Day 30 22/4/06 - Italy

Florence -> Castalina in Chianti -> Greve in Chianti

Highlight

• Finally made it to Florence, in the dead of the morning. Again, we had the whole place to ourselves. We walked to all the famous site, and watched the town slowly come to life around us.
• My feelings about Florence? I was disappointed. Everyone always rave on about how great Florence was, but apart from the food places that were recommended by Sunday Life, it didn't have anything going for it. The buildings were ugly,m things were expensive, and there were tourists everywhere. The only thing that I found pretty was the Duomo, which actually looked a lot better than the pictures.
• We only saw the 1st part of Tuscany but we were already stuck in a traffic jam, meaning it took us > 2 hrs to reach the castle. All the other couples were even later than us though, being stuck in the same jam but without the benefits of the GPS. But my general impression? Really really pretty, just like they said, but very touristy. Hopefully other parts further away from Siena would be better.
• Our castle though, was absolutely wonderful. Set in its own hectares of vine, with sweeping views of other growing area. The day we arrived a wedding was taking place in the gardens and the "balcony". Our room was on the 2nd floor, which we made our way up through very narrow staircase, but what a surprise when we found an absolutely spacious space, decorated in a tasteful country style, with a separate kitchen and bathroom. We felt very exclusive as there were only 10 rooms in the whole castle.
• I was so disappointed. Our first meal in one of the gastronomic capitals of Italy, and our dinner at Restaurant La Locanda was really really crap. We had to wait for longer than 1 hour for our meal. We had to ask repeatedly for bread, and when they finally arrived, not only were the food of bad quality, we had also lost our appetite and our hunger. To make matters worst it was expensive and the service was non-existent. As I write this now I can say that at least this was to be the worst restaurant we were to experience for the WHOLE TRIP, and our Tuscan experience do get redeemed later.

Food

• Mixed cold cuts of prosciutto and salami (7).
• Cappuccino (.85).
• Espresso (.75).
• Biocake from Ramada.
• Panini with bologni and eggplant (2.1).
• Gelato with mango and crema giotto (almonds, coconut, hazelnut) (1.8).
• Porchini mushroom soup (7).
• Tagielle with wild boar sauce (7).
• Pizza bread.