ahh.
finally we’re at day one! waking up in Florence proper and spending our entire day wandering about the city 😀
chose my favourite pictures to put up so hope y’all like it too!
i just took this picture to show off my new contact lens! Freshlook monthlies, in amethyst! love the color and it’s pretty comfy too 🙂 no enlarging effect but i kinda like it cos it’s more natural 😀 shall try the green lens next!
my sleepy faced roomies in the morning. setting out for the train station so that we could book our sleeper train for the next part of the journey!
staff at the train station doing our procedures for us. they have alot of long-haired hunks over there!
met up with another travel mate, KR, for the day! awesome to have an additional guy who can help us four girls take group pictures and etc. hahahaha :X good to have a guy around too for orientation purposes!
yay! group picturessssssss!!!!
thought this was a pretty funny candid. hahaha
the architecture in Florence are all mainly very similar, signature stripey white cathedrals and brown tiled domes which are trademarks of the Gothic styled churches in many parts of Italy,
and here we are at the famous Duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.
and we attempted our first conquer of the trip:
to climb up the 463 steps of the Duomo.
and we huffed and we puffed…
and we made it to the top finally!!!!!!!!!!
i swear i developed really solid thigh muscles on the back of my thighs after the trip.
there’s two parts to the tower climbing,
part 1 is when you reach the interior of the dome and at first you think OMG I’M THERE.
then you realise that, wait, you’re NOT at the top yet.
which is right under those stained glass windows. yes that’s part 1.
going upwards in tiny spirals makes one really claustrophobic. dont try this at home kids.
REACHED THE TOP OF 463 STEPS.
ahhh…. view of florence.
teehee. our very fail looking heart shape pose.
so hard to take a picture with both the scenery and the portrait. it’s either one. take your pick. this one is scenery fail 🙁
so guess what.
after going up 463 steps and feeling right on top of the world,
you now need to complete the same feat, except downwards back to ground level.
definitely not good for those who have a fear of tall steps or heights.
it’s freaking steep!!!!
ah well.
we all made it down safely in one piece anyway.
sore legs and all.
4 polaroids on the top of the Duomo, 2 fail, 2 awesome! makes up for the fail ones 😀
awesome foursome. oh no i feel so bad because we dont have any pictures with KR in my camera! 🙁 there are still pictures with Aini but i’ve yet to get them from her yet.
spot the TVD apparels on us. HAHAHA. it was really unplanned! both Woon and Fish brought along TVD stuff for the trip and we all ended up wearing them on the same day :X
on me: chiffon tier top in peach
on woon: 10-button blazer in black
on fish: cascade cardi in mustard
much awesomeness!
anyway, climbing up and down the Duomo basically exceeded my calorie expenditure for the day already,
so we had really AWESOME streetside pizza.
…
wanted to go back for more but it was always closed when we went back there!!!
ahhh. no luck.
it was deeeelicious.
i love mushroom and i love tomato (on pizza)
best tasting food ever after very hard exercise.
on a little digression,
when we embarked on our florence tour, a little bird handed us this treasure map with a few choice spots circled on it.
including 2 VERY good gelato places.
if you go to italy,
please please eat more gelato.
then you will know what you’re missing when you’re in sg.
please visit GROM.
Via del Campanile
50122 Firenze, Italy
and please try the dark chocolate flavour, the pear flavour, the nocciola (hazelnut) flavour and everything else because it is VERY GOOD.
gelato very good #2 place
VIVOLI
Via Isola delle Stinche, 7
50122 Firenze, Italy
it looks like a little hole in the wall, but it has the bestest Rice flavoured gelato ever. (Rice= Riso. order the Riso flavour!)
and generally, hazelnut flavour is good almost everywhere!
me and fish went crazy ordering hazelnut flavoured gelato in every gelato shop we went to. aini and woon were just about sick of hazelnut already :X and we had gelato at least once to two times a day! mad fattening but it’s really hard to resist the temptation of good food abroad. hahaha.
BUT it’s reaalllyyyy daaaamnnn shiokkkkkkk. so much better than ice cream/gelato here. sighhh. miss!
enough of our gelato pilgrimage!
you’d think that that’s quite abit of food for one afternoon already,
but we had our PROPER lunch at a yummy little trattoria right next to Vivoli,
awww i am so loving porcini mushrooms.
in fact anything on the menu with the words “El Funghi” on it catches my heart and stomach. immediately.
super yums!
i hope that made you hungry.
back to the rest of the sight-seeing 😀
we went to this very famous square which exhibits many statues,
known as the Piazza della Signoria
mad crowded with tourists and also pigeons! you see them perching atop statues everywhere.
exhibit #1 with said pigeon on head.
spot #2 if you can! (camouflaged amongst the brick wall background…)
a living statue. hahaha. it’s actually a street arts of sorts, like the kind you see along orchard road but much more impressive!
sooo freaky. the statue will move veeerrryy slooowwlyyyy and like press your hand against its chest or cheek or something.
and i dunno if it’s a guy or a girl! i think it’s a guy though. mmmmm.
another cute one of a cheeky Cupid!
the muddy canal
pretty white horse!
artists on the streets
because i really like my purple lens 😀
one of the few cats we saw there, dogs are a plenty but cats are quite a rare sight.
street art done on the cobbled road with chalk. so very cool.
trying on glasses at random optical shop. their glasses are all like raybans and ferragamos and pradas and chanels. soooo naaaais. but expensive :/
whoo! located the H&M in Florence and we went crazy shopping :DDD i think i shopped the least though! 🙁 it was so crowded and i didnt see anything i liked in my size.
anyway, at some point of time about then my camera battery died on me! 🙁
i think it’s the cold weather or something, or i just took too many pictures because my battery which can usually last about 1-2 days in sg barely lasts for about 3/4 of a day there with heavy usage. and i lost my spare battery long ago in Bali 🙁 daaaayumm. at least we still had Aini’s camera though!
i forgot what else we did, but i think we had dinner somewhere (yes, more food!) and walked back to home sweet hostel.
and that was day 1!
day 2, we took a train to Bologna and continued the sight-seeing and eating and climbing 😀
hope i’ll get around to editing those pictures soon!
***
on a unrelated note,
here’s a lil sneak preview for what’s coming up next on TVD & also TTR!
another joint production with Joyce! a co-manufactured top in 4 awesome colors,
guess which colors are whose 😛 ok you dont even need to guess! those on Sarah (Joyce’s model) are TTR’s colors (indigo & white) and those on Clara (TVD’s model) are our colors (seagreen & black!) it was really fun because we managed to shoot together and having the 2 models in the 4 colors of the tops looks reaally yummy and i like the results alot! thanks Joyce for letting me tag along for that shoot! lovelove.
we’re mad loving all 4 colors so look out on TTR and TVD real soon for this top! 😀 😀 😀
it’ll be launched on TVD some time this week (think Friday or Sunday! votes, anyone?) along with some other anticipated items like the knit tunic as seen earlier, the pair of shorts Clara is wearing along in the above pictures and more! it’s gonna be a casual collection this time round, and we all know that basics are guuuuud.
more news soon!