A little bit of everything: Florence, Pisa

it was easy getting around from city to city in Italy.

we took the train from Venice to Florence and it was my first time getting around in a train!

you can see how comfortable G looks with his noise canceling headphones!

he always have one of those on whenever he is traveling on the plane and now, i am so much influenced that i use them too.

they are a dream to use on those long flights when you really do not wish to listen to things you don't want to because they cancel out noise very effectively.

even with the horribly small screen on the entertainment system, with a good sound effect, i was totally engrossed in a few shows.

i remember that 2 years ago when we went to Paris and London, we had the option to take the train but had opted for the plane because it was faster... but really, when you take into consideration the security checks and the early check in for flights, the duration is about the same.

For our stay in Florence, we picked JK place which is a very charming boutique hotel right in the middle of the city.

i think it is the best hotel i've stayed in.

because this boutique hotel only have 20 rooms, everything was very personalized and the service was exceptional.

the owner of the hotel must have put in his heart and soul into the organizing of it which used to be a town house.

it is also a very short walking distance to everywhere. very important point if we are the kind that shopping makes our heart skip a beat.

i know for sure that i am going to stay there every single time i go to florence and i know that G will agree to it because he had been asking me " baby, does our toilet smell like JK place after i put the candles in??? "

This is the lobby of the hotel which is also the place where the guest comes down for breakfast every morning.

there are nuts, fruits , champagne, wine and juice here at anytime of the day and guests are free to pop by and enjoy them anytime you like.

the staff were always there to check if we needed something to drink even if we were just loitering around for a few minutes.

the difference i felt from this hotel was how they bothered to make us feel welcome.

the big hotels are sometimes... a little.... commercialized in my opinion, that there is no real human touch.

plenty of orchestrated actions yes but none which makes you feel right at home.

The Breakfast table where guests from different parts of the world can gather and have a chat during breakfast and you could choose to have the breakfast delivered to your rooms instead and that was what we did for everyday because i am the kind of person who loves to have my breakfast before dressing up!

The tv room which was mostly empty and which was littered with those glorious style magazines.

i mean, italians are all so stylish and i can understand why.

its in their culture to be stylish!

almost everyone from kiddos to old grandpa look effortlessly chic.

i think it has got to do with the fact that they only sell chic looking things anyway and if your mum is all stylish and sartorialist, i am sure your style will not differ much right?

i also noticed that lots of people wore leather jackets and they looked so good.

short, fitting leather jackets instead of huge, bulky, shapeless jackets.

in order to fit in, i bought a leather jacket too but someone still thinks that i looked nothing like the italians.

The small but cosy reception counter with its beautiful ceiling

Our room with the charming italian bathroom

i've always wanted to have this cross handle faucet for the bathtub. loves~~~

we went to walk around a little and got some shopping done before settling at a nice cafe for a very nice dinner where i tried the lobster risotto while G had his pasta which name i cannot remember. haha.

The risotto was extremely tasty and we topped it off with dessert after that! *blissed out*

My creme brûlée with fruits and his tiramisu which is not here because it turned out blurry...

This breakfast set look very much the same for the whole time we were in JK place because we are just not the adventurous sort!

it was nice to have that everyday :)

i especially miss the mini croissant with jam fillings!!

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to rent a car so that we could drive to Space, which is the prada outlet and then hopefully, to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

we (not me) decided to go to the outlet first instead of checking the Leaning tower first.( The horrors !!! ) i think that says a lot about our priorities in life. ( not mine )

we had the wind in our hair and the sun shining on our faces again. the weather was awesome.

Apart from Space, i think everyone should check out The Mall instead because they have all the other very popular labels and there was a 2 story huge prada outlet there too. The things in the prada outlet looked really similar.

so, if you only have time to go to one outlet, go to The Mall and you should be very happy.

The Mall, Via Europa 8, 50060 Leccio Reggello

So, after the shopping, we drove for another 90 minutes to the leaning tower of Pisa and by the time we got there, the sun was setting really fast and by the time we parked and got out of the car, to the tower, the sun was almost gone.

by the time we learnt the trick of photographing this building in its tilted state, the sun was all gone.

fortunately for this huge spotlight behind, we managed to get some blurry pictures but better than nothing i guess!!!

I was trying to take the picture in a way that G looks like he was leaning on the tower but due to my inexperience, he looked like he was leaning on the grass.