Tuscany-bound for the past three days of the road trip. Tuscany is a really beautiful region of Italy and has multiple scenic landscapes that are worth staying for. The Italians in these places are also much friendlier(less tourist phobic) and we enjoy talking to them, learning about their lifestyles and culture!
Florence (Firenze):
Lets start of with Florence, the fairytale town of Italy. This town has a lot of potential to become the next Venice/rome in terms of things to enjoy and sceneries. Florence has a lot of history in the Renaissance era, in both Art and Science. Famous figures like Micheangelo and Galileo had spent part of their lives in this town working and its very interesting to find out about them if you were to visit this place! I would recommend skipping the touristy Academy Museum (where Michelangelo David is) and go for the Galileo Museum! Theres a blown up replica of David in Piazza Michelangelo anyway(see my photo). Florence has also various religious roots, which we did not go for due to the touristy nature, if you are keen you can go for the famous Il Duomo di Firenze! Btw Florence’s italian name is Firenze(cool, huh)! And also, its so romantic that there are alot of marriages! In our stay of 2 days we witnessed like 4-5 weddings!
In Florence, there are many scenic places for a good photograph! Piazza Michelangelo is one to take nice panoramic views of the town and so are the bridges. I suggest Ponte Santa Trinita rather than Ponte Vecchio(the one with shops) for the best sunset/town view;) see our photos again!
In terms of food, Florence is…. Super duper famous for coffee and gelato. Trust me, you will see a gelato shop every 3 mins walk around. Even Venchy is there! But the cheap and good one we tried is across the bridge Pone alla Carraria, called La Carraria. We had 3 scoops for 3.50 and omg the gelato is rich till you can squeal in delight:P Then, there is also a nice cafe by Arno called Riverlta Cafe. You can order a drink (any) for a decent price (8-10 euros) and you get the buffet for free. Yes your heard me right, BUFFET for 8 euros. You can even be thick skinned and order a caffe for 3 euros and have the buffet but we didint try that hahaha! Also a side note is that tipping culture in Florence is flexible and can be offset if you order caffe, according to the host(sadly we didint try!)
There is also a saying that you must have the Florentine steak when you are in Florence. Well, actually I would reccomend you go there with an empty stomach or if you are going with a group of friends. It is about 1kg and it costs 45-50 euros for the whole steak. So it will be a waste if you cannot finish it, but i personally like the steak alot cause its really succulent and flavourful:) xinyi said its inconsistent though haha! Remember to do some research to find out if your steak restaurant requires reservation!
And finally, we had the Focaccia which cost 5 euros and my gosh, its heavenly. First time eating pizza sandwich that big! Mine is called Summer Sandwich and it has bacons and mozerella, which Xinyi’s is called La Dante and it has TRUFFLE SAUCE, OMG! I wanttttt! Hahaha, the shop is called All’antico Vinaio, give it a recommendation:)
Also, Florence is filled with events that brought out the liveliness of the place. When we went over, we happened to witness the Gelato Festival finale and we shared a Gelato pass to tried 20 scoops of ice cream😍😍 Speaking of Gelato overload, we are really lucky haha! And best of all, these flavors are mostly exotic and cant be found in regular gelato shops!
After spending two days in Florence, we took a 1 hour bus down to Greve in Chianti, South of Florence and North of Siena.
Greve in Chianti (pronounced as Kravay in Qiantee):
The photos did all the talking but this place is simply postcard worthy everywhere. When we arrived at the airbnb, we asked the host if there is any spot to capture a nice photo. And she went like, err here, there, well EVERYWHERE. We thought she was legitly trolling us, but we realised that she meant it. Climbing up Montefioralle to the winery, we saw Tuscany in summer. The green, the clouds, the sun, the vineyards, the sparse houses on the hills, the brown roads. Marvellous, everything is perfect with minimal human intervention. A pity that some parts of the hill are browning even though its summer, this meant that this place isn’t spared from global warming and even the vegetations are dying out😞 Nonetheless, the place is still photoworthy everywhere!
We went over to the winery at Montefioralle, the famous one but to realise that we actually need a reservation to do the winetasting:/ well, at least we saved 15 euros each and we got to see a remarkable view of the vineyard:) and we spent another hour there taking good shots once again, YAY😁😁 however, if you really want to do wine tasting, you will need to call them to book, especially on peak periods(summer)
Then, we descended the hills to walk to the town square where all the shops are. Nearing to the town, we heard some Italian music and Xinyi was like “I wonder what would their taste of music be like”. Guess what? PIRATES OF CARRIBEAN BAY pieces played afterwards and it caught us by surprise haha! We quickly chiong to the town square and we were blown our of our minds. There was actually a town festival taking place! And a lot of effort seemed to be placed into the festival. We saw children dancing with their mums, trees doing step dances (to cheap thrill by sia) and even themed costumes. We really fell in love with the town life of these people haha! This would not be easily seen in Singapore or even other cities in Europe!
On a hindsight, Greve is quiet on Sundays and most shops, including supermarkets, are closed. We didint get to eat alot or buy a good breakfast but we managed to chanced by a restaurant that sold decent food and offered winetasting. And we had Gelato!
To conclude our Tuscany stretch, I would say that its magical. Places to go before you die, and NOT touristy unlike Rome or Barcelona. We really love them and we hope Fussen and Rottenburg will be like that too! Looking forward to the German stretch and the remaining Italian (Cinque Terre and Venice) ones:) till then, ciaooooo!
CinqeMinte 
