The STEEMIT COUPLE: representing Steemit in Florence, Italy in our travel blog

in travel •  8 years ago  (edited)

Last week, I had my first ‘hits’ on Steemit with my posts on “the value of Philosophy” and on “the Philosophy of Bruce Lee” which together earned me some $5,000+. I was surprised, and pleased, that posts on philosophy were able to earn that much.

I cashed out around $700 worth of Steem Dollars, and used the money to surprise my girlfriend with a trip to Pisa and Florence in Italy for her birthday. All the while, we will represent Steemit on our trip!

Why Florence?

Ever since I was a little kid, maybe from the age of 8 or 9, the Renaissance painters and inventors intrigued me. I loved reading about Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Galileo and when I got older I read about the Medici family who were among the richest in Europe and who had financed much of the Renaissance. Florence was the hometown of the Medici and the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.

Despite my fascination with the city, I had never visited it before. Thus, extremely excited, I booked us two return tickets, three nights in Florence and one night in Pisa.

Getting to Florence

After some 5-hours sleep, we prepared ourselves to take the train from my hometown Breda to Eindhoven airport. With nothing but our backpacks on our backs, we boarded Ryanair’s airplane and landed at Pisa Airport. At the Arrivals Hall, we bought a ticket for the shuttle bus that would bring us from the airport to Pisa Train Station, and we bought a train ticket that would take us from Pisa Train Station to Florence Santa Maria Novella (the main train station in Florence).

First night of sightseeing

Once we arrived in Florence, we were hungry and tired of the trip. We left home at 8:30 AM in the morning and had only eaten one small bread at Eindhoven Airport before we arrived in Florence at 5:00 PM. The first thing we did was trying to find a quick take away bite somewhere to eat at our hostel. McDonalds, which was conveniently situated next to the station, did the job. After 10 minutes of walking from McDonalds/Florence SMN, we arrived in our hostel. We took a shower, ate the 6 chicken nuggets and 4 chicken wings (I think the McDonalds worker accidentally gave us 1 chicken wing too many) and left our hostel for some inner town dinner and sight seeing.

Il Mercato Centrale

Our first stop was Il Mercato Centrale, which is an indoor food market. It received many good online reviews so we had to experience it ourselves. It is a great place to explore many different foods offers in Florence. Downstairs you have a large variety of fresh groceries, but it is only opened in the morning. Upstairs, you can find a food court with various frittos (fries), burgers, soups, pastas, pizzas, ice creams, and of course drinks. We sat down for our first Florentine dinner, which was a freshly made €9.00 ansjovis pizza.

The pizza base was amazing, smokey and doughy. The melty cheese was stretchy and held nicely together. The pizza was delicious! And it was large enough to share between the two of us.

Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Thereafter, we moved to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers) which is located in the heart of the historic center of Florence. The cathedral is a Florentine trademark. It was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296, but was completed with the dome that was engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance.

The cathedral was built with splendid details. See for example the details of the main portal.

Ponte Vecchio

After the visit to the cathedral and the Duomo, we moved to the Ponte Vecchio. It is a spectacular medieval bridge over the Arno River and has shops on its sides owned by jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It was the only bridge that survived the Second World War. When we arrived at the bridge, the shops were closed and a street entertainer was entertaining a crowd with some soothing songs. We stayed there for half an hour to enjoy the view and the music.

Our way back home

Then we moved our way back home, passing the Piazzale Degli Uffizi where we found statues of Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, Dante and many more before we found a supermarket to buy some evening snacks and a bottle of water.

When we returned, we took a shower and I planned our next day’s trip. That’s when the first disappointment of our trip kicked in: all museums we wanted to visit were fully booked until August 29. That day, however, we had already reserved for a city trip to Siena.

It’s such a shame that we wouldn’t be able to visit the art museums!

