Tuscany

My second day in the Tuscan countryside was definitely my favorite so far!!! In the morning, I took a funicular up to Certaldo Alto with two other women I had met at the hostel. Certaldo Alto is the medieval part of town and looks exactly how you would expect an old Tuscan city to look. It is beautiful! Therefor this post is mainly going to be nice pictures without much other content.

Funicular tracks

Ivy-covered houses and brick streets

Cacti on the walls

A small courtyard

Adorable mailbox

View of the city at the end of an alley

Pigeon in a nook

Old buildings

View of a tower and Certaldo

Laundry! And old stuff.

Door in a wall

Certaldo Alto

Residential buildings

Town hall with crests

Well/planter

I like doors

Green pathway back down

After leaving Certaldo Alto, I took a break for lunch and decided to bike to San Gimignano. Try saying that 5 times fast. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea, as the bike was way too small for me, and the route was about 75% uphill. My hips were not happy with me at all. I think the destination was worth it though.

That's barely halfway up

One of several breaks on the way up. Rethinking my life choices

One of many flights of stairs that I traversed

Old man walking along a flowering wall

Beware of ferocious cats!!!

Highest point of the journey

There is a world famous gelato store in the city, Dondoli. They won the gelato world championship twice, in 2006/7 and 2008/9. It was the best gelato I ate in Italy by far.

Coconut, ricotta-bilberry, blackberry-lavender gelato

Towers

Walkway

View from castle gardens

Shadowed corridor

I like doors

Bells

The way back down was a lot more fun

Nice bottle of Chianti from San Gimignano, drunk after getting back to the hostel
A perfect end to a perfect day

Florence

I arrived to my hostel late in the day after getting a ride from Rome to Florence with a 45 year old lady taking her daughter to a One Direction concert, via a car-sharing website. The hostel is in the town of Certaldo in the Tuscan countryside, halfway between Florence and Siena.

Road up to the hostel

One of the hostel buildings

The day after I arrived, I took an early train to Florence and spent the day there. It being Sunday, I went to mass in the Duomo, bypassing the requirement for a ticket. The mass was lovely except for several tourists coming in, sitting in the front pews, and leaving a few minutes later, despite the sign posted saying that mas was going on.

The Duomo

Ceiling of the Duomo

Duomo. They like their churches patterned in Italy.

At the recommendation of a lady I met in Rome, I also went shopping. The pavilion below was crowded full of vendors selling all sorts of leather goods, from jackets, to wallets and purses.

Leather market

Next to the market was a good luck boar, the Porcellino fountain. If you put a coin in its mouth, and it lands in the grate into which the water flows, it's supposed to be good luck.

Il Porcellino

Other side of the Duomo

Graffiti

Flea market I found

Crossing one of the bridges

View from Michelangelo Square on the other side of the river

Different roof heights

Corresponding graffiti on the other side of town

Ponte Vecchio bridge, with shops along it

Most of the shops were selling gold jewelry

Last Days in Rome

My last two days in Rome were spent searching out green spaces and wandering around. I started off my third day at the market at Campo dei Fiori . After having seen German markets, it wasn't very impressive. The market had vendors selling fresh fruits and veggies, spices, olive oils, and souvenirs.

Market

 I then went the the park above Piazza Popolo just in time to get caught in a massive thunderstorm. I walked around for a while in my rain jacket while it was still sprinkling, but when it started pouring, I took shelter under a merry-go-round for a good 45 minutes before it let up.

View of Piazza Popolo

Rivers on the paths

Mostly dry on the merry-go-round

Building next to the horse exercise fields

It was really nice after the rain stopped

Art museum in the middle of the park

I liked the wire frame towers

On my last day, I found the Vittoriano Monument, the Altar of the Fatherland. The monument was build to honor Victor Emmanuel, the first king to rule over all of Italy. Inside was the tomb of the unknown soldier and a museum.

Changing of the guard

There was a church with two domes next to the monument

Tomb of the unknown soldier

Lovely view

 After the monument, I made my way to another park, which had been my goal in the first place. I got lost two or three times trying to get there but eventually made it.

View from a park that wasn't the park I was trying to get to

Entrance to the park I WAS trying to get to

 I had walked so far at that point that I found some trees to lie down under and read/slept for a while. Then I did some yoga.

Swaying in the wind

 After spending a while in the park, I found a restaurant with a gluten-free menu and finally had some Italian pizza. 'Twas quite delicious.

Gluten free pizza for dinner

 I made my was to the Coca-Cola summer festival. I read on the steps of a church since I had arrived way to early. When SUVs with singers in them started arriving, the some of the Italians went full fan mode, screeching and attempting to get pictures of the arrivals. Evidently some of the artists were really famous. Many people in the crowd were singing along when it started. The singers sang all different genres as well, rap, ballads, hip-hop. They were brought out consecutively, with a stick-person commentating in between.

Waiting. It started an hour after it was supposed to.

Yeah!

 On my way back to the hostel, I even found one of the last things I hadn't seen completely by accident. So I climbed the Spanish Steps at night.

People sitting and drinking on the steps