Rush to Florence & Pisa over the weekend..

We suddenly got the urge to spend the weekend away from home, and decided to drive all the way to Florence and Pisa. It's a real rush where my hubby drove almost 350 km from Gallarate to Florence, then another 85 km to Pisa from Florence and another 350 km back home from Pisa, all within 2 days.

We started our journey on Saturday morning and arrived Florence at around 3pm in the afternoon. We stayed at Gourmet B&B Villa Landuci. It was a nice little B&B but it's quite a distance from the Old Town. B&Bs in Italy cities are usually quite hard to find, this was no exception. They don't usually have a main door with the B&B name on a big sign board. These B&Bs are like normal apartments located behind those big, tall and sturdy wooden doors, and you'll need to press on the door bell for them to open the door for you.

Our room. Clean and nice.

Complimentary tea bags and instant coffee powder. The cups was so pretty.

Upon check-in, we walked around 20 minutes to reach Florence Old Town. Most of the Old Towns in Italy are quite similar, with the Duomo and Piazza being the main area. 

For Florence, other than the Duomo and Piazza, there's the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Okay, the bridge was packed with people. So, we took the picture from the side instead. 

There's not much to rave about for Florence Old Town, unless you are interested in museums, like Museo Galileo or Uffizi gallery. So for us, it's just an Old Town with nice architectures, a river, many shops and lots of nice restaurants and bars. 

We went to this bar which was recommended by our B&B host and it's really good. It's full house when we were there and we stand at the bar to have our food and drinks because there's not enough chairs. I would highly recommend Volpi e l'uva.
Address: Piazza Dei Rossi 1, 50125 Florence

Entrance of the Bar

We ordered the ham and cheese platter with bread and 2 glasses of white wine.. The ham was delicious. If  you dunno what wine to order, just let the host know what kind of wine you prefer and they will recommend you some good wine that suits your taste.

While we were there, we chatted with an old couple from UK and they had been patronising this bar every time they came to Florence, and they were full of praises. We also chatted with a group of Japanese students who ordered a plate of toasted bread with ham and cheese that made us drool. It was really nice, pipping hot melted cheese with tasty ham on a perfectly toasted bread. Thumbs up!

While walking around the Old Town, you will see some interesting stuff on their road signs.

Pac-man eating up the No Entry sign.. hahaha..

Behind bars.. sob sob.

The next day, we went to Piazzale Michaelangelo to have a panaromic view of Florence..

Views of Florence Old Town from Michaelangelo

Hmm.. We saw quite a number of David statue in Florence. Here's one at Piazzale Michaelangelo. Heard that the real one's inside the Galleria Dell'Accademia.. 

If you have the time, I would suggest going Piazzale Michaelangelo during sunset. The views would be amazing. We didn't have the time as we were rushing to Pisa after that.

After an hour's drive, we arrived at Pisa. Er.. There's really nothing much at Pisa except for the Leaning Tower and the Duomo. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the seven wonders in the world, so at least take some pictures la..

Leaning Tower. We were intrigued by how it was built.

The Duomo and Leaning Tower

We spent half an hour at Pisa and we were all set to go back Gallarate. Long drive back. -.-