1st Nov 2013, Friday, Sunny
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| My Breakfast |
Today is an important day for one of my friend, as we are going to The Mall for branded goods shopping. But first, for the 1st half of the day, we will be going Galleria dell'Accademia first to see the famous work by Michelangelo, David. And so, we woke up at around 6am, got ready to go for our adventure today. I went out first and told my friend to remember to take the key and so i closed the door behind me. After walking for a short distance, i heard commotion coming out from our room. So i turned back and opened the door again, i saw my friend like in shock, frozen at her spot. Then on the floor, there was a plank-like stick. Hahaha....then my friend started to scream at mi and asked mi what did i do to the door, the plank fell just a few centimeters away from my friend. And the other friend was standing behind her, saw the whole drama. Then we all broke into laughter.....So drama....the door wasn't even closed when i closed it, how the hell the plank will fall down?? (but later when i went to see in the next morning, blue stack was actually used to stick the plank.) After the shock, we went down to have our breakfast. It was a bit sad on the breakfast, nothing nice to eat (i still miss the breakfast in Naples hotel......kekeke)....After we had our breakfast, i went to ask the hotel owner on how to go to bus terminal so that we can take the bus down to The Mall.
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| David (Taken from Web) |
And so, we headed out to the Galleria dell'Accademia first as i had made the reservation at 9.30 am slot. We were required to queue for a while as there was security check required and there were security guards to control the crowd. Then we made our way in and got the admission tickets. As usual, 1 went off on her own and mi and another friend walked together. In there, the main highlight was the super big statue of David by Michelangelo. It was really big and no photography is allowed in the gallery. But i can still see some people had secretly took photos of the amazing statue using their phones. There were some other sculptures (by Michelangelo) and a collection of Renaissance paintings. Apparently, i got no collection of other sculptures or paintings, except the giant statue of David...hahaha......There was a room of music instruments collection too. For this gallery, it wasn't as big as Vatican Museum or Borghese Gallery, so we ended the tour quite early. After this, we walked towards
Florence Cathedral. The whole cathedral was super big, and it was also crowded when we reached there. It was amazing, it was so big and tall that you feel small just by standing in front of it. It was very white and there was lights shinning on it during the night. When i first saw it, i can't help 'wow', it was breathtaking and Baptisterium San Giovanni was beside it......But it was considered a public holiday today in Italy, and so the cathedral was closed. We were unable to enter to see the inner of the Duomo, which was one of the top 10 UNESCO World Heritage in Italy (which is a pity).
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| Gucci Outlet @ The Mall |
So had no choice, we headed down to
The Mall instead. We went and took a bus to the main train station and i got lost in the direction, i wasn't able to find the next direction where we need to walk to the bus terminal. So my friends took over and tried to find the direction, well, they managed to find the way to walk to the bus terminal (they are more expert in using google maps..hohohoho). Just as we reached the terminal, the next bus was 10 something, which we needed to catch this bus. If not, we have to wait like an hour for the next bus. Luckily, we did managed to catch the bus and off we went (Ticket costs euro $5 single way, euro $10 return trip). It was an 40 mins or so journey to the outlet, i just napped on the bus (so tired after waking up for so many days). Finally we reached the mall, and we went to the canteen for lunch. It's a bit sad, cos it was like a food court except you need to order first before you can choose your choice of pizza or salads. Anyway, it was a sad lunch, don't like it....After lunch, we started our shopping. First stop, Prada, my friend wanted to go there see see. Haiyo, it was crowded and it was like marketplace. The place was big though and it was 2-storey high, lower level was with bags, wallets and shoes and the upper level was with clothes, jackets, etc. Next stop, Gucci, it was also big with 3 levels and it was not so crowded, quiet. Really can slowly shop and see slowly, and indeed i saw a key pouch that i like the feel of it. So i just bought it...kekeke...my friends were still looking out for theirs. I was the first one to start the ball rolling...hahhaa...Later one of my friend got 2 wallets and 1 got a bag and a coin pouch.
