Europe trip 2019. Fourth stop: Italy - Part 3

ITALY (Continued)

11 September 2019

After 11 wonderful days of traveling, it’s time for Rhys to get back to work. There is a race on in Misano this weekend. As our stay at the campground there was not such a success (to be read in the previous blog), I came up with a plan B for myself. On the way back to Misano, Rhys is going to drop me off in Florence. I have booked a hostel there for three nights. I’ll be honest, I am a little bit nervous for my mini solo adventure, but also quite excited to see this city. I have seen pictures and read stories and it looks amazing!

Around midday we arrive at the P&R just outside of Florence where Rhys is dropping me off. It feels like we won’t see each other for a couple weeks, even though it’s only a couple of days. The fact that I hate saying goodbye doesn’t help. Rhys was going to wave me off at the tram, but there is an issue with the ticket machines and you can now only get a ticket at the little office. The line is massive and it moves along at Italian pace. It takes so long that Rhys has to leave or he will be late for his work this afternoon.

I was afraid I would be super lonely the next couple days, but when I finally get my ticket and get on the tram, I get talking to a couple nice Canadians. They have been in Florence before years ago, and thought they would remember the place. But the truth is they have forgot and are asking me which stop they should get off the tram. Obviously I have no clue where they should get off, but I just googled and helped them out this way. It was quite a funny situation really.

It’s only a short walk from my tram stop to the hostel. It’s in the middle of the city centre. The first impression if this city is really good. It looks gorgeous, with its big cobblestones, old buildings and churches. When Google tells me I have arrived at the hostel, I am more or less in the middle of a square and a leather market. No hostel to be seen. I walk back and forth but no luck. In the end I ask one of the salesmen and I probably wasn’t the first, because he points the door that leads up the hostel out to me. There is another guy at the door, waiting to go in. We get to talking and his name is Roger, he is from the USA. We are still chatting while we both check in, and the lady at the front desk thinks we know each other and changes my room so we sleep in the same dorm room. Maybe she thought she could play match maker, I don’t know. It didn’t worry me at all, the dorm room was really nice. It had 3 beds downstairs and 2 beds on the upper level. And a private bathroom with a shower.

The two beds upstairs have been taken, so Roger and I settle in on the beds downstairs.  He leaves soon after to start his sightseeing. I haven’t decided yet what I want to do, so I stay in the room and do some more research on Florence and try and plan my days. Not long after Roger left, in walks Melissa, or Mel. A girl from New Zealand, but currently living in Australia. She is on a solo trip through Italy. I feel instantly connected to her, not only because she is from NZ, but she is super nice and easy to talk to. We talk for a while but she has plans to meet up with friends in the city. As I didn’t have any plans yet she invites me to come along.

Catching the first glimpse of this city is just amazing. Its square after square, after church after  church and another amazing  buildings. Absolutely incredible. The big cobblestones make give it a medieval feel. We end up at a huge square with a fountain and a dozen statues. On first glimpse a weird setup with all the different statues, but when you hear the story behind it its super cool. More on that later.

The friends Mel is waiting for is her friend Andy, she used to go to school with, and his girlfriend Kate. They live in Scotland now. His work brought him to Florence, coincidentally at the same time as Mel. They are super nice and friendly and don’t mind at all that I am tagging along. We walk around the city in search of a nice bar and end up in this super cool wine bar where we do a wine and cheese tasting. I am having the best time. This morning I thought I was going to be lonely and miserable. Not 5 hours later I have met these incredible people who I am sitting in a bar with drinking wine and tasting cheese. To me this is what (solo)traveling is all about!

We say goodbye to Mel's friends and decide we would like to eat something. All this wine and cheese made us hungry. It’s already quite late but most restaurants are still open. Obviously we choose to eat pizza. They have plenty of gluten free options, so I am in heaven.

