Valserena

It was our next 2 nights in Italy where I must say, I was a little disappointed. I think other places from our trip like the Baltics and Poland, our expectations had been relatively low, so it was easy for us to be pleasantly surprised by these places. Italy, well everyone raves about this place! So I guess if it doesn't reach one's expectations, then it's easy to be disappointed. Our first disappointment was the cost. In my head, I pictured Italy as being like Greece i.e. touristy but cheap. This was not the case near Florence! Emz and myself had done a couple podcasts on the Renaissance period of history and how Florence was the centre of all this, so it was a place we both really wanted to visit. Well, to stay in this city, one needs to have a higher budget than what we are travelling on! The cheapest place within a 1hr radius of Florence was £300/night!😳 What probably didn't help matters was that it was the wkd and that we were also used to Eastern European prices where everything is waaaay cheaper. We also subsequently found out it had just been the Milan fashion week, so probably more tourists than usual wanting to visit the city as well. So basically we were in the perfect storm for minimal and overpriced accommodation.
We managed to find a self catering place that suited our budget, but was 1.5hrs away from Florence near a town called Cecina. The accommodation was really nice albeit having a slightly deserted, run down 'Aventura Resort' feel to it. With numerous cottages, 3 large swimming pools and a central restaurant, it seems a high occupancy rate was to be expected. Sadly I'd say it was probably less than 20% full. We had our 1st 'Italian' meal at the restaurant that night, which was once again, a bit of a disappointment. The food was nice, but nothing to write home about and the portions small for the €15 cost per dish. The only ray of sunshine was, well literally that! The weather was lekker! So we could lounge around these massive pools that we seemingly had all to ourselves and much to Emz's delight, she could start working on her tan.😎Read more