Coconut, Coconut Crack your SHELL!!- FLORENCE

 

Michelangelo's David - left the real one & right the copy! 

The apartment in Florence we did not find on Booking.com or Trip Advisor. This one we did not have to find at all. We could stay in an apartment of a friend of Lex who we met in London. The APARTMENT is in the centre of Florence!!!!
Perfect because there are many beautiful museums in the old city and we were very close to all of them.

We saw "David" the sculpture from Mischelangelo in the museum we were not allowed to make pictures, but dad did!! David looked like a real giant. Every detail you saw looked like a real person the veins, his muscles how Michelangelo made it out of marble was soo real!!! 

The museum Palazzo Vecchio was a museum and gallery where you could see where the very important family of the Medici lived. They built beautiful houses and collected many paintings and had things made for them by the local artists.We saw that a part of a huge wall painting was covered because scientists where still doing some new discoveries in the painting of the Battle of Anghiari. The scientists invented a new way of looking through a painting and now they think that Leonardo da Vinci painted under another artist who painted over his painting. It was very interesting. In the museum Uffizi Gallery we saw Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and Rembrandt paintings. O, but before we could visit the museums we had to be very very patient. The first time we went was in the afternoon and there was a long line with many people. The second time we came very early in the morning but were the only ones. So we found out that it was closed on Mondays. On Tuesday we just went and waited in the line.  

At Market

When we walked back home we heard very loud police sirens and after the police motorbikes came the cyclist of a Giro -cycle race. Such an excitement in such a small town. 

Market

Mom and I found in Firenze a lovely local inside Market where they sold fresh and colorful looking fruits, vegetables, bread, fish, different Italian cheeses and meat!! We did a lot of grocery shopping for dinner and a picnic that we had on the boulevard bridge overlooking the Ponte Vecchio.

Everywhere in Rome and in Florence they sold coconuts. It looked very attractive so we needed to taste. We could not open it and tried a table knife, bread knife, scissors, Steven’s head, but we could not open the coconut. The only way we could open it was by dropping it from our apartment on to the street!! Haha watch video. By the way................ IT TASTED DELICOUS!!! It was worth throwing the coconut!!

Not Pisa but Chiavari

Our own leaning tower of Pisa

With the train from the touristic areas Rome/Firenze we went to a small not so touristic village on the coast; Chiavari! We past Pisa with the train, so we did not see the leaning tower. That is way we made one ourselves from cans.

playing table soccer with Italian friends 

We stayed in Chiavari for 3 nights in a very personal and nice family hotel. It had a table tennis and table soccer!! so we played most of the time with Italian friends we made. There was also a nice ferry to Rapallo another small little fishing village. We visited a busy market, saw the cozy village center and went for a swim in the sea. It was difficult to find a public beach because all the small pieces of sand were private beaches with A FLOATING TRAMPOLINE AND A LOATING SLIDE!! It was soooo fantastic to jump on the trampoline and when you lost your balance you would fall into the sea!!!!!! Steven and I played, swam had fun in the sea for 4 hours, while mum and dad relaxed, talked, read the newspaper in the shade of an umbrella. Suddenly it started to rain so we quickly stayed under cover and got dressed and went back to Chiavari with the ferry.

In the ferry

Having fun in the Rapalllo

Steven and I cycling 

The cycling picnic

On another hot yummy, sunny day. We were all very miserable and had a bit enough of each other. So Steven and I took the bikes from the hotel and went cycling in Chiavari and gave mom and dad a bit of space. We went cycling for half a day riding through different Piazzas and along the coast of Chiavari. We got money for lunch which we bought in different shops. The nice thing about Chiavari was that there were only specialist shops and no Zaras, H&Ms, or Mac Donalds) only a Carrefour!! Steven and I went to a bakery where we bought for 23 euro cent 2 fresh warm breadrolls and we bought a few other yummy and healthy things!! Then we cycled to find a shady place with nice view over the sea to sit and have our lunch. There where two small birds who made fine soft music! It was a fun time without our parents for once this year.

  Keeping Fit

Steven stretching

In Argentina we jogged every morning for three months, but because of all the travelling the jogging became less and less. So, we decided that Steven and I had to start running again every morning. In Rome we started at 7:15 sharp, jogging through all the small streets. In Firenze we jogged 2 laps around the Ponte Vecchio bridge where we slowly saw the sun come up which reflected on the rivers and made all the old buildings shine!!!!. It was beautiful, but in Chiavari we jogged on the sea coast and we again saw  how slowly the village came to life. Some of the men were cleaning their boats and putting them in water, but most of the men were drinking their coffee while watching their wives taking their dogs for a walk. This little town was a nice change from all the big and busy cities we went to.

(Next Week : SCHOOL & CHILLING  IN  MONACO!!!!!!!!!!)

ciao
Loes