Celtic Tours Day 6 In Italy with Diana

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where
every journey is a story waitingto be told.
I'm your host, z Michelson, andI'm so excited to take you on a
ride through the world's mostincredible destinations, hidden
gems and unforgettableexperiences.
Whether you're a seasonedtraveler or just starting to

(00:22):
plan your next getaway, you'rein the right place.
Each episode, we'll be divinginto everything from must-see
landmarks to off-the-beaten-pathtreasures, speaking with locals
and travel experts and sharingstories that will inspire your
next adventure.
So sit back, relax and let'swander the world together, one

(00:46):
destination at a time.
Are you ready?
Let's get started.
Hey, again it's.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Zee Michelson and I am with Diana of Celtic Tours
and we are talking Italy.
We are talking day six of herItalian adventure.
So, diana, welcome and tell mewhere we're going today.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Daisy.
Oh my gosh, today is an amazingday.
It's a full day of Florence,whoa a full day of Florence.
Yes, yes, oh, my goodness, whata wonderful day.
Of course, we start off withbreakfast in the morning.
Everybody goes downstairs andhas a great little breakfast,

(01:28):
again included in everybody'spackage, and it's Vela Casa
Grande, vela, casa Grande.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That's where we're staying Now.
When you went to Florence, areyou taking the bus in or the
train now?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
No, we actually took a motor coach, but can you take
the train?
Yes, yes, okay, the trainstation is about a 10 walk, five
minutes to walk fast, okay,that's nice, and you can
actually take the train intoalmost anywhere, anywhere in

(01:59):
within italy, especially thetuscan region, very nice.
So we did have the motor coachthat way.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Okay, and the train to take the train it, so we did
have the motor coach, that way,okay.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
And the train to take the train, it's only like six
and a half euros, that's notvery much at all.
That's one way, yeah, and thetrain station in Florence will
drop you right in the middle ofFlorence, so very, very easy to
walk to, because I did take thetrain one day one evening and
went into Florence for anevening Right.
I remember that Right Oneevening.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
And went into Florence for an evening.
Right, I remember that we weretalking about that.
So now this is an actual tourthat Celtic Tours provided to
their guests that were stayingat the Villa Sassagrande, and it
was the day of Florence.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, yes, so tell me.
So the motor coach comes, weall jump on the motor coach.
It's probably about a 45 minute, maybe an hour to get to.
Florence about a 45 minute,maybe an hour, to get to
Florence.
That's not bad.
No, because it's a motor coach.
Dents tend to go a little bitslower than a regular car.
If you take the train, if youdecide to take the train, you
can take the one-way train thatdoesn't stop along the way and

(02:58):
that'll only take you about 30,35 minutes.
So it's almost like an express.
Exactly, yeah, they haveseveral different trains.
They have a train that'll stopalong the way that takes a
little bit longer, and then theyhave an express that takes you
directly to Florence and it'sonly about $30, $35.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay.
So now everybody had theirbreakfast.
They piled onto the motor coach.
And again, the motor coach isair conditioned.
They are air conditioned.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yes, very, very comfortable.
Yes, very, very comfortable.
Yep, I wouldn't say that Wi-Fiis readily available, because in
Italy there's so many hills, sothe Wi-Fi is very, very choppy.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
So, be aware that you may not have your Wi-Fi, but
you still can take pictures andthen send the pictures later
when you get back to the villa.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, so we met our guide andour guide went ahead and started
walking us, walking us throughthe town of Florence, the city
of Florence.
It's not a town, it's a cityand we stopped.
Our first stop was the majesticDomo di Florencia which is

(03:58):
actually formerly known as theCathedral of St Mary of Flower.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, okay, and that's not what you just said in
Italian.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
No, but it was formerly known as that, so they
renamed it, which is the Dome ofFlorence.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
The Dome of Florence.
Yes, the Dome of Florence.
So that must be a site.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
When you get there, you see that that's like a site
to see it is so beautiful andit's right in the piazza Okay,
this little piazza and the domeitself was built in 1296.
Wow, it was also built with theGiotto Bell Tower and the
baptismal which is right next toit, all done in marble.

