Recently Florence has been so so rainy (cry). Fortunately, this means that the queue for the Cupola is at least half as long so we decided to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, this meant queuing in the rain, however we have accumulated a nice collection of umbrellas at the flat probably because 1) Florence actually rains a lot 2) there are so many street vendors who, as soon as the slightest amount of rain shows, pop out of nowhere with an array of anti-rain items (think of those horrible cling film type ponchos & umbrellas which break if there is the slightest wind).

Aperitivo in Italy is an invention from the gods. Traditionally it would be a pre-dinner drink with maybe some nuts or chips but luckily in Italy they have something called apericena (cena is dinner in Italian) which is also called aperitivo: basically a very cheap way of having dinner and a drink. There's normally a set price which is around 10 euros and you can choose any drink with an unlimited buffet. Now that I have been in Italy for two months I have been to a fair few places for aperitivo and I have to say that Tamerò is one of my favourites because it has simple, but good food, not to mention it is only 8 euros!






 CHEERS! Alexandra x

Sometimes life hurls unexpected obstacles at you and you have to learn how to overcome them. One of the best ways, I think, is to clear your mind and explore a new place. Luckily for me, one of my friends is also on her year abroad here in Tuscany, in the medieval city of Siena.

Only a short train ride away (note: it should normally be around an hour and a half, but I had the unlucky experience of being an hour delayed in the middle of nowhere, luckily I had a book with me!) Siena is one of the most visited and interesting places in Tuscany.

When I finally arrived in Siena we were planning on going out for a nice dinner and then perhaps seeing what nightlife there was on offer, however when we looked out of the window just before leaving it was pioveva a catinelle (raining cats and dogs, literally: raining from the basin, ha). And for some reason the prospect of getting into fluffy, cosy pyjamas and watching a movie whilst eating nutella out of the jar with spoons seemed much more appealing. And that is exactly what we did, leaving the exploration of the city until the next day.

The next morning we got up, bright eyed and bushy tailed and headed towards the historic centre. For October it was actually a glorious day (yay Italy) and after walking around for a while we spent some time in the Piazza del Campo, the main square. This is probably the most famous view of Siena and one of the most famous Italian events happens here: the Palio.


The Palio is a horse race which happens twice a year in the summer. Ten horse riders and horses represent ten of the seventeen contrade (city wards). Each of the contrade have their own colours and their own animal or symbol, which you will see later on in some pictures. The race is around the Piazza three times, bareback and it never lasts more than 90 seconds. Apparently it is an amazing experience, although the race is very dangerous - jockeys often get thrown off of their horses and sometimes the horses crash into the walls of the city... in 2004 a horse even died because it had been trampled on which has recently raised questions about animal rights and whether this historic event should be continued.

After bullfighting was criminalised, the contrade organised races first riding buffaloes, then donkeys and finally horses in 1633. It's actually really interesting because it's not the jockey who wins the race, it's the horse. Which means that horses can win by themselves if their rider was lost somewhere along the track and the horse which comes last isn't the loser - it's whoever comes second!

Here are a couple of videos so that you can have an idea of what it's like:
The most recent Palio & One of the bad crashes




Here you can see what I mean about the animals for each contrada - this is the Leocorno (Unicorn). The Sienese people are very proud of where they are from and according to some they feel more proud of their contrada than of the city that they come from which is what makes the Palio such a competitive and often violent event.


We also had a look at the Cattedrale Metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta, Siena's cathedral. The façade was finished in the 14th Century and it always fascinates me how skilled people were at this time. Look at the detail! It's much smaller than the cathedral in Florence but that is just something else.




After some more exploring we ended up back in the Piazza and soaked up the sun whilst enjoying some pizza (obviously). Pizza a taglio is really popular in Italy. It's basically takeaway pizza that you can get by the slice, but these are massive. My friend was telling me how this pizza place is open into the early hours of the morning so they often get a slice on their way home from a night out. And it's proper pizza! Not the greasy things you can get in the places that are open that late in the UK.

When walking around Siena we also noticed that there were loads of mini statues of what appeared to be Romulus and Remus with their wolf mother (you're probably familiar with the story but if not, put very very simply: the god Mars' twin sons were abandoned and a wolf found them who raised them. When the boys grew up they founded Rome but had an argument with each other and Romulus killed Remus). At first we didn't know why they were all over Siena because it's a legend which is related to Rome, but after a little bit of research I discovered that according to local legend, Siena was founded by Remus' sons Senius and Aschius. After their fathers death they brought the statue of the wolf with them to Siena and it became the symbol of the city.


