during navigation.
THE OUTFIT
Outfit pics by Alix
Don't be fooled by my partially bare arms, sunglasses and smiling face - you will never know just how cold I was in these photographs! You know that trusty, old Mr. Shearling I featured in Italy Part 1? (Go and have a muse if you haven't already read it!) Well, he actually joined me in this ensemble, over the top of my leather jacket, but I braved a few minutes without him for the blog. All about aesthetics, eh?
I am wearing
Zara jacket (similar) and boots (similar) // Warehouse culottes (similar) and top // c/o Wavvse sunglasses // c/o Mobs & Monsters necklace // Mango scarf and bag
^ crotch shot!
Thankfully, our final morning followed smoothly. We explored some more, bought some souvenirs and I truly enjoyed soaking in the lively atmosphere that surrounded this quaint, little city, before heading to Pisa to catch our flight home. It has such character and perfectly fitted that (somewhat stereotypical) image of Italy I'd had in my head for so long. I also got my long-awaited Italian lasagne, though, after testing it, I've decided that you just can't beat mum's cooking. You heard it here, Linda - you are the lasagne champ!
If you're wondering whether I'd return, the answer is yes. Florence? 100%. Rome? Perhaps not but it's more of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you don't need to experience repeatedly because you'll remember it forever. Bad-happenings aside, we had a load of lols, which is bound to happen anywhere I go with my sister and you have to take the good with the bad - any kind of travelling will enrich your soul.
On that note, I'm going to leave you with this gorgeous man. Happy in his own, little world, all he needed was his accordion. He left me wishing that I lived life more like him...
♡
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