(04:39):
And it is amazing because I sawit in the evening time, when I
went to Florence in the eveningand to see it in the evening and
then to see it that morning.
Completely different colors.
They have pastel colors andlike a light green.
This was during the day.
This was during the day that Ididn't notice at night.

(05:01):
At night, you didn't notice allof those colors because the
lighting is so different.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, and it's marble , and when the sun shines on the
marble it brings out thosecolors.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Very nice, yeah, it was really just beautiful, and
the baptismal actually has thegates of paradise.
Yeah, I didn't know that, butyeah, gates of paradise.
We didn't go into anything.
We didn't go into the cathedralbecause we were doing a walking
tour, okay, so we didn't havetime to do that.
But if that's something thatyou wanted to do, we did have

(05:32):
some free time in the afternoon,so you can do that if you'd
like, and Celtic tours can setthat up too as well.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, which is nice.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , we can, and we can set up
almost anything, almost anything, right For anybody.
Yeah, so after the walkingthrough the dome and everything
is kind of Gothic style.
Okay, one particular area it'svery Gothic style, which is
different because Florence isknown for its Renaissance era.
Yes, you know Renaissance time,which I'll talk about in just a

(05:59):
couple of minutes.
So of course, all three ofthose are also part of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site inFlorence.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
So now you're walking around and you're seeing the
Dome of Florence, you're seeingthe bell tower, you're seeing
the baptismal area.
You're not really going into it, but you're kind of seeing it.
You're kind of taking it in.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, we're walking around.
We're looking at the masonry,we're looking at the
construction.
She's talking about the historyof it, telling us more about it
.
I can't even remember half ofthe history of all of this, but
I did remember when it was madeand the marble and, of course,
looking at it, you know, withthe different colors.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
But it's definitely a must-see, does it?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
look like marble.
You know from afar it doesn't,but when you get up on it it
does.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
It does.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
So it's just again a must-see when you're in Florida
A must-see.
So after we were walking aroundthe streets and we're doing our
tour, and then we went to thePiazza della Signoria, I hope
I'm saying that right.
This area was really reallypolitically focused back in the

(07:07):
time of the Medici oh the Medicifamily.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, the Medici.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Very, very well known in Italy.
Yes, so very, very political,and the outside area has all of
these statues, so it's actuallyan outside museum.
They call it like an open air,beautiful, open-air museum
outside Open-air museum there'sall of these beautiful statues,
wow, including the statue ofDavid.

(07:34):
Oh, the infamous statue.
Not the original, not theoriginal.
This is a replica oh, where thestatue of David used to stand
after Michelangelo created it.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Wow, yeah so who created the replica.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Good question, I don't know.
Oh, we're going to have to openour history books to find out.
I'm not exactly sure.
But again, it's very open, veryRenaissance style, a lot of
statues all over the place whereyou can just really take in the
art of that era, of that time.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Well, the Renaissance was very known for art.
It was an enlightening time,yeah, and people just love that.
And now these statues thatyou're looking at in the open
air museum must have beengorgeous, yeah, and were they
also marble?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, oh no, I don't believe they were all marble.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
I don't believe some of them were.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, for example, there was a statue of Medici,
the father of.
Medici.
I think his name was Giovanni.
I don't think what his name was, don't quote me on that.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
But he was the father .

Speaker 3 (08:46):
He was the one who started everything Right and
there was a statue of him.
So again history.
So much history and next toevery statue obviously there's a
plaque where you can learn moreabout it and it tells you who
actually created it.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
So it's a wonderful site and there were still about
what 27 of you wandering withthe tour guide.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Uh-huh, there were 27 of us and again we have our
little whispers, you know in ourears.
We did have somebody who didhave a hearing aid, so they kind
of stayed close to the tourguide because they couldn't put
the little whisper in their ear.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
It doesn't work with hearing aids too well, Right
right.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
So, and I just mentioned that because you know
if you can't put those littlethings in your ear because there
are little buds that you stickin your ear.
Right.
So if you can't, it's not theend of the world, you just kind
of stay close to the tour guide,almost like an earbud Right.
You don't keep listening totheir music.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Right.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Which I kind of enjoyed, everybody He'd go with
the group, so it was really nicebecause I was still able to
hear everything that was beingsaid Right, but I didn't have to
say right on top of her.
It was very nice, yeah.
So then, of course, as we'restrolling and we're learning
more about Florence, then shetakes us to the Academy Galleria

(10:02):
.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Oh, Academy Galleria.
Do you?