When we arrive back at the hostel it's after midnight and one of my nightmares of sleeping in a dorm is becoming reality: a loud snoring dorm mate. Roger is fast a sleep and sawing logs. I mean, proper 80 decibel snoring. Not only that, he is also playing one of those calming tunes that supposed to help you sleep. Sounds of water running down a stream and bird sounds combined with some musical instruments fills the room. The volume is set to a level where we can all enjoy it. It’s ironic, while Roger is snoring away both Mel and I are wide awake. Even with my earplugs in I can hear the music and the snoring quite good. Aaah the joys of a shared dorm.

12 September 2019

A new day in beautiful Florence. As Roger, Mel and I are all new to the city, we decide to do a free walking tour together. Our tour guide is this super nice guy, I think he is Portuguese. He is wearing a headset that is attached to a speaker that hangs around his neck. Every time we move places and gather around him to listen to his story he starts off with: ‘can everyone hear my voice?’. He also carries a green umbrella, not because there is a possibility of rain (it’s actually really hot), but because the city is so busy that it’s easy to lose him in the crowd. When we walk from spot to spot, he puts up the umbrella and holds it in the air so you know where to go and who to follow.

Our guide is super passionate about Florence and its history. The biggest element of his story about the history of Florence is the Medici family. Our guide is so passionate about teaching us, he even takes time to practice the correct way of pronouncing the name.

The Medici family was the Italian family that ruled Florence, and later Tuscany during most of the period from 1434 to 1737.  They first attained wealth and political power in Florence through their success in commerce and banking. The Medici are best known for being patron of the arts. Their financial support of the arts and humanities helped to make Renaissance-era Florence a thriving cultural centre.

The Medici family has a special coat of arms, see pictures below. There are many different versions, but the most famous one is the one with six red balls on a gold background. Our guide told us that the origin of the ‘balls’ in the coat of arms lay in the translation of the family name (doctor), and that the balls represents medicinal pills. Another theory is that they were symbol of bitter oranges to indicate trade with the East.

This coat of arms is found throughout the entire city. The coat of arms changed over time, at some point a crown on top of the shield with the balls was added. Don't ask me the specific details on this, but I remember that people tried to take the power of the Medici family away (or it was already taken away?), and their response was to add the crown to the coat of arms, to show that they were still the king of Florence. I thought this was genius.

We also visited the square with all the statues,  where Mel and I were yesterday to meet her friends. Our guide explained to us that in times where the Medici family had less political power, they put the statues there to remind everyone of their wealth, but also the statues represented their successes from the past, e.g. battles they had won.

You can see that the enthusiasm of our guide was infectious: it was super interesting to see pieces of his story, like the coat of arms, come back in art work, architecture, buildings or statues around the city and recognize it. Also, I have remembered a lot from this walking tour, which I would never have if we didn’t have such a good guide.

There is a lot more I can tell you about the city and the cool historic story, but I would recommend visiting it for yourself and get the full experience!

The most famous coat of arms of the Medici family:

Recognizing the coat of arms throughout the city:

After our walking tour Mel and I walked through the city a bit and then headed back to the hostel to eat our leftover pizza from yesterday as lunch.

When in Italy, do as the Italians. So, after lunch we took it pretty easy and had a little bit of a siesta. At the end of the afternoon Mel, Roger and I headed back into the city and had dinner together. I had some sort of pasta dish with aubergine. Again, so delicious. Those Italians know how to cook. After dinner we headed over to a part of the city we hadn’t seen yet. We walked around and got a mega ice cream for dessert. It was chocolate flavoured (of course!) and it was the creamiest I had ever had.

13 September 2019

It was another night of loud snoring and pan flute sounds. All part of the experience. This morning I am saying goodbye to Roger and Mel, even though we have only met a couple days ago.  Mel and Roger are travelling to their next destination, while I have another day to enjoy Florence.

I have a busy day ahead of me. As I wanted to try and learn some Italian cooking techniques, I booked the ‘Italian cooking class & central market tour’ a couple days ago. Shortly after booking it the agency rang and said I could get a free upgrade to ‘VIP small group organic Tuscany cooking class in a farmhouse & farmers market tour’. Obviously, that sounded way too good to be true so I asked them to email me the offer and that I would get back to them. But sure enough, the offer came by email and it didn’t seem like there were any small letters involved in the deal. So I accepted and am super excited for this day.

