My life in Florence (PART 3)
A blog by Gregory Wittouck, doing his internship at the tour operator ‘We Like Tuscany’
Hello there!
It’s me again with the last update of my life at We Like Tuscany. It is now my twelfth and last week in Florence and there has happened a few things that I want to share with you.
A few weeks ago I attended a big event that was co-hosted by We Like Tuscany. It was a 50 years anniversary that has been celebrated by a ride with 25 Vintage Fiat 500 cars. The tour started in Castellina and ended at Villa Bordoni, where our guests enjoyed a multi-course lunch. It was a really big group so it required a lot of effort to make it happen. My colleagues worked hard to organize the event as good as possible so that everything went perfectly. From Villa Bordoni, some cars had to be driven back to Florence, so I could drive one of these cars. It was the first time in my life that I drove such an old car, but everything worked out. I liked driving the car. It is something that you really have to do once in your life.
Another thing is that my parents have visited me. I was really happy to finally see them again after 9 weeks away from home. They stayed for 3 days in Florence and then they went to Bologna for 3 days.
They arrived on Sunday at around 2 pm. The first thing we did was checking them in their apartment. Once they were checked in my mother and I wanted to visit the city but my father wanted to watch a bicycle race on TV so my mother and I had to wait for 2 hours. When the race was finally over we headed into town. We walked on the Ponte Vecchio, visited Palazzo Vecchio, saw the enormous Duomo and so much more. For dinner, we went to a trattoria. The Florentine Steak is really worth tasting.
The second day we visited San Gimignano, Volterra, and Monteriggioni by car. I had already seen these villages, but I didn’t mind seeing them again. My parents really liked San Gimignano and Monterrigioni, but they didn’t like Volterra. When we arrived back in Florence we ate dinner at a local restaurant and drunk a cocktail in the bar NOF Club. If you go to NOF Club during happy hour you can drink a cocktail for only €3. My parents really loved the place.
On the last day, we hired some Vespas and drove hole the way to Siena via the Chianti route. The Chianti route is nice because you are driving in the mountains and there are amazing views along this route. Once we arrived in Siena we went to a restaurant to eat lunch. After lunch, we wandered around the city center. We visited Piazza del Campo and the big cathedral. Piazza del Campo is really beautiful and really a must see. Of course, it is pretty touristic, so to eat or to drink on the square can be a little expensive. The cathedral is amazing to see from the outside. We didn’t enter so I don’t know how it looks on the inside.
When we had seen the hole city, we returned back to Florence on the Vespa. As we were getting closer to Florence it started to rain a little bit, so we were glad that we were almost at home. But outside the city center we took the wrong exit at a roundabout and suddenly we were on the highway to Roma. We wanted to take the first exit, but that was 30 kilometers away, so we were home much later than we expected and we were frozen. It was a little minus point to end a nice day with the Vespa.
So, this was my last blog post. In a few days return back home, to Belgium. I hope you enjoyed my posts and that you now can imagine how life in Italy can be.
Gregory Wittouck
Intern at the tour operator ‘We Like Tuscany’
Via Romana 41/43 RED Florence