Speaker 3 (10:05):
know what's in there?
No, what's in there?
The Statue of David.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Ah, so there's the statue, the original Statue of
David.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Did you?

Speaker 2 (10:15):
see any differences between the real one and the
replica yes, lots of differences.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Number one the size Right.
So yes, there's a lot ofdifferences.
Number one the size Right.
So yes, there's a lot ofdifferences.
But again, the statue itself.
When you first walk in, we didthe skip the line Because
Kelting Tours went ahead and putall of that together.
Which I was really glad becauseyou should have seen the line.
See, it went all the way outthe building.
Wow, it was crazy how far outit went.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
So basically Kelting Tours made these reservations in
advance for everybody to bethere on that day.
So basically you skip the lineand go right past everybody
because you already got yourtickets.
Yep.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
You skip the line and you go right through.
So is this like a museum?
It is a museum, okay, yeah,yeah.
And what was what's nice isthere were so many of us.
I mean we're 20, 27 of us, yeah, so they, they did split us up
in two, which was nice becausethen, we had two tour guides at
one point, so we didn't have toworry about all of us trying to
cram in at the same time, so itwas really nice.

(11:16):
But the first thing you do, youwalk through, you walk through
the corridor and then he tellsus all about the history of
Michelangelo.
And then you go through thehallway and as you're walking
towards the hallway, you seethis 17 enormous statue of david

(11:41):
and along the sides you seedifferent pieces of artwork that
michael angelo actually did ashe, as he was creating david.
So there's all of these marble,and this is done in marble
right.
There's all of these marble andthis is done in marble right.
There's all of these unfinishedmarble pieces aligning along

(12:01):
the walkway as you walk to thisabsolutely huge, beautiful
statue of David.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's amazing to see that kind of a talent, to see
that somebody could actuallycarve such detail in marble.
And he was a genius.
He was, and it's amazing to seeall of this and here it is
right in front of you.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
That in itself was a trip it.
I just I could not, I could notbelieve.
I was in awe.
I was really literally in awe,just taking it in and walking
around.
And as we're listening to him,I had a gentleman at that point
listening to him describe youknow what Michelangelo was
thinking as he was creatingDavid.

(12:45):
Right, the size of David'shands were so much larger than
the rest of his body, theproportion of his hands were so
much larger, and Michelangelosaid that it's because he was so
strong.
Right, His strength was in hishands.
His head was also larger thanthe rest of his body, and that's
because he was smart.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh.
So they made his brain larger,michelangelo created almost a
character in this creation ofhis Fabulous I mean just
fabulous.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
So again, it is such a magnificent site and
definitely a must-see and youhave to go skip the line because
the line was crazy.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Celtic tours helps you, skip the line, always help
you skip the line.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
So the original statue was.
I told you was in the courtyardarea.
And it was there until 1873.
And then that's when they movedit to the Galleria.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, and that's when the replica was placed
Right.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Naturally they want to protect the original.
Yeah, that would make sense tome.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Because it is out in the elements, if you look at the
replica.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
it is out there in the elements and one of the
things I noticed those who haveseen the statue of David or
haven't, I think everybody knowsthat it is a complete nude
statue and one of the thingsyou'll notice about the statue
that is the replica, he doeshave a leaf Right, a little leaf
, which he does not have.
And it's 17th theme ofgorgeousness when it's real

(14:16):
artwork.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
you have to have the original, you have to see the
original.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
You really do you can't cover things up.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
That's what it was meant to look like.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, so I love that and I was really, really
surprised it only tookMichelangelo four years to
complete it.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Four years.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
I thought it was much , I thought it would take much
longer.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Considering the height and the detail.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, amazing, yeah, amazing, yeah.
And then he was doing thatalong with many of his other
works.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, exactly, it wasn't just that, yeah, yeah.
So he'd get up one day and say,okay, I'm gonna work on right
now, I'm gonna work on david thenext day, yeah, so, and then
after david, you can see there'sanother room with other works
of art from other artists duringthat time period, including