They weren’t lying about the ‘small group’ tour, it was only me and 2 other couples. One from England and one from America. Our guide was a really nice young Italian guy. He took us to the market first, showing different ingredients and what to look out for when going out to buy the best fruit and veggies. Told us all about all the different kinds of tomato's also, and which one you use for what dish. Then we had a couple of tastings, different kind of fruit but also meat and cheese with wine. I think it was 10 AM and I was having my first glass of wine. Definitely the earliest I have ever drunk alcohol.

We had some free time to have a look around the market and do some shopping, before we were being picked up and brought to the farmhouse which was about an hour outside the city.

Now we could get into the real deal: cooking! We started with tiramisu and while that was resting in the fridge, we moved on to making fresh pasta from scratch. Hard work I tell you! Especially the kneading of the dough. And to get the right consistency was quite difficult too. Also, there is a lot of technique involved in cutting the pasta. After that we learned to make 2 different pasta sauces. In between all these activities there was obviously more wine drinking and food tastings.

At the end of the afternoon our tiramisu, pasta and sauce was ready and we got to enjoy our own creations, whilst drinking more wine.  What an amazing experience, I had an absolute blast and was sad to see the day come to an end. Let’s hope I can recreate these delicious meals again when we get home.

When we were on the shuttle that brought us back to city, our guide pointed out a viewing point overlooking the city. He said it was the perfect spot to watch the sun set over the city. I was pretty tired when I got back to the hostel, but this viewing point was still on my mind. The viewing point and hostel lay on opposite sides of the city, so it was quite a walk to get to it. But it was my last evening in the city, so I thought I better make the most of it. After a little relaxing time at the hostel, I mustered enough courage to cross the city again and head to the viewing point for the sun set. I had timed it so I would arrive at the perfect time to see it set.

I had my phone in my hand with Google Maps leading the way. I wasn’t entirely sure where the viewing point was, so when maps told me to turn right after the bridge, this is what I did. It showed to keep going straight, so I just kept walking. I did think that the screen looked a bit funny after I took this turn, but didn’t think much of it at first. I just kept walking. Until I started noticing that my arrival time kept getting later and later. Still no alarm went off, although at this point  I was getting annoyed. I honestly thought there was something wrong with Maps and that it couldn’t locate my current position correctly. I wasted quite some time trying to locate my position on the map (even though there was nothing wrong with the position). After about 20 minutes or so the penny finally dropped. I took a wrong turn and was walking in the complete opposite direction as I should have. After the bridge I should have taken a left turn. I blame all the wine for not coming to this conclusion earlier.

I had to walk back to the bridge and then still make it to the viewing point from there, which was at least another 30 minute walk. In my planning I hadn’t left room for the scenic detour that I took, so I actually missed the setting of the sun when I arrived there. I had actually almost turned back because I knew I wouldn’t make it in time. But I am so glad that I didn’t! The view was still magical and the sky turned all these beautiful colours before it got completely dark. I watched the darkness come over the city and all the lights go on. The viewing point was loaded with hundreds of other tourists and I sat down on the top of an amphitheatre like set up, with at the bottom a street performer that was playing guitar and singing. The songs she played were all time classics and some of the crowd sang along and got either their phone or lighter out. It was an incredible atmosphere and I stayed for quite some time, enjoying it all.

Perfect ending to my mini solo trip. Tomorrow morning I will take the bus back to Misano, where I will watch the  MotoGP race while Rhys is working.

14 September 2019

No panfluits last night, Roger had checked out and there were other people in the dorm. I didn’t get much sleep, my alarm went off around 5 am. I have to get back to the P&R to catch the bus to Misano. I had already packed my bag the night before,  so I just silently needed to sneak out of the dorm and get dressed.  When I opened my trolley bag, I saw there was a massive shampoo explosion, gone through most the bag. I still had my bus to catch, so I would have to deal with this later.

