Unforgettable trip to Florence

Ciao a tutti or Hello everyone. 

I decided to write here the story which has been written by the life itself. I am an Erasmus student from the country which is situated in the heart of Europe - Slovakia. I am doing my Erasmus in Bologna (Italy) for one semester. However, I am the person who likes traveling so much, hence, I am not spending time only in Bologna but I am attempting to travel to the other Italian cities as much as it is possible. 

My experience is from the very well know Italian city - Florence. I am quite sure that everyone has heard about this wonderful and historical city at least once. For those who do not know why is Florence so important city not only for the Italians themselves but also for the rest of the world is that Florence is basically considered as the place where the Renaissance was born. Moreover, it is the place where the proper Italian language has been born and created by very famous Italian writer Dante Alighieri. 

What I wanted to say with this historical background is that if you want to understand the present you have to at first understand the past. :) 

However, this is not the reason why I would like to share my feelings and experiences from this city. I will try to give you some tips and recommendations about the Florence even if I spent there just two days. Nevertheless, it happened a lot within these two days, both, positive and negative. 

I have to start with the negative experiences because it contains a lot of useful information for those of you who would like to visit Florence in the future. 

Tip N.1 - Accommodation 

If you are traveler you probably know that the websites like AirBnB or Booking.com etc. are offering to you a very good place to stay for a night for a very good price as well. However, be careful when you are booking your accommodation. It is better to do it at least two days before the arrival to the concrete city because otherwise, it can happen to you the same thing as to me and my friends who I traveled with.

We were searching on AirBnB for and accommodation just one day before the departure so the owner did not have time to reply to our message. So we had to find something immediately as we were already on the way to Florence. The problem was that everything was quite expensive so we booked the first cheap offer which we found without checking properly the references and recommendation of other guests. And it was a big mistake!!!

NOTE: always check the comments of the other guests. You can avoid the potential problems!!!

Concretely,  we booked the hostel called Ostello Villa Camerata. Unfortunately, we did not know that this hostel is very dangerous not only for the girls as we are but for the everyone who is looking for a cheap accommodation in Florence. So, NEVER GO THERE, there is a police every night!!! 

Fortunately, we never went there. We were just aware by the, paradoxically, inspectors of the valid tickets on the bus, to not go there and rather find another place to stay during the night. They gave us also some recommendation so I will share it with you as well. One of the good options is the Hostel 7 Sante in the center of Florence so you do not have to take any bus to get there to see the best of the Florence. 

TIP N.2 - Bus tickets

So, if you do not really like to walk then the best option for you is to buy a ticket for a bus.  It cost 1,20e if you buy it in some "edicola" (in Italian) or kiosk (in English) because you can buy it also directly on the bus but there the ticket costs 2,00e. Therefore, I would recommend you to buy more than one ticket in kiosk so later on, you do not have to look for other kiosk or spend a lot of money for a ticket bought on the bus. Important information for you: the ticket is valid for 90 minutes!!!

NOTE: always check at what time did you validate your ticket in the bus because it can happen that you will not see it very clearly on the ticket as such. (The color is very light)

Why I am saying it??? Because you did not chcek properly the time and when the inspector came to control the ticket our tickets were not valid anymore. So we had to pay a fine 50e. Later on, they started to give us a recommendation about the hostels as I was mentioning above. Why were They so helpfull after that ? Keep continue to read my story. :)

TIP N.3 - Italian language

It is a big advantage when you are able to speak Italian. WHY???

Because Italians in general hardly speak English. So if you are planning to go on Erasmus to Italy start to learn the Italian language in advance. It can help you to solve some problems. It was also my case. Thanks to the fact that I can at least a bit speak Italian, the inspectors told us to not go to the hostel Ostello Villa Camerata and gave us other tips of where we should  stay.

the point is that we were basically Lucky although we had to Pay a fine. I would like to add one advice. IF something similár will  happen to You (hopefully will not BUT You never know) just stay calm. DO NoT argue With inspechorá because it can make a situation even Worst. Try to hide Your fear.  What You should do is to Confess that You did a mistake but try to explain whY this things happened. Sometimes You are not doing tHis in purpose (like in our case). However, if You prefer to risk and not Pay for a ticket and They catch You, always have same good story to say.

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