Nonetheless, we had a lot of travel fun the next day. We visited the Piazzale Michelangelo, a nearby hill from where we could have a spectacular panoramic view of Florence. We visited one of the Medici castles, we had great lunch at a cosy Italian restaurant and ate some ice cream from an apparently very well-known Florentine icecream shop. And of course, we have represented Steemit throughout the day!

See our next blog article for the second day of our adventure… ;)

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That's really sweet of you! 🙂 supporting you guys!!!

I live in Japan.
At the sight of a happy couple, now in fun feeling.

you are cute couple :)

Haha, thank you @jasmine-l :)

Hello Lin.

I hope you enjoy your trip. Italy has super great food, and a rich cultural history. :)

Yes, we are enjoying our trip. We find Italians very beautiful people. Their food is good, and the historical history is magnificent.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Every time I scroll down, and see that pizza. I feel like I want go and get something to eat. I feel like.. Hack, now I'm going to google Italian food in town!

3 hours later:

You are very lucky in steemit :)

@chhaylin Love that you guys added the video. Made me feel like I was right there too, nice touch. That's what a lot of the travel blogs are missing, videos! thank you so much for sharing :) Pleasant travels!

Thank you @comealong! That's right. Thank you for your valuable feedback on videos.

Congratulations with your first "hits". Seems like the third one is on the way!

Thank you @reactor, I hope you are right and a third is on the way. :)
Nonetheless, I have realised how difficult it is to produce hits consistently. I am not taking anything for granted, and try to focus on posting original content that I find funny and interesting.

Here you go - third "hit" (^_^)

wow! cool nice post @chhaylin
vote done

I want to take a leisurely tour of all of Italy after seeing what just one day was like for you!

Haha, yes. The first day in Florence was breathtakingly beautiful if you love art and medieval/rennaissance architecture. I will see if I have time to post an article soon on our second day in Florence and of our one-day trip to Siena. Tomorrow we will visit Pisa. Italy so far has been amazing! :)

You are one blissful couple! And congratulations on your "hits". I have yet to see mine. But you serve as an inspiration to us little fish. Love to see more of your escapades.

Hi @cjclaro, I've started small as well. I hope you will have your own "hits" soon. I've tried writing in many different ways, but always on topics that I have found interesting: mainly philosophy. Most of my posts earn less than $3. Keep experimenting and keep writing. :)

That pizza looks amazing.

Most people shy away from anchovies. Good choice!!

Haha, yes. To be honest, we didn't know what we ordered. We just chose a pizza with a fancy Italian name and it turned out to be anchovies. :D

How they melt on the tounge, hmm!

Beautiful seeing love:) That pizza looked great! Nice Share!!!

Thank you, @arcaneinfo! :)

Another Good job @chhaylin
Thanks 👍👍👍👍👍

Have a nice trip, i also visited Italy and i had a good impression about them ! Recently i was in Berlin (i also have a trending post about it) and i can suggest with pleasure.

Thank you @denisoi! We love Berlin as well. We just looked at your blog and saw some amazing pictures you have taken there. Hope you have had a nice trip yourself. :)

This is genuinely a great post....I liked reading it. Thanks !

Thank you @steskoff, I appreciate your kind comment. :)

This is wonderful! Great post guys. I'd like to visit Florence too after reading your wonderful description!

Thank you @fishappear, that is very nice of you to say! Florence is amazingly beautiful... the art, the architecture, the people, the food... :D

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Please enjoy genuine taste!
I would like to eat pizza Margherita :-)

Wow , you are Good couple.
It is a fun trip .

So sweet Chhay!

Hi Demelza, thank you! Good to see you on Steemit, btw.

I like your story with beautiful pictures of sights!

Thank you @dwyane36! :)

Great and epic adventure !

:D Glad that you liked it, @spikykevin!

Awesome! I've been there too and here's a panorama image I took when I was there a few years ago.

Your post intrigues me. I always love sharing my travelling photos with people. Hmm, maybe I should start doing some travel blog too?

Italy is a must go! Enjoy it :)

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

:) Yes, I totally agree from what I have seen so far!

