Florence is beautiful

So it has almost been a week into my travels..
I went to Cinque Terre which is an area where there are 5 italian villages along the coast. It's really pretty there and scenery is beautiful. The villages are small but touristy. Things are quite expensive because of all the tourism and the first day I bust my food budget. Thankfully, I have managed to even it out by cutting other expenses. It was very sunny and I went trekking along the coastline from one village to another. It usually takes 5 hours, but because we stopped along the way to explore the villages, we took a day instead. I met several people there, and they were friendly so we hung out together.

After Cinque Terre, we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower. It is quite a wonder because it tower really looks like it would fall over! I didn't thik it was worth going in so we just took photos and left. We missed the train to Rome and had to wait for 2 hours. I was quite upset and sian about it because we didn't have much time in Rome.

When we got to Rome, I met up with Charles and Mike for dinner. They were there for holiday and we arranged to meet up for dinner. It was a very late but yummy dinner at a very reasonable price. I had pork chop with porcini mushrooms, Charles had carbonara, and Mike had veal cutlet. We shared a bruschetta for appetizer and had gelato for dessert. They were very kind to pick up the bill. I had a very relaxing and nice evening with them.

The next day we went to the Vatican city. when we got to the museum, we had to join the queue in the sun and I felt like I couldn't enjoy the museum as much as I would have liked. There were just too many tourists.. Then the same thing happened at Saint Peter's Basilica. Too many people. But I must say it's a really grand and magnificent church. We also tried to join the free walking tour but the guide couldn't speak very good English so we gave up.

We got to Florence yesterday afternoon. Then we went exploring the city and it's quite beautiful. The weather was good and the place was comfortable. Lots of tourists but not like Rome; Florence is filled with nice buildings, less immigrants, more art and it is compact as most sights within walking distance.

Today, we joined the walking tour organised by the hostel and it was really good. I learnt stuff on the tour and I appreciate Florence better. After the tour, we got to know Vivian and Gary. We went around together and saw a few places like the Duomo (big church) and the replicas of David by Michaelangelo. It was not a very fruitful day cause there's really not much to see unless I go out of Florence. But I guess it would be really nice to shop and hangout by the river.

Tomorrow I'll head to venice. For now, I'm finally ahead of schedule and ready to take it easy. Need to do laundry soon...