Perugia, Florence, Siena

After leaving Rome I traveled by train to Perugia, a student town in Umbria. The town itself is on a hillside, with the historic centre at the top, the bus station in the middle and the train station further down. The town is in a wonderful location: the view from the historic area over the surrounding landscape was magic.
























It was much colder here in Rome, given that the town is up in the hills. The people I met in the hostel were students from other parts of Italy rather than fellow backpackers. My hostel was interesting in that rather than giving each guest a key to their room, they simply asked you to leave the key in the door if you were inside or at reception if you were away. It worked fine as a system though.


I stayed one night in Perugia and sampled the local wine and chocolate, both of which were excellent. Perugia is famous for the latter. I wasn't sure whether to head to Siena or go straight up to Florence: the issue was resolved by the fact that there was only one bus a day to Siena and it had left before I got to the station. So, I took a train to Florence.


I hadn't booked anywhere to stay and all the hostels recommended in the guidebook were full, so I ended up staying in a slightly bizarre place where all the rooms were pre-fab type things lined up right next to each other and back to back in a large room. Privacy was adequate though and the staff were very helpful.



This is the Arno river in Florence. There are a number of bridges over it, one of which (the Ponte Vecchio) has a number of shops on either side. It's a very beatiful river but I was surprised there were not more cafes, restaurants, etc down by the water's edge.







Both of the hostels I stayed at were on the other side of the Arno river from the major attractions but it didn't take me long to get there each day. I went inside the Duomo, climbed up to the top of the Campanile to get a great view of the city, and went to the Galleria dell'Academia to see Michelangelo's David. Luckly it was cultural week while I was there so admission to the Galleria dell'Academia was free. I didn't book ahead for either the Duomo or the Galleria dell'Academia (you do it via a website and it costs extra per attraction) so I had to wait in some pretty impressive queues


On the other side of the river from the Duomo is a place called Piazzale Michelangelo, which offers an amazing view of the city. This was possibly the most beautiful sight I had seen so far on my trip:






While in Florence I took a day trip to Siena, a small town in Tuscany. It is a neat little spot, well worth a visit. It is famous for a horse race that is run every year in the Piazzo del Campo, the main common area of the town.








Florence is an amazingly beautiful city in the spring, I really loved my visit there. Here's a photo of one of its more interesting buildings: