Fun and Food in Florence
By far, Florence is one of our favourite cities in all of Europe. From the food, wine, activities, and small city feel, one cannot go wrong!! This post is dedicated to the fun and food in Florence at Trattoria Nella!
How?
For our big trip to Rome, Italy, we wanted to make a “quick” pit stop in Florence in order to spend the next day in Siena. Therefore, we had to fly into Bologna, train to Florence, and then take a bus to Siena the following morning. Is Florence worth it? YES!!!
To get to Bologna, we flew from Luton Airport on a 4pm Ryanair flight, arriving around 7pm. In a perfect world, this allows one hour to get through security and make it to the train station that is 15 minutes away. The train is really easy and comfortable and is only 30 minutes from Bologna to central Florence.
- Flight: £132
- Train: £54
- Hotel: £58
Once in Florence, we stayed at our “favourite” hostel, Leonardo’s, because it is just so much cheaper than an AirBnB. Plus, it is only one night and we would be leaving early in the morning. From Florence, Siena is an hour away via car or bus. The bus station is conveniently right next to the train station too! A one way ticket is about 7 euros.
Travel Tip: There are two buses to Siena – a fast (i.e. more direct or one with less stops) or the local bus. For your sanity, make sure your arrival time is around an hour from Florence!
Onto Florence, via Luton and Bologna
As some would know, we have frequently used this Luton – Bologna route before as direct Florence flights are too expensive. Normally, our flights are nothing to mention – especially on a Thursday afternoon. We arrived at Luton airport with plenty of time, we had priority lines and luggage, and plenty of time. However, things do not always go according to plan especially with Mary Frances.
Although she was working less than 5 minutes away, she waited until I arrived at Luton to make herway to meet me. Because I had her ticket, I then had to wait on her. So I waited. And waited. Finally, she shows up at 3:30pm, less than 30 minutes before our scheduled departure. Rather than enjoying lounge life, I had to sit with the “peasants” in the departures area… Because karma comes around, I made her run to get to the gate. It was quite amusing as she hates when I do this!
Ticket Fiasco
Normally, for Ryanair seating, I do not pay until 24 hours before the flight once the seats have been allocated. More often than not, Ryanair gives one of us a fantastic seat, then I just have to buy one person’s seat. However, last night, my internet cut out and did not allow me to get my seats. Once we arrived at the ticket gate, they put us aside and promised to resolve it soon…
Travel Hack: 24 hours before your flight, allow Ryanair to randomly allocate your seats. Once you are randomly allocate, whomever has the best seat, move your partner next to them and only pay for 1 seat!
In the Ryanair world, “soon” means once the entire flight has boarded. At the end, we were the ones holding up the plane! It was quite awkward as we were rushing to the plane and had to hand our bags to the guy in order for him to immediately toss it in the hold. For our seats, we were in the back 5 rows.
Normally, this would be totally fine. However, this flight was about 70% full of Orthodox Jewish families. Each family had at least two screaming toddlers and all of them were in the back with us! It was very amusing as I watched MF cringe. For us, we just needed to put on our Bose headphones and we are golden!
The Amazing Race… to the Train station
Because everything felt like it was going “wrong”, I had resigned myself to missing the Bologna train to Florence. I was fully prepared to stand hours in a custom line because there were 100 families who cannot use the EU e-passport gates; thus, causing us to just stand there for ages. Yes, we did wait. Yes, we did run to get a taxi! Once we were in the taxi, our driver informed us that our train was… delayed! Somehow, someway, things were turning around for us!!
Fun & Food
Once in Florence, we had to make a BIG decision. Should we go with our absolute favourite restaurant, Trattoria Nella, or a newcomer, Gnori?? There is only one answer – go for Nella!! We were also starving after our long flight and train ordeal so we were ready for fresh pasta and a good time! Immediately after walking into Nella, I knew we made the correct decision!
The atmosphere was fantastic and we were the only tourists in the place. They joked with us about our food and our indecision of what to order!!
Our Meal
For our appetizer, we had the fresh bruschetta. At Nella, this is a classic favourite with the fresh tomatoes and bread. Utterly delicious! With only one night, we had a very difficult decision for our main course.
We obviously knew we were getting pasta, but there were so many choices!! MF is a big fan of their specials (and so am I but I let her get them!) so she chose the tortellini with Bolognese. Simple, yet wonderful! Because I let her get our favourite dish, I went with the “second choice” and chose the Penne Nella! The pictures do not do it justice!
Lastly, for dessert, we chose one panna cotta with chocolate. Unfortunately, someone (me) finished it too quickly so we had to order ANOTHER one! The staff was cracking up that we destroyed the panna cotta and just had to order another one! MF swears this is the BEST panna cotta she has ever had. Trust me, she has had panna cotta in nearly every Italian restaurant!
Photo Fun!
After we strolled through Florence to get over our food coma, I decided to venture back out to take some pictures of the famous Duomo. Despite the late hour, there were loads of people in the square at midnight. While it did not hamper my photos, it was very interesting to see folks still active this late on a Thursday night! These photos also do not do justice to the beauty of Florence at night. The lights that hit the church and square just make the marble turn into magic!
