Firenze

As promised....today, we are off to Firenze but not before having a divine breakfast ranging from proscuitto crudo to cheese to cornetti to cakes....delicious....after that...time to start moving.....it took us 45min to get there....we found a parking garage near Ponte Vecchio which was very convenient.....and off we strolled.....over Ponte Vecchio, which was a little like Rialto Bridge in Venice, just a lot bigger, but I must say nothing, oh my word wow....it was quite ordinary. Let me show you some pics.....

Ponte Vecchio

Me on Ponte Vecchio

Our first stop was for an ice cream.....we thought we wanted to try something a little bit different, so went for nocciola aka hazelnut (my choice) and fragola aka strawberry (kim's choice).....kim and i were shocked when the lady told us how much....in fact i thought i misunderstood her......€7!!!!!! What????!!??? Anyway....nothing we could do.....the ice cream was good though....but still not €7 good.....And at least it was big

Ice cream shop

Me holding our ice cream

Now it was time to see some sights, i had done some research and i wanted to see the cupola brunelleschi, the santa maria del fiore cathedral and Giotto's bell tower....they were all part of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral.....so quite convenient....the line for the dome was long....and it took Kim and me a little bit of time to figure out where to buy the ticket, once we mAnaged, it was easy....first line we would que at......we decided on the cupola.....let me share some pics of the outside....

Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral

I also think i need to share some facts with you.....the facade is mainly green and white.....the green stands for hope and white stands for faith....the last colour used is red which stands for passion.....yes, funny also the same colours as the Italian flag, but that has nothiNg to do with it...

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (English, "Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower") is the main church of Florence, Italy. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and red bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

After about 45 minutes, we finally managed to get in......and wow.....so so so many stairs to climb...in fact 463 stairs....and it was so narrow....at times people were tryiNg to come down and we were trying to come up and wow...that was rather tricky cause in all honesty there was only really space for one person, so it entailed a lot of shifting and squeezing......the view from inside was amazing though, that dome is painTed beautifully and so high up, the people in the cathedral looked like little ants......

Duomo

View of the cathedral inside

The last climb was to get outside...and damn...that view was just fantastic.....we could see the whole of Florence, it was breath-taking...so worth the climb.....let me share some more pics.....

View at the top of the duomo

View of the bell-tower from the top

Me at the top of the duomo

Kim and me at the top of the duomo

The climb down was rather easy and at the end we even got a great view from the inside of the cathedral....so we decided we do not need to go into that que.....

Inside cathedral

Inside the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral looking up at the cupola

Next up was the bell-tower, Kim first thought was not neccessary to climb up there cause it was slightly less high than the cupola, but i still thought we needed to climb, so up we went the 414 stairs......and yes, i loved it...but man i really was out of breath...that was a lot of stairs......

Walking up the bell-tower

I love these little terraces these Italians have

Kim on the bell-tower

View at the top of the bell-tower looking at the duomo

After thAt...it was time for some lunch....and we were quite hungry so we stopped in this little place, almost like a deli, where we picked our pastas and they heated it up and then they had some tables outside.....we decided to share a creamy salmon penne and a porcchini mushroom tagliatelle....they were actually quite nice....then it was time to stroll around a little and make our way back to the guest house......where at 18:00, the owner was going to do a small wine tasting for some of the guests.....firenze is about 45min from Greve in Chianti....that is not highway though, the roads are quite windy and kim and i did not take the most direct route.....but A beautiful route nevertheless.....

The wine tasting was beautiful, what a pleasant surprise, she took us into the wine cellar where she had lit candles, put some chairs and prepared some typical Toscana snacks, tomato brushetta, olive oil dipped Bread, two different peccorinos, salami, olives and some chips.....so so nicely done...

Wine cellar

Kim really enjoyed the wine tasting, i enjoyed the foodies.....Ilara, the owner, took about 1h 15min To Do the tasting of the 4 wines, she really took her time, it was divine.....after that time to go for foodies.....we decided to eat in Greve in Chianti.....I wanted Kim to try the Fiorentina steak, which is a t-bone steak.....and we also found burratto cheese.....burratto cheese is basically a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The Outer shell is solid mozzarella, while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. The one i chose had truffles bits in it, man it was so good, but after the full portion i must say i felt a little bit siCk, it was extremly rich....but worth every bite.....kim loved his steak fiorentina....It was a little challenging with the meat temperaturE cause the people only spoke Italian, so he asked whether medium is ok and of course kim wants rare, that for me is not a word i know in Italian...so i tried with my hands, in the end i pointed to my red serviette and the waiter exclaimed al sangue, so we just said yes and hoped that it means rare.....we really hoped it did not mean medium well or well done......when it came...it was perfect....and it tasted so damn good...and it is only done with olive oil and a little rosemary...simple...yet perfecto......we loved our dinner.....

Fiorentina and burratto