Florence

We lost Mom while walking from the train to our Airbnb, so we headed to the nearest Hermès store to wait for her, coz we know where she at.

Our Airbnb! After my first Airbnb experience, I could not wait for my next one, and it did not disappoint. There was even a little basket of cheese crackers waiting for us in the kitchen, which my brothers and I wasted no time in helping ourselves to while our parents talked to our host. Whenever I’m with my family, even though I’m the eldest child, I always seem to revert back to exactly that, a child. Children have more fun though. We will treat ourselves to as many cheese crackers as we like.

From our dining room window, we could see the Duomo right next door. We’ve been having the best of luck with neighbours! I was reading a book when I started hearing hooves clopping, bike bells trilling, inscrutable conversations wafting through the air, and the occasional honk of a car or scooter. I asked Dad what soundtrack he was playing and looked over to see that he had opened the windows, and that the sounds I was hearing were no soundtrack but the real thing.

My parents were set on having steak in Florence, so our Airbnb host recommended Osteria dei Centopoveri. Our waiter was p cute.

We came for the steak, but the seafood risotto was the real winner. Danny and I ordered one to share, but the rest of the family made sure to dig their spoons in too. It was seriously so delicious. At every restaurant after this, Mom would ask the waiter about their seafood risotto, but none of them could compare to the one at Osteria dei Centopoveri.

We were stuffed by the end of the meal, but the chestnut pudding was so enticing that our family of five decided to share one tiny serving. Our waiter was like, “You know it’s like this small right?” but of course in a much more courteous, friendly, and elegant manner. It looked so funny arriving at the table with five dessert spoons stuck in it.

Another restaurant we enjoyed was Coquinarius.

We ordered four of the five pastas on their menu, so after our meal, the manager had to ask us which one our favourite was! He was such a sweet man. He asked us where we were from, and we said from China, and he asked us from which city, and we said from Beijing, and he said he never heard of it, but then he went away and came back and said ahh you mean Peking! and that there were many things he didn’t know but that Peking was the capital of China he did.

He even gifted us a free dish! It was like a sort of cheese ravioli, but it was sweet, like a dessert. I’m looking up the menu online now, and I think perhaps it could have been the cheese and pear raviolini.

Other than our three main meals of the day, we always made sure to get our daily dose of gelato. It’s actually quite difficult taking pictures of gelato, especially since we always crave gelato more than usual when it’s hotter out, but when it’s hotter out, the gelato melts faster. I don’t give those trendy travel bloggers enough credit for all their hard work!

As satisfied as I’d be just eating my way through Florence, we did a bit of sightseeing too. Piazza della Signoria was teeming with people.

Oh yeah, real people too.

During our first afternoon in Florence, Dad headed out himself to look around and take pictures. He asked if I’d like to go with him, but I was pretty tired from flitting around Rome and from the trip over here, and I didn’t want to go back out into the heat, so I opted out. I regretted it when Dad sent us photos of his coffee via our family group chat.

So the next day, I meekly asked my dad to take us to a coffee place and he happily obliged.

Cool art along the way.

Of course, he neglected to say that we’d be hiking all the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo. I mean, I would have gone anyway, but I doubt there was any chance my brothers would have followed along if they had known haha.

Grabbin’ iced coffee at Vip’s Bar. Danny got a mint milkshake, but it was pretty nasty, so he sipped on ours, which was delicious. We arrived just before the sunset and stayed until the sun went down and the city lights lit up.