My Europe Trip 2010 – Pisa & Florence, Italy

Not too far away from the square is Basilica San Lorenzo, one of the oldest church in Florence situated at the centre of the city’s main market district.

The facade is plain because Michaelangelo, who was commissioned to design it abandoned the project after feeling disgusted by Florentine politics at that time.

One of the entrances to the evening market, something very similar to our pasar malam, with the basilica at the background. There are plenty of things to see and buy here, mostly of leather goods, souvenirs, potteries and apparels.

Italians are proud of their products, absolutely no China made stuff here lol. If you are planning to visit Venice later, forget about buying the Venetian Masks here. They are much more beautiful and not to mention cheaper too at Venice.

One of the body parts of David is also a purchasable souvenir. Imagine the giggles I got from the salesgirl when I took this photo.

A cafe in the market.

Seeing the Arno River is a must in Florence, the second most important river in Italy. The city of Florence is divided by Arno and visitors can take a long, relaxing walk along it. Imagine somewhere like Gurney Drive but with nicer view instead. The tower as seen from here is actually next to Piazzale Michaelangelo, a place where you can have the best view of Florence. In fact, most of the postcard quality photos of Florence are taken from up there. You can choose to take the staircase or hop on a bus (provided you know which bus to take) to the piazza.
However due to the limited time we have, we had to give this a miss, which I think was a real pity. After finished walking along Arno we just got on a bus and toured the city wherever it took us to. Because of that we actually ended up in a rather remote area of Florence and nearly lost our way back to the hostel lol.
But it was a nice experience anyway getting to see the other parts of Florence, rather than just visiting the famous attractions. Our next stop was Rome, inarguably the city we enjoyed the most in Italy.