Florence and the Cuisine
Following a relatively relaxing week bathing in lakes and scraping on gates, our next involved far more hustle and bustle as we made our way to Italy’s second city in what were pretty miserable conditions. A bleak and gloomy Milan greeted us as we pulled into the only car park in the city guarded by a man in a hut, a very important requirement in this city, and withdrew our collapsible umbrellas from their holsters for the first time in earnest. Whilst visiting the city wasn’t all that high on our Italian bucket list, we felt obliged to spend at least one afternoon treading its well-trodden streets.
Braving monsoon-like conditions that Bear Grylls would’ve struggled in, we slip and slid our way around the unmissable Sforza Castle and the Duomo before a string of indoor bars and beers were required purely for the sake of avoiding trench foot. While much of the city was undoubtedly missed, designer shopping is clearly Milan’s primary draw; something we will be doing little of given our budget is tighter than an Irishman’s wedding. A Chianti-fuelled plan was hastily created in order to find drier climes and we were back on the road the next day with our bleary eyes firmly fixed on Italy’s famed riviera, which surely had to be more agreeable?
Indeed, the weather and overall milieu were so much improved that it even allowed us to join a highly touristy boat tour around the area of Cinque Terre: a string of five, colourful, coastal towns that improbably cling to their cliffsides with all the vigour of a bedraggled Tory prime minister. The quite remarkable townships are certainly best viewed from sea, even if the boat you’re on contains dozens of vomiting children and an aroma that can only be described as a menagerie of meconium. Still worth it for the extraordinary views, though.
The ancient walled town of Lucca was our next stop and provided a welcome balance of tourism and tranquillity as we found an attractively quiet spot in its charming suburbs. The town’s well-preserved Renaissance walls, cobblestone streets, and prominent Guinigi Tower topped with handfuls of holm-oak trees wouldn’t look out of place in a Game of Thrones episode while the central Plaza del Anfiteatro is an extraordinary, hidden, elliptical ‘square’ surrounded by a ring of traditional Italian buildings and is only accessible via four ancient gateways that guard its now poorly kept secret.
Speaking of poorly kept secrets: Pisa. While it is impossible to drive to this part of the world and not stop off to take at least one picture trying to thrust its famed tower to the ground, just as curious was it to observe everyone else photoshoot in all manner of different leaning positions and, occasionally, phallic poses. Once out of tower-shot, the city itself was far more pleasant than we had expected beforehand given its rather rambunctious reputation. We didn’t get mugged once on our stroll along its city-dissecting river, the Arno, or even asked to buy a fridge magnet or a telescopic selfie stick, quite peaceful indeed.
Condensing Florence into one paragraph feels like a crime against humanity as there are simply hundreds of diabolically beautiful piazzas, cathedrals, fountains, statues, bridges, and bronze boars to write about, but condense it I must. Whilst its dramatic architecture certainly deserves a mention, as does its colossal Duomo, the tangible buzz that arose on the point of sundown when the uncountable number of tavernas and eateries opened their grand wooden doors for business was something special to behold. Overvisited the centre may be, but it is impossible not to be drawn in by its enchanting atmosphere and unique character, just do not attempt to drive a campervan through its heart and expect to live to tell the tale.
The same can be said of Siena, our final destination before Italy’s capital, although we managed to find an almost-perfect parking spot about a twenty-minute walk from the historic centre, the only downside being it was all uphill. Built on the top of a great mound, the ancient city centre is home to the oldest continually operating bank in the world, since 1472, and one of the oldest universities, founded in 1240. In a similar way to Lucca, the main piazza is guarded by several narrow gateways that dramatically open up to a grand square that must be one of the more majestic in the world. Following the strict piazza rules of sitting, not lying down, and drinking, not eating, we grabbed a plethora of Peroni’s and watched the sun descend behind Mangia Tower. The end of our Tuscan leg.
J