(15:05):
Michelangelo's, his trainer, theperson who actually taught- him
.
Right, you know how to sculpt.
Right.
There's a lot of his pieceRight Because he was an
apprentice.
He was an apprentice, he startedoff very young as an apprentice
, so you can go in there and yousee other beautiful, different
works of art from other artistsfrom that time period.
So there's another entire roomwhere you can look at those.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
That's really nice, yeah, so now you're in.
It's what was it again?
The Piazza, it was a Galleria.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, we were in the Galleria.
We were in the gallery.
Yes, correct, it sounds like amall.
Yeah, yeah, we were in thegallery at the academy gallery,
our academia, the gallery.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, okay, so you're in.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
I hope I said that right and it's a museum which is
fabulous and showing all thisartwork.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
And then then what?
Where did you go then?

Speaker 3 (15:55):
well, after we took the rest of the afternoon.
Okay, after the tour, everybodygot a break.
We got a break.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Because at that point I think we had been on our tour
for probably about three hourstotal.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
That would make sense , it was quite some time.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
I mean I just told you a few of the highlights.
I didn't tell you everything.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, that would make sense, because if you're in
these museums, you know youdon't run into a museum, you
stop, you look, you enjoy, youknow you take it in.
Yeah, and that's part of theexperience of a museum, of
course, of course, yeah, so wecan see.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
And not just that, but of all of Florence.
You know we would stop, wewould take pictures, we would.
It was a leisurely tour, butyou did do some walking because
you're walking from place toplace.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
I mean, florence is pretty big.
Now you've all taken a breakfrom your tour guides and
everybody kind of scatters, yep,and we all kind of scatter.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, and the rest of the afternoon was free, as I
said, I think about this pointit was probably about 1.30, 2
o'clock time period, so we allkind of scattered and a lot of
people they went shopping.
Oh, there was this pizza placewith these large pizzas and
people wanted to stop and havepizza or gelato.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
You know you want to get something.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, because they hadn't really eaten since
breakfast so they wanted to getsome food.
I actually wandered to a littlecafe with some wonderful little
pastries and desserts with acouple of the other ladies and
we sat at the cafe and weordered some wine and ordered a
couple pastries and we justwatched people.
I love that.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
I love watching people.
Yes, I love that Because youjust sit, you relax, you watch
people.
You see the expressions ontheir face when they're enjoying
themselves and seeing all thesesights, and sometimes it's a
way to make friends.
It is, it is.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
And then, after our little cafe, we just kind of
wandered, went into some of theshops.
I actually went into a gelatoplace.
I said should I, should I not?
Should I not?
Should I, should I not?
Okay, no, not tonight.
I think I gained 10 pounds onthis trip, which we know well,
we've made enough food.
Oh, my goodness.
So we just wandered, and thenwe all met back in one location

(18:09):
where the bus actually Okay, soyou're still in Florence, right,
we're still in Florence, andthen we all gathered and we met
back at one location.
Some people decided that theywere going to take the train
back.
Oh, so we didn't have everybodycome back on our motor coach
with us because they decidedthey were going to take the
train and stay in Florence forthe rest of the evening.
Oh, okay, which was fine, aslong as they told me Exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
You need to know, as a group, who's where and you
want to do that and then,because it is, more of a laid
back pipe tour.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
You're able to say, okay, enjoy yourselves, right,
right, yeah.
So and I said, yeah, absolutelystay.
Just don't forget the lasttrain.
I think it's 11 o'clock, right,you know?
Back to back to the villa, somake sure you don't miss it.
And then some of us went back,and then we got ready for dinner
that evening, okay.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
So it was.
It was late in the day, it waslate.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
It was five o'clock, yeah it was five o'clock, so we
got ready for dinner thatevening and that was it.
That was the end of that day.
I was exhausted, I was reallytired.
You didn't shop.
I did some shopping, oh.
I was going to say I did someshopping, but I actually went by
the leather market again.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Oh, okay, because the leather market.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
I think I mentioned that in one of my last podcast
about the leather market.
So I did go to the leathermarket again, did you?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
get leather this time .

