Orto Botanico

We started our day our authentic Italian food with McDonalds. From here we met our tour guide Luca at the train station. We started our walking tour (we had no idea this was included in our package) and headed straight towards the Central Market to grab our fresh ingredients for the day. Luca's flamboyance was on display, acting like we were on his tv show (Cooking With Luca) and somehow being the loudest voice in the a very noisy market (we don't think the headset was at all necessary). We were both put to work Meg carrying the bread and Scott the pork to our bus. Once we got to Walkabout Tours estate, we began our cooking class. We made bruschetta, ragu pasta (the group's pasta had varied widths, so we can't really put a finger on the exact type of pasta - other than delicious) and tiramasu. Scott was clearly the best at preparing the pasta dough, although perhaps not the best when it came to making them a consistent length. Meg was thoroughly disappointed in herself for accidentally breaking the yolk when separating the eggs. Once the cooking was over, we sat down with the rest of our cooking class (this included the one other Australian, who was conincidially also a Meg and a lawyer), our bottle of Cianti wine and delicious food, all while admiring the beautiful view of the estate. Luca really made the day all the more fun and enjoyable, even if he was a little bit dodgy (he definitely followed the tour group after dropping us off in Florence to offer up his cook book - which we of course purchased). We quickly visited the Baptistery of St. John (unfortunately, the roof is under restoration) and the Duomo museum before rushing across town to make sunset at Michelangelo Square. Concerned that we would not make it we luckily managed to find a Tesla taxi (we had been told it would be almost impossible to get one outside of a taxi rack) that was happy to drop us off. The atmosphere at the square and the rose garden below is something that will really stick with us. The masses of people all coming to appreciate the sunset, the food and drink carts, the music, the dancing and of course the many lovely people we stopped and had a chat to (would absolutely recommend for anyone heading to Florence). After sunset, we walked back down to the Santo Spirito area with the intention of grabbing food at one of the restaurants recommended by Luca for an authentic Italian meal. This plan fell through after the first restaurant had a 45-minute wait time, and we decided to head to a bar so we could use the toilet. Our plan of having one drink and moving on, quickly went out the window once we begun chatting with a couple from America (thankfully they were anti-guns) and moreso our chat with Donald and Paul a lovely couple from Edinbourough (we spoke for hours, buying each other drinks). We finally got back to our accommodation a little after 1:30am for a well deserved rest. Tomorrow, we say goodbye to Florence (not before a few more stairs) as we head to Porto.Read more