Siena is definitely one of the beautiful Tuscan cities that you can easily visit for the day when you're staying in Florence or another nearby city. Head up to the Fortezza Medicea if you want some pretty views onto the historic centre, you can spot the cathedral from here! And if you fancy something a little bit different you can also find the most beautiful views of the Tuscan hills. But please remember that if you're still at university you shouldn't walk up the bell tower in the main piazza (the Torre del Mangia) because it brings bad luck for your exams!! I didn't want to risk it hahah.

Getting here is quite easy as there are regular trains from Firenze Santa Maria Novella and at around 18 euros return it's not too bad, I just hope for you that you don't get delayed in the middle of nowhere like I did. Enjoy!

Alexandra x

When I heard that a 1800s "Belle Epoque" French market was coming to Florence I was so excited. I couldn't wait to take a look at all of the cute stalls, not to mention try all of the buttery French pastries - pains au chocolat and croissants yum. The Belle Epoque in France was at the end of the 19th Century up until the beginning of World War One and was symbolic of the country's economic prosperity and technological and scientific discoveries. It is generally seen as a time characterised by joie de vivre (joy of living) compared to the hardships that people experienced once WWI broke out - just think Moulin Rouge era!

It was a rainy, rainy day

Last month a good friend of mine visited me in Florence who also happened to be vegan. In a land filled with meat and cheese I thought it would be difficult to find a place that we could go to for lunch, but thankfully with one of Florence's new restaurant/cafés named #RAW it wasn't a problem (and it was actually super delicious!)

Left to right: banana coconut, mango, chocolate

I was introduced to this little gem only a couple of days after moving to Florence by my flatmate (now a month and a half ago, I can't believe it's gone so fast already!) and I have recommended it to so many people since. Everyone loves it. This is one of the best things about having a flatmate who knows the city that you live in very well, you get to know all the best places without having to sift through all of the overpriced/tourist/simply bad ones.

Hazelnut, Pistachio & Coffee

This one is called Gelateria della Passera and you can find it in Via Toscanella 15/r (map below). In Italy you always have to be careful with the numbers because the red ones are for businesses and the others are for houses, /r means it's a red number (like you can see on the right in the picture above).  I realised this when I was visiting a friend's house and google maps told me I was there when in reality I was standing in front of a bar... I have gotten lost and been confused with this so many times so watch out!

The history of this place is quite cute. After seeing that a little food shop had closed down in Piazza della Passera (in Oltrarno, the other side of the river), Cinzia and Marco (who own the famous Caffè Degli Artigiani) immediately rented it with the intention for it to be a little kitchen for their cafe. Unfortunately, they realised that because the building was so old the chimney wasn't working and was beyond repair. They didn't know what to do as they had already rented the place, so the couple started brainstorming some ideas and eventually decided on opening a gelateria as Marco loves ice cream so much!

Cinzia already had some basic knowledge on how to make good ice cream, however she enrolled in courses at the Gelato University of Bologna. Is a Gelato University actually a thing? Apparently it is and if the whole generic UK university thing doesn't work out for me I might just permanently move to Italy and make (eat) gelato all day long. Anyway, Cinzia fell in love with the art of making gelato (it is an art after all) and explained how the course had two stages. One where they taught the chemistry and physics of making ice cream, and another where they actually practised in the kitchens. After her course they finally opened in 2010 which I am SO happy about because it's seriously one of the best gelato places in town.


What I love about this place is that they use really fresh ingredients some of which are local as well (so less destruction to the environment through long transport - yay!) such as Tuscan milk, nuts, eggs, honey and the fruits which are in season. They also don't use stabilisers or emulsifiers which means that the gelato is only good for 3 days maximum (but also means that you know that you're getting something fresh). Apparently the ice cream is kept in cylindrical tubs (unlike a lot of the gelateria's in Florence and Italy in general, who have mountains of gelato piled up) because it is temperature and light sensitive, meaning that those places I mentioned must use un sacco di (a lot of, literally translated a bag of, lol) preservatives so that their products don't change colour. Seriously, I have seen so many gelateria's with the puffo (smurf) flavour which is a worrying shade of blue. What even is smurf flavour!?

The best thing about all of this is that they're not even expensive! At only 1 euro a scoop you can go wild and pick any flavour you want (what's great is that they also have a lot of milk-free options, perfect for those who are lactose intolerant or are just dairy free/trying to cut down in general).

Coffee (from the famous cafe close by), Chocolate, Cream, Nougat, Hazelnut, Pistachio, Vanilla, Yoghurt, Eggnog, Cassata (Neopolitan ice cream with fruit and nuts),  Ricotta & Cinnamon. Without milk: Fig, Banana, Lemon, Raspberry, Mojito, Almond, Peach, Pink grapefruit, Watermelon.

