EU 2015 (viii): Bologna e Firenze

A simple planning slide for Florence :)

Several of the phrases uttered:
- Buongiorno, buona sera: Good morning, good evening
- Ciao: Hi/Bye
- Non parlo Italiano molto bene: I don't speak Italian very well
- Parlo poco Italiano: I speak little Italian
- Quanto costa: How much is it?
- Dov'è ... ?: Where is ...?
- Sinistra, destra: Left, right
- Pieno: Full
- Vorrei pagare con contanti: I'd like to pay with cash

We landed at Bologna airport surprisingly with nobody applauded. Not a single clap was heard. It was a Czech Airlines flight but the majority of the passengers were Italians. Was it because it was just a short haul flight? I remembered the time I took the elevator to the top of Eiffel tower and everyone in this one Italian family joyously clapped when the elevator door opened. Hilarious! :D. Anyways.

Did I say Bologna you asked? Yes. We were going to Firenze (Florence), but the last time we checked there was no direct flight from Prague to Firenze. We were going to rent a car anyways and it's only a tad more than 100km between the two. Plus, we managed to squeeze in an hour or so walking around (and getting lost) in Bologna :D

All of the paperworks for the car rental had been done prior to our arrival in Bologna. All we had to do was to sign the papers and collect our car at the garage. It's been awhile since I've driven a manual transmission car. Let alone a left-hand drive car. The last time I drove a left-hand drive and manual transmission car was in fact in Italy. Way back in 2005. I even asked for my sister's permission to drive her stick shift to town when we were visiting our parents the weekend before I left for my holidays. That's what you call taking initiatives :D.

Road trip!!! :)

Alhamdulillah we managed to return the Peugeot 308 to Pisa in one piece. All I'm worried now is for any traffic summons to get charged to my credit card, especially the dreaded ZTLs (Zona a Traffico Limitato) in Bologna and Firenze. I'm praying there won't be any.

Bologna
We parked at one of the garages outside of the ZTL and walked to Piazza Maggiore. Fountain of Neptune and San Petronio Basilica were there too.

San Petronio Basilica

At Piazza Maggiore

Ongoing restoration works

Entrance to Bologna University campus

Fountain of Neptune

To mimic that statue in public would be inappropriate

On our way back, we passed by the Two Towers of Bologna. Not before we bought some delicious gelato at this one shop with long lines. You have to pay up first and get a ticket. Then pass the ticket to any of the servers and tell them the flavours that you want. It was so hard to narrow down the flavours to 3! :D. It was so good that I even forgot to take pictures of it. Oh well.

Two Towers of Bologna

A sample of the porticoes in Bologna

One of the many nice looking streets in the city

We stumbled upon this which could be one of many old city wall sections when we were finding our way back to the car

I was only equipped with this small map courtesy of the parking garage attendant. Did I mention we got lost? *lol*.

Firenze
I couldn't believe it has been 11 years since my ex-colleagues and I went on a day-tripper to Pisa and Firenze from Torino.

For this trip, we spent the first full day in Cinque Terre.

The second full day was allocated for shopping. Yes, you heard me right. I was just the chauffeur :). We started out with The Mall. Tod's, Burberry, Gucci, Prada and those other brands are wayyy out of my league . Hahaha. But it's true :)

These are just Tod's prices

The Gucci building at The Mall

A pair of Prada rubber slippers (selipar jamban? :D) costs 100 Euros. Gosh! I was curious of the price of this small Prada purse. So I picked it up, unzipped it and looked for the price tag. It was more than a couple of hundred Euros! For that small thing? I placed it back nicely on its original spot. Okay now. Moving along.

You'd be lucky if you spend just an hour in the queue waiting for your turn

You probably won't believe it if I tell you this is at the Prada store

Believe it or not, I did buy something. A slice of pizza, tiramisu and latte macchiato. From the Gucci cafe :'D. They were in fact quite reasonable in price :)

Pomodoro pizza e latte macchiato

Tiramu... man, I'm salivating as I'm typing this

Then we drove north to the Barberino Mall. Not to say it was more of my type of mall but still, it wasn't The Mall :). I managed to grab a few items for my parents and sisters. I know I don't have the slightest idea what they like, I should at least try right?

Some of the shops

My sister in law would go gaga here :D

Was just here for the pictures ;)

Since we were out and about, we only managed to squeeze in a quick visit to Firenze centro on our last night there. We parked at the garage near the train station and walked to the Florence Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore), Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio.

At Piazza dell Signoria, there was Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall),

Fontuna della Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune),

and Loggia dei Lanzia (a gallery of antique and art).

The shops selling gold and silver jewelry at Ponte Vecchio were already closed by this time.

Ponte Vecchio at night

Oh no, they were closed. Dang it. Haha, as if

We found this fella (Il Porcellino -- the piglet statue) as we were walking around,

Since my days of blogging only took place years after my first trip to Italia, I think it's worth the effort to share some pictures from my first Florence trip, most of which were the arts at Loggia dei Lanzia.