Booked tickets for Vatican Museums the night before for the 11am slot so we could afford to set off slightly later than the day before. Meant to see the Palatino but we were confused and didn't realise that the Palatino and the Roman Forum used the same entrance so of course having already entered the Roman Forum our tickets weren't valid for a second entry. But it turned out to be a good thing as it took us one hour to walk to Vatican!! So had we stayed we would've been late for the 11am slot.
The queue for the Vatican Museums were really crazy omg it was never-ending. We had to pay €4 extra for the online booking but given our lack of time it turned out to be the right thing to do. The museum was really huge and there was a recommended route (and also a shorter route) so we took the longer route. Lots of statues and ancient Egyptian stuff which was quite cool and I also really loved the architecture of the museum! We didn't have time to see everything in detail - it's so huge I don't think I would be able to finish seeing everything even if I had a week, but was pretty cool though I don't think I would go back again anytime soon as the tickets are not cheap and it's permanently super crowded.
We spent about 2.5 hours in the museum then went for lunch at this restaurant called Bella Napoli near Vatican found from Google maps again. Finally got a tomato-based pasta again but it was the thicker noodles (shucks I forgot the name) and also got desert - zuppa inglese which is basically a sponge cake with custard and liqueur (I tasted rum). It was really good and I would've liked to have another but was a bit full and we had a bus to catch. Took the metro back to the hotel to pick up our luggages before heading to the Tiburtina bus stop to take our €1 bus to Florence!
Anyway the hotel we were staying at is called Casa Cleo and it was really nice! Well not as fancy as Hotel Bled from the last time but honestly would never have been able to afford Hotel Bled if not for the Expedia mess-up lol. But this hotel was really nice too, YL booked it and it's more of a home-run hotel in an apartment building. Realised that Italy has a lot of these apartment-turned-hotel kind of things haha. We had a double room with a private external bathroom (meaning the toilet was down the corridor but it was just for us) and the people were really nice! Room was very clean and we were actually able to check-on early and they also helped us to print out Vatican tickets haha oh and one thing is most of the tickets in Italy require you to bring a hard copy. But anyway the location was good too except for the flights of stairs we had to climb to get to the 3rd floor (didn't know how to use the lift) and I wouldn't mind staying again!
The bus took about 3 hours and we arrived in Florence slightly before 8pm. Everything was closed by then and we were quite tired so decided to just go for dinner and then go back to rest. Took us a while to find our B&B because Google maps showed the location to be on the other side of the street but this elderly couple saw us and were really nice to ask what number we were looking for. The lady asked "Qual'è numero" and thank goodness for basic Italian knowledge I was able to understand and reply "venti-cinque" so she led us to the correct door!
Dropped out stuff down then walked towards to the city centre for dinner. YL's Friend had recommended a place called Trattoria ZàZà but it was really full and had a long queue by the time we arrived so we just searched for other restaurants near it and ended up going to another one called Osteria Pepo which was just a few units away. We both got a soup each and shared a steak which was quite good but nothing much special I think ... The soup was really thick more like a stew and not sure if it's just a different style but oh well!! Went back to the B&B after that.
No comments:
Post a Comment