Eurotrip: Siena-Florence

Before I begin on Day 2, aku nak cerita sikit pasal groupmates dalam tour ni. They consist of majority mat-mat salleh from all over the world, and I have to admit, ramai yang lebih tua daripada parents aku pun. 60 plus, 70 plus, ada sorang pakcik ni aku rasa dah 80 lebih. Amazingly, ada 2 ladies, sorang Australian and sorang South African, yang traveling alone! Berani giler! Sembang dengan diorang ni pulak, eh seronoknye! Macam-macam cerita keluar.

Surprisingly, quite a few of them are familiar with Muslims more than I expected. For example the Russells from South Africa. First time kami sembang masa kat Colloseum, dia baca nama aku dekat name tag (and mind you, she said my name right the first time!) “Fairuza. I had a colleague once, Idris. His wife’s name was Fairuza.” Aku angguk, sebab aku tahu South Africa ramai Muslims, nothing shocking there. Lepas tu dia sambung, “But he was a horrible man. He dranked, he gambled. But when it’s nearing Eid, he’d be a good man for 1 month.” Tergelak aku dengar observation dia. Spot on!

Lepas tu sembang dengan Kay Johnson from New Zealand. Bila dia dengar aku dari Malaysia, dia cerita, “A few years ago I had 2 Malaysian girls living with me for about 5 months. They were from a student exchange program.” Faridah and apetah nama sorang lagi, dia cakap. Dia kata sepanjang masa tu hari-hari dia masak vegetarian menu untuk budak-budak tu, tapi budak-budak to complain kat dia yang they were putting on weight sebab dia masak vegetarian pun sedap. Heheh.

It’s great, sebab none of them looks and reacts to me like I’m some terrorist with bombs strapped to myself, suicide bombing myself. Ramai yang arif pasal kami tak boleh makan pork, walaupun mungkin diorang tak peka pasal ayam dan daging pun perlu disembelih in the right way untuk kami makan. Oh, and they all say my name right! All of them; the local Italians, mat-mat salleh, Bangla-bangla kat sini. Fairuza ya, bukan Faizura. Ha! Baca betul-betul. Ha! HA!

Day 2

High end shops in lanes and building like these

Anyways, we left for Siena after breakfast, pukul 8. Pagi tu makan dengan Lim sekumpulan. Journey to Siena took about 3 hours. Sampai sana jauh jugak berjalan nak sampai ke destinasinya. Tapi suasana kat situ best. Jalan kecik, sikit mendaki, kedai kecik-kecik kiri kanan, tapi jangan main-main, kedai-kedai dia taraf shopping mall okay! Semua kedai brand hebat-hebat di atas bukit yang almost like middle of nowhere. Kalau nak bagi orang Malaysia bayangkan, aku akan describe macam pergi Frasers Hill tiba-tiba ada semua kedai-kedai baju, jam, kasut brand jenama antarabangsa. Luar biasa!

Aku dan husband suka sangat tempat tu, and wished we had more time there, tapi masa yang diberi cuma about sejam suku, including untuk have lunch. So tak sempat explore banyak. Lunch pun makan pizza sambil berdiri je dekat kedai pizza dan kebab halal. Sedapla, dan besar gedabak pizza tu. 10 Euro untuk 2 potong pizza (1 slice dia bersamaan about 2 slice regular kat Malaysia), 1 kebab ayam dan 1 air. Murahla kalau tak convert ke duit kita.

Our lunch for the day

We continued on our journey to Firenze/Florence, arriving there at around 3. Trafalgar (the tour agency) offered an art history tour on Michaelangelo’s  artworks but we opted not to go. Ramai jugak yang tak pergi; so the rest of us boleh merayau-rayau Bandar Florence, tengok Duomo and the many churches, aku pun dah lose track of which one is which.

Truthfully, we didn’t enjoy Florence much. The weather was hot, the place was too crowded, everyone smokes, the locals bring dogs with them everywhere, and people pee wherever they feel like it. Kalau tengah jalan-jalan, tiba-tiba nampak selopak air atas jalan tu, elakkanla. Tepi-tepi dinding bangunan dia semua ada stains, dan hancing sangat. Product special kat sana ialah leather dan 18k gold. Of course, both of that are waaaayyy beyond our budget, so tengok, telan-telan air liur sket, pastu balik.

Check-in hotel pukul 7. Novotel Firenze Nord Aeroporte. Oh, this time I’m so happy with the room. Modern, spacious, clean. Dah ada katil double, pastu ada sofa bed lagi. Flat screen TV with so many channels (unfortunately, semua channel dia cakap Italy, including movies. Aku tengok Thor cakap Italy, Reese Witherspoon pun cakap Italy, Keira Knightley pun cakap Italy. Blegh!) Jag air panas ada, so yay! I can eat my Maggi here. Love the hotel! Satu je tak best; it’s in the middle of nowhere, kawasan gudang-gudang so takde tempat shopping or makan.

Dinner was provided by the hotel, but since kami tak boleh eat any meat, they had no choice but to give us – tadaa! Telur dadar for dinner! Nasib baik starter dia was pesto pasta, dan portion dia not bad. Kenyangla jugak. Duduk semeja dengan Kay and Tim Johnson from New Zealand, and Magnus and Celine from Phillipines. They were okay, but spent most of the time talking to Kay. Walaupun tua – i think she’s at least 70 – but it was so much fun talking to her!

Went back to the room at 10, slept by 11. “Pooped!” Bak kata Esther McConkey, the travel director.