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Hempden hot, hempden hot, hempden hot.
I'm like okay, no so you didn'tget any leather.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
I didn't get anything this time.
Okay, that's all right, nexttime, next time, I'm going back.
So here we are in Florence.
It was a day full of touring,and then, after the tour was
over, it was a day, and the restof the day was kind of relaxing
and wandering on your own,discovering what was around, and
then deciding whether to goback to the villa for dinner or

(19:59):
stay in Florida.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Yeah Well, you know, that's what's so nice about
these tours you don't have to doeverything.
It's not like, okay, well,you've got to do this and you've
got to do this and you've gotto do this, right, you know, we
give you free time.
We give you if you'd like tojoin us on the tours.
Join us on the tours.
Right, you know time we giveyou.
If you'd like to join us on thetours, join us on the tours.
Right, you know, if you don'twant to, that's okay.

(20:21):
I mean, they are included,obviously, and most people do
come.
But it was really really nicethat some people said you know
what?
I'm not coming back with you.
Right, we're just gonna hangback, we're gonna relax, we're
gonna have dinner in florence,we're gonna look through the
wine windows you know it's niceto have that kind of flexibility
.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
And I know that with Celtic Tours we give you that.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
That's nice.
Celtic Tours gives you theflexibility of rolling on your
own a little bit, yeah, which iskind of nice.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, we don't want you to have to be rushed, and
you know, go, go, go go go.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
We want you to be able to enjoy your vacation,
because that's what it's allabout.
And again, there is walking.
So everybody be aware You'regoing to be walking, make sure
you have comfortable clothes,comfortable shoes, yeah, and
just get ready to relax andenjoy.
Now you went back to Villa, yes, and did you go to any special
place for dinner that night,actually?

Speaker 3 (21:15):
we did, we went.
So Villa Casa Grande has arestaurant.
It's across the street, on thehilltop.
It's called.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Cilo.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
C-I-L-O.
I think I'm saying that rightCilo Okay.
And it is a beautifulrestaurant overlooking all of
Pignanada and Mabinado, so youcan see the entire city.
It's on the top of the hill.
I can tell you, going up thathill is not easy, not easy.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
You're going to be, hungry by the time you get to it
.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
And I'm not.
It takes like a five-minutewalk, but it's a very, very
steep hill Right, so you takeyour time.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
You get up there, then you relax for your dinner.
You 16th Hill Right, so youtake your time.
You get up there, then yourelax for your dinner.
You do you relax for yourdinner.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Well, downhill is always better than uphill it is,
it is, it is, and I'm assumingit's later in the day it is.
But at this point, yeah,goodness, yeah, because by the
time we got back it was sixo'clock, so I think it was 730,
eight o'clock, yeah, so a bunchof us just went up to the
restaurant and we had made areservation.
As soon as we got there, youknow, I went to the front desk
saying, can we make areservation?
They said, yeah, how many?
And we made the reservation.
We went up to the hilltop andyeah it was.

(22:26):
It was a beautiful dinner.
The service it's a very smallrestaurant, it's not large, but
the service was spectacular.
You get there, you order yourdrinks.
They have a full service bar.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
You can order anything you like, it's not just
wine, right?

Speaker 3 (22:40):
So they do have a full-service bar and their menu
was very, very extensive.
It wasn't like two or threethings.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Now is this restaurant associated with Villa
.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Castellani, it is it is Now.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Was Mama?
No, no, mama Lana was not partof it.
Mama Lana's not part of therestaurant.
She's not part of therestaurant.
She has her own restaurant.
She has her own thing going on,yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
So, but I have to tell you again, it was really,
really hard.
But when in Italy you got tohave the pasta, oh yeah, I
ordered a gnocchi.
Oh okay, gnocchi in a whitesauce, okay, like a white cream
sauce and oh my gosh, thegnocchi.
It was so fresh.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh yeah, so fresh.
Well, they make everythingfresh over there.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
It was absolutely wonderful.
It's not like the gnocchi thatyou get your.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Publix in a package, you know Right, oh my gosh it's
completely different, so just itwas perfect.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
It was tender inside, kind of crispy outside oh nice,
kind of crispy outside.
It's nice to kind of fry it upa little bit.
It's just absolutely fabulous.
And I have to tell you, z, oneof the most ordinary dishes that
came to the table right was asea bass.
I love sea bass.
I do too.
I really love sea bass.
So we had a couple people orderthis.

