After 24 hours of traveling, I had arrived in Milan, Italy. Not until 8 hours later would I arrive in Florence. I’m not going to lie, I was quite disappointed when I first got here. I even cried because it wasn’t as glamorous as I had dreamed of- Milan that is. However, that could also be because I was absolutely exhausted, hungry, and irritable. And we didn’t venture into the fashion district of Milan either because we were too tired to lug our bags that dreaded mile into the city center from the train station.
My first night in Florence was quite a disaster. My AirBnB was hot. When I say hot, I mean literally 87 degrees F with absolutely no ventilation. Jenn and I couldn’t sleep, not only because of the heat, but because it sounded like a UFO was landing on our building every 5 minutes with Vespasian driving by and a busy trattoria is located on the ground floor of the apartment. After not sleeping for 30 hours, we had proceeded to not sleep for another 6 hours that night before venturing to Siena that morning.
We vowed to start the day off on a good note and buy the typical Italian breakfast (croissant and cappuccino) on our way to the train station. We ended up eating on a bench with a front row seat to the duomo. Just gorgeous.
Upon arriving in Siena, we hike up what seems like a million steps to reach the walled hilltopped city. And we fall in love instantaneously. The winding streets decorated with colorful flags from each contrada fill our vision. We see churches and cafes and little shops with cute old men selling ceramics and other souvenirs. Venturing further into the city center, we begin to witness just how crowded Italy can get during the summer, especially Siena on one of two of the most anticipated days of the year.
Some of our highlights from the day include:
- Climbing the Torre di Mangia and taking in the beautiful view of the city and horse track
- Drinking cappuccino from the renowned A. Nannini’s
- Ordering our first full bottle of wine for lunch
- Trying wild boar on spaghetti
- Meeting a family from California and watching the race with them while consuming maybe too much wine and then sleeping on their apartment floor because we missed our train ride home
- First gelato experience
- Watching the sunrise the next day on our way to the train station
Bake Me Healthier 