Florence

(Firenze)

Capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy

From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Florence lies on the Arno River. A center of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and was long ruled by the Medici family. Florence is also famous for its magnificent art and architecture. It is said that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350 lived or worked in Florence.

The view outside the train .. on the way to florence



Finally we're at florence.

We went on a day tour to go fora horse-riding and wine tasting trip out of Florence @ Tuscany for 120 euro. Then we went to this small city outside Florence near Tuscany (citi di San Gimignnano). It's a castle built in the 13th century and it is now more of a tourist attraction with little population. We then came by a Gelato shop. The best in the world. Award winning ice-cream for 2006 and 2007, 2 consecutive years for the best gelato in the world. Cool~ It's really nice. Especially under the hot sun.


There we are! At Tuscansy. I rode on a horse before when I was young. But there was with someone guiding the horse. But this time, we gonna spend sometime learning how to control the horse and we are left with the horse alone. Then after a few rounds of adaptation, we went out for an hour of ride.

Along the way, I saw vast lands filled with sunflowers. It was so beautiful. It makes me feel so happy. As if they were smiling at me. The whole place seemed to be shining and yellow is my fav colour. Hee..~ these pics are taken from the horse. My skills not bad huh.. lolz

Wine tasting session at the city of San Gimignano. We went for the tour with 2 other Australians. Nice people. There were nurses. Had a fair bit of the wine and was getting tippsy in the day. Oh man. Red and white wine, bottles after bottles..