I made the tram in time luckily and arrived in time at the P&R to hop on the bus. It was a two hour bus ride from Florence to Misano and I just chilled and watched a couple episodes on my tablet.

When I arrived in Misano, Rhys was already busy working at the race track. Public transport was going to be a mission, so one of his colleagues, Mark, was so nice to pick me up from the bus station and drive me to the race track. I got a pass that gave me access to the paddock and the viewing area.

I am quite excited to experience the MotoGP here in Italy, as it’s the home track of Rossi. I am not per se a big Rossi fan, but many people are and I think there will be a great atmosphere. Everywhere you look it’s people in yellow, with the no #46 printed on it.  On the way to the track I even saw an official traffic sign that was honouring Rossi. They absolutely love him here.

I watch the free practice sessions from the grass viewing area. There are a lot of people already, but there is still plenty of space to find a nice piece of grass to sit on.  It’s really warm, that Italian sun has some power.

At lunchtime I meet up with Rhys and we have lunch together. He also introduces me to his colleagues. Most of them I had seen before in Assen, some are new to me. They are all really nice and when Rhys gets back to work they let me hang out in their trailer. It has several working benches and a lot of tools. But it also has a sitting area, with a big tv screen that is showing the racing (obviously 😊), it is air conditioned and is stocked with food and drinks. The colleagues that are on a break have a chat with me and it’s nice to get to know them better.

It’s already 7 or 8 pm when Rhys is finally finished for the day. We leave for the hotel which is about 30 minutes from the track. It’s a really nice hotel, close to the beach. Normally the whole Ohlin’s team goes out to dinner together, but one of Rhys’s colleague/friend has organised for us to eat at a restaurant at the top of a hill, overlooking the ocean. The restaurant it supposed to be really good.
We freshen up at the hotel and head to the restaurant, ready for a romantic evening and great food.

After dinner we head back to the hotel and Rhys takes me to the ice cream place near the hotel. He wanted to go to this place perse, as he knew it’s really good. He didn’t lie, it’s ice cream to die for again.

After our dessert we head back to the hotel. It’s going to be an early start tomorrow, so better get some rest.

15 September 2019

Today is race day, exciting! A long day of working and stressing for Rhys. I get to watch the racing. The amount of people at the track is overwhelming. Yesterday I could just walk from the viewing area to the paddock in about 10 minutes. Now it takes me at least 30. It involves a lot of pushing of people and just going with the flow.

Again I divide my day between the viewing area and the Ohlin's trailer. The atmosphere in the viewing area is great. The people go absolutely crazy when they see Rossi coming passed, or even when they here something in the commentary about him. His big rival, Marc Marquez gets booed. As I said, the real diehard Rossi fans are here today. It’s jam packed though, it’s almost impossible to find a spot to sit, let alone a good one. It’s almost a bit overwhelming. But it’s such a unique experience and I am glad to be part of it.

First up is the Moto2 race. Rhys his rider Augusto Fernandez wins the race. It was a super exciting to watch. It was great to see live and I am happy with this win for Rhys. Makes all the hard work of the weekend worth it.

Following moto2 is the MotoGP race. Marc Marquez wins, followed by Quartararo and Viñuales. Rossi just misses out on a podium spot, finishing fourth. With Marquez winning I thought maybe the atmosphere would turn grim, but this is not the case luckily.

After the MotoGP race is done,  most people head home. As they all leave at the same time, it causes a major traffic congestion. It might take 2 or 3 hours to even leave the track and get out of Misano. Rhys and I therefor decide to skip this ordeal and sleep in the van that is parked at the track. There are toilet facilities and even a shower, so it’s almost like being at a camp ground. We are not the only ones staying the night, the parking lot has a couple more campers that are staying the night.

The next race is already coming week, this time in Aragon Spain. We have two days to get there. It’s going to be two long days driving. More on that in my next blog.