(23:52):
It comes to the table and itlooks like a big burnt blob oh,
a big burnt blob.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
It was like a crunchy .
I know it didn't.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm telling you, it got there and it didn't look
appetizing.
It was a crunchy crust Rightand you take your fork and you
kind of hit it Right.
The sea bass was inside of thisand it was, oh my gosh, delish,
absolutely delicious phenomenal, but we don't know what was.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Did you eat the outside?

Speaker 3 (24:26):
yes, I, you could eat the outside I actually took.
Now, the lady next to me wasI'm not eating that this is the
one who ordered it but I said,well, let me try it.
And I took a little piece of itand I think it, because they
said it was a sea bass but likea truffle, so I think it had
like a truffle coating rightoutside.
It was almost like a breadingof some sort or a crust.

(24:47):
It was more of a very thin, thinflaky, like truffle skin maybe.
Oh, okay, we tried to get theinformation.
You know exactly what.
It was Right and it wasdifficult.
It was difficult, we couldn'tfigure it out.
And even one of the ladieswho's from Italy.
She had no idea what that was,but it was just amazing.

(25:08):
So the food, there is reallyreally fabulous.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Now did you know what kind of price point you were
looking at.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
So you know it was average.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
It wasn't really it wasn't like.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Even though it looked like a fine dining restaurant,
it wasn't like you were lookingat 35, 40 euros for a plate for
a meal.
I think my gnocchi was like 17euros.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Oh, that's nothing.
So yeah it's.
I mean, it's kind of a typical,depending on what the dollar
euro is.
Did you have any dessert, orwas it that wine again?
No, no.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I did not have dessert.
I don't think anybody haddessert this time we were.
We were pretty full.
We had, of course, someappetizers.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right, they do the antipasta, yeah, we had.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah, we had the antipasta.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
We did have some meatballs, so we had all kinds
of.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
So you're munching along the way before the meal
yeah, yeah, very nice.
Very nice, and then everybodygot to walk back down the hill,
and then we all walked back downthe hill.
So how many of you went to the?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
restaurant.
Oh goodness.
Well, we had a really, reallylarge table, I would probably
say about between 12 and 15.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, so almost more than half of the two of you, oh
yeah.
And it sounds like a beautifulrestaurant overlooking the hills
.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
It looks like a fine dining restaurant when you go
there.
Wow, it looks just like abeautiful, fine dining
restaurant and that was a fullday.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, it was a full day.
Yeah, down in Florence, back tothe villa and back to dinner.
Yeah, so wonderful.
Again, thank you, thank you,thank you for telling me all
about this.
I want to go and try that seabass, I know.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Sea bass in a bowl.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I took a picture of it, just because I had to.
You would have to take apicture of it because describing
it, you can't imagine Right thetaste and they probably just
told you to eat.
I had a friend one time went toItaly, went into a restaurant
middle of nowhere and said seedme.
Yeah.
And they loved that.
They just brought over allsorts of dishes for him and he
ate it.
Everything was delicious, yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
I love doing that yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Great.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, well, thank you again for joining me.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme Z.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Well, that's it for today's episode of the Z
Michelson Travel Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed our journeyand found some new inspiration
for your next adventure.
Remember, the world is full ofstories and sometimes all it
takes is a plane ticket to startyour own adventure.
If you loved today's episode,be sure to tune in every week

(27:30):
and don't forget to share yourfavorite travel moments with me
on social media.
I'd really love to hear aboutwhere you're headed to next.
Social media I'd really love tohear about where you're headed
to next.
So until next time, keepexploring, keep discovering and,
as always, keep traveling withyour heart wide open.
I'm Zee Michelson and I'll seeyou on the next adventure.