Krutika Puntambekar

Well, it’s been a hot a minute. And, I should have written about our European adventures the last couple of times, but I just never got around to it.

So, I’m here with a fair amount of downtime, sitting at the little kitchen table in the Airbnb, and thought I would write up a little Florence guide if you ever want to visit ( mind you, I started writing this post in Italy, but finished it after coming back home).

I booked this trip extremely spontaneously, about a week before my arrival here. I was just browsing tickets, and I wanted to go to a place I had been to before so I didn’t have to worry about logistics or figuring out what to see. So, my mom came along (spontaneously as well) and we were able to make it a little girls trip. My main goal was just to relax, unwind, walk around, and check out mentally for a couple days. I literally had no plan, which is a really huge thing! There were a couple of things that we didn’t get to cover last time, so some of those thing were on my list to check off.

Florence was a city that I fell in love with last year! It’s a much smaller city, and pretty much everything is accessible by walking (unless you want to head deeper into the Tuscan Valley). This is the number one thing I love about this place. To me, the best type of vacation is really when you can walk around on foot to explore, and transportation isn’t a hassle.

I booked an airbnb in the same area we stayed at last time on a street called Via Della Scala, which is a 5 minute walk from the Santa Maria Novella Train station. You can take the train to Pisa, Bologna, Milan, etc. (some of which we covered last time) and I wanted to just be a short walk away from the train station if I wanted to walk back in the night (purely for safety reasons).

What’s Special About Florence?

Florence is really just a feel good city! It’s compact, and the culture and energy is vibrant. I’ll admit, the people aren’t the warmest all the time, but i’ve definitely run into some very kind, and helpful people here. There are the usual touristy things one can do like visit The Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Uffizi, Gallery, and Pitti Palace, etc. This is the birthplace of the Renaissance, so there are a lot of art related things one can do.

But to me, the best way to understand and imbibe the culture of a place, is to walk around and explore the city by foot and just strike up conversations with the local folks (I love talking to strangers, btw).

Florence is also very accessible by train to other parts of Italy. Last time we were able to visit Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Rome all from Florence and the longest train ride must have been about 2 hours.

Overall, it’s the vibes of the place that make a difference. And Florence is one of those places, where the architecture is beautiful, the culture is prevalent, and one doesn’t feel overwhelmed in a new place. It’s surrounded by the Tuscan valley and there’s really a variety of things one can do!

Food

So naturally, you must eat Pasta & Pizza when you visit. There are Osterias, Trattorias, Ristorantes, and Cafes. There is a difference between all of them, but I am not too familiar with what the nuances are. And, I am not really sure how one can pick out a good place, but if you are particular about your food, you’ll notice. This time though, I actually took the time to speak to folks who live/work locally in the shops for recommendations. For example, an Arrabbiata sauce is my favorite, and there’s really not much to it, but you can get different versions of it here as well (some good, some bad). A couple of places that really hit it out of the park are Ristorante La Grotta Guelfa and Ristorante La Spada. Both were phenomenal for their Arrabbiata, Truffle Pasta, Ravioli, and even a basic Aglio e Olio.

A Margharita Pizza is one you cannot go wrong with, and again its so simple but it truly is out of the world. But, even here the levels of cheese and flavors of the sauce can vary slightly. For me, I feel like a good Margherita Pizza is one that actually does not over do the cheese and feels really light. Some of the best pizza ( both Pesto & Margherita) that I had was at a place called Gusta Pizza across the Ponte Vecchio. The Margherita was only 7 Euros!

Food is relatively inexpensive compared to what you pay in the states. You can eat an entire pizza for 9 euros, compared to whatever we pay back home. I’d recommend sticking to the local cuisine as they know what they are doing, as opposed to trying out other cultural food in a city that’s known for very particular things.

Another call out was this sandwich place called All’Anticho Vinaio. This is a pretty touristy sandwich chain, but I think the hype is real. I had one of the pistachio cream sandwich with basil, sun dried tomatoes, stracciatella cream, and it was out of this world.

Gelato

Naturally, gelato had to have it’s own section. The only gelato I had last time was from Venchi, which is an international chain. But, I was very keen on trying some authentic places, local to Florence. So I watched all the videos there were, and read up various blogs to find the best. It was raining and super cold, but I was determined!

My favorite gelato places this time around, were Edoardo & La Strega Noccioloa Gelateria. The gelato at both places is kept under these metal lids and not visible (which apparently is a good thing). The more colorful the flavors look, the higher the chances are that there are artificial ingredients in them. But Edoardo, is actually one of the first Organic Gelateria’s in Florence. It’s a small shop, they change their flavors every day, hand make the cones in front of you, and it’s located right behind the Duomo. La Strega also had some very unique flavors ( Lavender was my favorite), and again the gelato was incredibly creamy. So, overall, I came to the conclusion that not all gelato is created equally. If you are a foodie, I guarantee that you will notice.

Art

Being the birthplace of the Renaissance, art is a thing in Florence. You have the Accademia Gallery (where you can see the statue of David by Michelangelo), and you have the Uffizi where you can view the works of Botticelli, Da Vinci, etc. I am not as well versed in art as some, so for me it was fascinating to read about the history, and see so much of the art well preserved. I am familiar with some of the works by Botticelli so it was nice to see some of his iconic paintings in the Uffizi like The Birth of Venus and Fortitude. Last time we were able to visit the Gallery, and this time we went to the Uffizi.

