WEEK 7

Monday we were really excited, as that night was Notte Bianca (White Night).  From 6pm to 6am the next morning, the whole city of Florence was open; bars, restaurants, museums, churches, you name it! Plus there were bands playing in every square and heaps of bars set up in all the main streets, it was crazy!

We kicked the night off with a great dinner and plenty of wine and then hit the streets.

It was total chaos, everywhere you walked it was jam-packed full of people.  We bar-hopped around Florence and had a great night.

few too many drinks

We had heard that they were serving breakfast at 6am in Palazzo Vecchio, so we kept going all night, trying to stay out until then, but as the rain started to come down at about 5am, we decided to call it a night.

Not surprisingly, we didn't wake up until the early afternoon.  Terribly hungover, all we wanted was eggs and bacon!  Unfortunately trying to find eggs and bacon in Florence, at any time of the day, let alone the afternoon is impossible.  So we settled for the next best thing.......Maccas!  

Anna came up with a great idea of having home made eggs and ham on toast for dinner, which proved to be difficult seeing as we don't have a toaster, but we managed to get it done.

Wednesday we went to Casa di Dante, the house where Dante Alighieri lived in the mid 1200's.  I had never heard of him until I got to Florence, but he's a big dog around here.  He was an Italian poet, best known for the monumental epic poem 'La Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language.

we tried to read some of it, but it didn't make sense

As with many cities around Europe, Florence is full of Northern African immigrants (most probably illegal) trying to sell you all types of different things.  The guys that we laugh at the most are the ones that have these shitty soft creature like balls that splat on the ground.

Unfortunately for this guy, he was busted by the undercover cops and had all of his so called goods taken from him.  He then proceeded to ball his eyes out and plead with them, it was actually quite sad.

We then hit up Zara, as we do fortnightly because they are always updating their stock.  I had been on the lookout for some coloured pants and finally my prayers were answered.

That night we had tickets to the soccer - Fiorentina v Novara.  We had to get a bus to the Stadio Artemio Franchi from the San Marco square, so we decided to have dinner there and also visited the church of San Marco.

Inside was a tomb holding the remains of St. Antonio Pierozzi (1389-1459) who was the archbishop of Florence. Bit creepy really, we didn't want to look at it for too long, but still managed a photo!

It was a great night for the soccer, perfect temperature and no rain in sight.  Although it was not an important match, we were still excited because of the debacle we had encountered a few weeks prior in Milan.

certainly no MCG

Novara got out to a 2-0 lead and although Florence ended up scoring 2 late goals for the match to end in a draw, the clear highlight of the night occurred in the first half when a Fiorentina player (Adem Ljaljic, from Serbia) gave away a penalty and subsequent 2nd goal to Novara and he was immediately subbed off by coach Delio Rossi.

As Ljaljic reached the bench, coach Rossi started going bonkers and they ended up in a full on fist fight in the dug out.  The crowd went wild, it was great!  The next day it was all over the papers and everyone was talking about it and that afternoon, the coach was given the sack.
Imagine that happening in the AFL!!!

wouldn't be a soccer match without a flare going off!

Thursday I met Anna at her school and we went off to visit Casa Buonarroti, a house that Michaelangelo owned, but never actually lived in and subsequently left it to his nephew.  The house has been converted into a museum dedicated to the great artist and its collections include two of Michaelangelo's earliest sculptures, the Madonna of the Steps and the Battle of the Centaurs.

The Battle of the Centaurs - the photo doesn't do it justice

That afternoon we both had solid sessions at the gym to try and work off all the booze and food from the past week, before going out for cocktails and aperitivo hah.