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| Yummy Gelato |
After shopping in Gucci, we went to see other shops. Actually, the place was quite small with not many brands. I was expecting the place would be big and there were a lot of branded shops around, it was smaller than the one i went in Japan. So if you are to visit The Mall in Florence, go only if you want to get stuffs from Prada and Gucci. If not, don't bother making the trip there. There were also branded shops around the streets of Florence, you just need to go the correct place. After all the shopping there, we went to the tax refund office located at the bus stop. As we were not going back from Italy, the officer told us that we need to go to 2 train stations (Chiasso & Domodossola) and get the custom stamps for the tax refund forms before we leave Italy and mail them back. Later on, i went back to check, the train frequency for this 2 stations were not so frequent and we were having a late train to take from Venice to Milan on the last day for Italy. Anyway, we went back to the hotel to put our stuffs first and then we headed to have dinner. Before dinner, we headed to a gelato shop instead, called
Gelateria Carab. I got myself a plum gelato...ooohhh....it was so damn nice!! My another friend wanted to try something special and new, so she got a
granita. The other friend doesn't want to have it at first, till both of us kept telling it was sooooo nice and i let her try one mouth from my gelato. She dashed back in to the shop and got herself 1 cup. I was the last one to finish it, as usual...the 2 of them had finished their first cup and they went back to have a 2nd cup..hahhaa...The shop owner was friendly too and think he was surprised why we kept going back to his shop.....kekeke....this was the last gelato i ate in Italy....If you are going to Florence, don't miss this small gelato shop. Best!
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| Inside of the Restaurant |
After the nice and yummy gelato, we walked to our dinner place, named
Ristorante Paoli. It definitely looked classy, and the interior was very beautiful. Too bad, it was fully booked when we reached there but we still had a bit of luck. We were allowed to take the table outside, so we went with it (cos i think there was one family after us wanted to take the outside table too, if we didn't sit in first). Then we ordered the food and had a nice dinner there. The tomato soup is quite thick and really tasted with tomato (not like those mixed with water and with no taste). The whole dinner costs us euro $60. After the dinner, we made our way to Piazzale Michelangelo. We walked quite a distance before we made it to a bus stop that we could take a bus up to the place. As we were walking, think i saw Ponte Vecchio afar but not sure...could be...hahaha....Oh well, and so we waited the bus for like half an hour or so before it finally came.....After 6 or 7 stops, we reached the piazzale (along the way, the 3 of us were in sleepy mode on the bus ride...hahhaa).
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| Overview of Florence City (Night View) |
At the piazzale, there was a copy of David statue, smaller version and it looked kind of dirty. But when you turn away from the statue, is a good nice overview of Florence city with all the lights shining. There were 3 buildings that stood out from all other buildings, one confirmed was the Duomo (which was in the center), Palazzo Vecchio (i think it is, which was on the left side), and 1 more building on the right side (which i don't know what it was). After spending some time up there taking photos and looking at the view, we made our way to the bus stop. Gosh, the bus required an hour to come and it was the last bus. So we just sat there, stood there to wait for the bus to come. It came at 12.05 pm, my eyes almost wanted to close. We just napped on the bus when we boarded, after we alighted, we still need to walk a short distance back to the hotel. I never got used to the streets in Italy, as in i can't get familiarize with the roads we walked, from the hotel and back to the hotel. It was kind of confusion walking in Italy...hahahaa...but still we managed to walk back to our hotel safe and sound.
There's really much to see in Florence, too bad we had planned our stay too short here. Target myself to come again next time. ^_^
Note: For the tax refund thingy, if you are not leaving from Italy, then be prepare to give up refunding it. The VAT is 8% for minimum euro $150 in a single receipt and as i mentioned earlier, you will need to travel down to Chiasso or Domodossola (it may be different stations depending on where is your last destination, for mi, my last destination was Zurich) to get their customs stamp. If you are ok without the refund, then my advice is just forget it unless the train frequency to the particular station is very often (like every 1 hour), then you can go ahead with it. If not, don't bother about it. It may waste your 1 day just by doing this, so why waste it? Enjoy your holidays!
Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Europa
Places Visited:
Galleria dell'Accademia
Florence Cathedral
The Mall
Piazzle Michalengo
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