You two are adorable. Keep up the travel posts, nice pics in this one. I've always wanted to travel around Italy, but haven't yet earned the money to afford the trip. Someday soon I will though!

Thank you @justtryme90! I hope you will be able to earn enough to afford your trip to Italy. Good luck with all your endeavours!

Thats really great and inspiring!! So nice for you to surprise your gf as well :) I got the shirt as well :) See you soon! x

Yeah, my gf loves the trip! :D
I just looked at your introduction post, and I am very impressed! See you...

aww thanks! next one coming tomorrow :)

pizza... I envy you.

Yummy! :D

👍nice post, enjoy ur travelling...

Thank you, @meteor78!

really? You used $700 dollars for this trip? How did you do that? Tell me your secret. Italy is effing expensive.

Let me make a quick calculation.
The return tickets with Ryanair (budget airline) for both of us was around $250, I think.
Staying in hostels $200.
Eating and traveling is around another $250.

$700 is possible. We didn't fly in Florence as well. We flew into Pisa which saved us quite some money. :)

oh that makes sense. We do not have Ryan Air in my country. One way ticket for us is not less than $300.

I hoped you enjoyed. Italy is really really beautiful.

Muchos buenos deseos, que sigan siempre juntos y trayendo historias interesantes a Steemit.

Thank you @dezconocido for your encouraging words @dezconocido

amazing mate! Italy is always a good choice!!! Your girlfriend will hardly forget about it :D

Haha, thank you! We are both amazed by the beauty of Florence. :)

@chhaylin Florence is beautiful indeed!!! Next trip should be in the south then you will test the really flavour of the food LOL

Good job @chhaylin . That pizza seems tasty!!! My mouth is watering now :)

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Thank you, @prinewahaj! That pizza was awesome, but I've found out that Italy has much more awesome food! :D

Nice t-shirt, can i get one ? ;)

Thank you! Why don't you make one yourself? :D

Awww, what a cute little girl hit by an imaginative kamehameha. ;)

where you from?

The Netherlands :) What about you?

russia))
now live in Bali
indonesia

im from indonesia

what a lovely success story ending up in Italy :) bella vita !!!

Grazie, @mammasitta! :)

Very welcome ! Enjoy Bella Italia !

it is verry nice that u surprised your girl friend whit this tripp

i hope she like't it

She loves it! We are both loving it. :D

I would love to get my mouth on that pizza!

:D It was........... A W E S O M E!!! Yummy...

  ·  8 years ago Reveal Comment

:)

Hi, i'm not a big fan of people cashing out to go on holidays, it seems like wasted money that could be used for something greater. I don't know, it just don't seem right to me.

Traveling is one of the best ways to get education. I'm pretty sure this couple did not just go on "holidays". They have learned a lot in the few days of their travel than staying in school for 4 years for sure. Plus there is another chance for them to "hit" big with their new experiences. I would love to travel the world myself. But each one has his own proclivities.

If everyone was doing that the economy of steemit would die in a few minutes. Going on holidays doesn't add anything of value to the world, only to personal experiences. I don't understand how whales are upvoting holidays goers. This post doesn't add any value to the community.

I'm not so sure about #steemit dying if everyone cashes out. I do believe it will make STEEM stronger because it only shows that STEEM is liquid.

If people stayed where they are and never traveled or have gone to holidays because they think it's not adding value to the society, that my friend is a wrong concept of going on holidays.

It may seem self-serving spending holidays and spending hard-earned money just to "enjoy" although some may have that same intention. But even then, going to places, meeting people, learning about culture, or even learning how one travels from his hotel to a restaurant in Bangkok is an education in itself.

I'm sorry to disagree with you, and you have the right to your own opinion. But traveling, even going on holidays, gives us opportunity to get educated no school or university can ever provide.

:) thank you @lyubovnam! I just looked at your post, and your journey looks wonderful! I hope you've had a great time.