I have tried the hazelnut (favourite gelato flavour ever), pistachio, coffee, raspberry (without milk) and mojito (without milk) and I have to say that the mojito flavour is AMAZING. Seriously, it's so refreshing on a hot day and i've been dreaming about it every time it's a day over 30 degrees (which is thankfully starting to stop).

Raspberry & Mojito

Check them out! They're in such a cute square with little benches and a few restaurants so i'm sure you'll enjoy it. Here's a map so you can find it more easily, Alexandra x

Cinque Terre (translated the five lands) is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world. I remember coming here 10 years ago with my family and I instantly fell in love with it. Filled with cute little pastel-coloured houses and cobbled streets right on the Ligurian coast, Cinque Terre is actually just a name to describe five separate fishing villages: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare.

Less than three hours away, we decided to head here for a day to soak up the sunshine and play in the sea so we got up early, hopped on the train to La Spezia and then got the local regional train to the first town: Riomaggiore.

Take a look at that beautiful sea! Riomaggiore is one of the oldest towns, dating back to the 13th Century and is famous for it's wine. It has a rocky beach and you can easily go on diving trips or hire snorkelling equipment for a couple of hours. We really wanted to walk from this town to the next one, Manarola on the Via dell'Amore (lovers trail) which was originally made when they were upgrading the railway lines and needed a storage place for the gunpowder far away from either of the towns. After the railway was finished, they decided to keep the pathway open and according to some it made it easier for the people of Riomaggiore and Manarola to meet up and fall in love, giving it the very romantic name Via dell'Amore. Unfortunately however, there was a landslide a couple of years ago and it is still closed off to the public. So... there are now three ways that you can get from town to town:

1) Walk (not by the sea, but through the towns which I wouldn't recommend because you won't be able to see the sea and it apparently takes a long time)
2) Take a boat (the most scenic but not the fastest or cheapest, and doesn't stop in Corniglia).
3) Take the regional train which comes by at regular intervals. At €4 a journey it's not cheap as it can start to add up very quickly, but at some stations you can buy a Cinque Terre day pass for €16.

We then made our way down to the second town, Manarola which is only a few minutes away from Riomaggiore. Whenever you travel by train make sure to get the window seats by the sea - it's amazing.


Along with Vernazza, the fourth village, Manarola is probably the most famous on pintrest/tumblr/any other social media site because it is absolutely breathtaking. It's an ancient Roman town and is also very famous for it's Sciacchetrà wine, although unfortunately we didn't have time to try any. We were only there for a day and we were on a mission to quickly see a couple of the villages before heading to the beach in the fifth village: Monterosso al Mare.


Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from here (imagine sandy beaches filled with beach umbrellas) as once we got there we had to put our bags away into a locker because I didn't want to leave our belongings on the beach whilst we went kayaking. Please please please be careful when you're travelling in Italy, especially in super touristy places like Cinque Terre. We found a locker service after speaking to a lovely man who worked at the train station (who was very surprised that I could actually speak Italian, just shows how many tourists there are!). It is located just to your left when you come out of the train station, and it was €6 per bag for the whole day until 6.30pm. A lot of the beaches in Monterosso al Mare are private, paid beaches, however with some research you can find the free ones - don't get trapped into paying money! Although if you want to have an umbrella and a sun lounger it might be worth it.

After putting our things away we made our way down to the beach and hired a two person kayak from Samba Kayak Rental and it was 12 for an hour - not too bad! We (note: boyfriend) then kayaked from Monterosso to the closest village, Vernazza. We didn't quite make it because we had to turn back before the hour was over but it was an interesting ride and you could peek into some of the caves along the way. At some points I started freaking out thinking that we would capsize when some stronger waves came along (which he thought was hilarious) but unless it's a very windy/stormy day you'll be absolutely fine.


All in all it was an absolutely beautiful day and I would definitely recommend going. I know that a lot of companies offer packages from Florence (including travel), but as my boyfriend is 100% against all tours (sigh) we decided to do it by ourselves and train tickets were not too expensive (€27 return from Firenze Santa Maria Novella to La Spezia, excluding the travel in between the towns). The towns themselves obviously aren't cheap because everything is aimed at tourists, however you can find some cheaper food options if you venture into the town and keep your eyes peeled. It depends on what you want to do and if you're not too fussed about spending a lot of time in the sea/on the beach you can definitely do all five towns in one day but it may feel a little rushed and it'll be a very long one (we woke up at 6am and only got back around 11pm). However it is definitely worth it! The Italian coast is one of the most beautiful I've seen.

Alexandra x