Shopping

You can’t miss out on the shopping if you love fashion! I feel like everyone in Europe for the most part dresses up well (both men & women). But Italy is where a lot of leather goods are produced and some of the biggest fashion houses like Prada, Gucci, Valentino, etc are based out of Italy. While some of the designers like Celine, and Loewe are brands based out of Paris & Spain, I learnt that their leather is manufactured in Tuscany. So, shopping was definitely on my list and while you can visit some of the individual stores, the one department store I went to last time and this time is called Rinascente. (the history regarding this store is quite fascinating as well). This is located around the Piazza Della Republicca. It has all of the designers you can image besides some like Louis Vuitton & Dior, but the shopping experience has always been wonderful. COS, being one my favorite brands, also has a large store. All of the stores are really located quite close to one another. On a side note, any European manufactured item is cheaper in the EU than buying it in the states, plus you also get a VAT refund at the airport.

This time around there were Christmas lights everywhere, and all the stores were lit up so beautifully! There was definitely a nice festive vibe in the air.

I also want to call out that you obviously can shop for food items as well. This time around I went to the Central Market (which has food items to buy, or you can sit upstairs and try out some little bits), Eataly, and local markets.

Gotta buy some of that fresh Olive Oil while you’re there!

Overall, if you couldn’t already tell, Florence is a place I would highly recommend visiting. I immensely loved roaming the streets leisurely and understanding how they all were connected and led back to each other.

It had been such a long time since I had a vacation where I had ample time on my hands (note to self to disconnect more), as usually my trips are always so packed.

There of course is a lot more to write about, but I am definitely looking forward to going back again!

-K

After leaving Pune, we got back to Hyderabad but immediately left the airport to drive to a temple called Yadagirigutta to stay for three nights. If you’re familiar with a placed called Tirupati, then you can say that the aim of this place is become like a Tirupati, but for the state Telangana. This temple also happens to be the place my parents actually got married at.

At this point, we were at the last leg of our trip, being that there was less than a week.

We actually stayed at this temple for 3 nights. The temple itself was so unexpected and beautiful upon arriving there. It looks like the whole thing had been remodeled and had just opened up in the summer of 2022. So, we dropped off our bags at the one hotel on top of the hill, and my uncle who drove us there suggested we grab darshan (viewing of the inner sanctum where the idols are kept) as soon as we freshened up. We were in and out within 30 minutes. The energy inside the temple was so magnificent, and extraordinary. The sense of peace that I felt was something quite unexpected. So our next two days were centered around getting some things done at the temple, and visiting a nearby village called Pochampally. We had some incredible darshans and overall it felt like a very fruitful stay that was very much meant to be.

We came back to Hyderabad on Monday afternoon, and sped off to pick up some last minute material for some sari blouses I had to get stitched. In the evening, we ended up ordering in Biryani and just chilling out and watching a couple of movies. The next day, which was Tuesday, was a day we saved to finish some last minute shopping, and probably spent about 3-4 hours handing off our clothes to the tailors (people who stitch sari blouses/dresses, etc). I didn’t anticipate this to take so long, but every five seconds the Masterji would get interrupted with a phone call, or some question, or another client, and if this really doesn’t test your patience, I am not sure what will. Then on Wednesday, we saved the day to go visit some of my mother’s relatives who haven’t been keeping too well. If you’ve never visited Old City, I’d highly recommend doing so, as it’s so different from the rest of the main city. All in all, the day passed by with a few hiccups here and there, but whatever was left of the day we spent time packing and spending time with the family.

We left early Thursday morning to head to Bangalore for a day of shopping before our flight out that night. We were always supposed to fly out of Bangalore, but I specifically wanted to head there earlier to visit a couple of stores I’d been hearing about for ages. I was a little hesitant when the morning of came around. It had already been a tiring trip, and I was anxious about how tired we’d be by the time our flight time came around. We got down at the airport, had breakfast and headed off to the first store called Angadi Silks. This store had been spoken about to me for such a long time, that I was like “ok what is the deal here?” The collection turned out to be quite unique, and I would definitely love to go back and look around a bit more leisurely. After this, we grabbed lunch at a cafe called Sri Rameshwaram and I think I had the best ghee Masala Dosa, filter coffee, falooda, and tomato rice, that I’ve ever tasted. Our bellies full, we rushed off to KSIC silks but didn’t find anything there. So the last stop was Commercial Street, and we headed to Mysore Sari Udyog. This was a place where we found quite a few things, and it was hoppin’ inside with loads of people shopping. We wrapped up our evening by having dinner at a place on MG road. Shopping in Bangalore was so fun, and again I wish we had more time.

After dinner, my mom and aunt dropped us off at the airport. The security check was a bit brutal, but after freshening up, we sat down for a last chai at one of the restaurants.

I was feeling some pretty mixed emotions. One way, I was looking forward to going back to work and having a routine, yet it always feels a bit sad leaving behind people that you care about. I do wish our trip was a bit longer so we could have spent some time leisurely with family and doing other things, so it wasn’t as packed. There are so many things I can actually say here- which I really don’t know how to articulate well. I think that if one has all the comforts, India seems a great place to live at. Yet, if you don’t have these things, then small things seem like a hassle to get done. I hear about the struggles my uncle has been facing in farming and the mess around lands, etc. and I wonder, is our legal system here structured better to avoid situations like this? But, honestly who knows. I think customer service, hugely being outsourced in the states, has definitely changed things. But then again, I see the customer service here and even places like Europe, where I realize that there’s no such concept, and people really have no idea what it is like to have a good experience. The traffic is a bit nuts. Highrises keep being built without any consideration to much zoning, water supply, etc. Again, I am fully aware that I am just an outsider looking in. I have no idea if my family that lives there feels bad about things to the extent that I sometimes do, but then again maybe feeling bad isn’t right either.

Well, that wraps up our trip- hope you had fun reading!

Till next time,

K