Hello from Florence!
Having breakfast on our hotel rooftop.
He says he's Prince Eric. See la you guys, I showed him all your comments and now he can't stop harping on it LOL.
Act cool only.
Sipping my hot cappuccino amidst the cold.
We stumbled onto the Church of Santa Croce only to realise it is home to Michelangelo and Galileo remains!
At first we were like, wahlau what is this place why must pay 8 euros to enter.
In the end we spent 2 hours here!
Santa Croce. A must visit! This church which housed monumental pieces of art was the epicentre of many floods in Florence, including the 5 metre floods in November 1966. You'll still be able to see the flood lines, and videos or photos of the restoration process of many art pieces which took years to complete. We were both thoroughly impressed!
Galileo's tomb. Such a good tribute to have them all gazing upwards, as a testament to the impact and scientific breakthroughs he made!
The original Liberty Statue, sister and main inspiration for the Liberty in New York. Not I say ah, Florence claims this honour. Haha.
Michelangelo's tomb!
We also spent 13 euros each for a round trip to The Mall, the supposedly fantastic outlet shopping for high end luxury brands in Florence that many tourists flock to.
But we didn't know how to appreciate the brands?!? Seriously! We went into the stores of Bottega, Versace, Prada, Gucci, Tom Ford, Burberry, Coach, Mont Blanc, Michael Kors, etc and this was literally the expression we had on our faces the entire time ๐ I was reading LadyIronChef's article (written by his now wife) who kept gushing about how cheap this place was, but we were like:
๐: nice meh?
๐
: holy crap 230 euros for a wallet without a coin pouch?!
๐ : 1200 euros for this heavy bag?!?
๐ : what kind of person will wear this shoe?!?
We are terrible people. No wonder I'll never be a part of #dayrefashion and I doubt any high end brands would ever wanna sponsor Budget Babe. Budget or mass market affordable brands more realistic cos those I CAN appreciate. The usual high end brands whom you see on Instagram influencers' feeds as #sponsored ? Haha I'll never understand the allure of those brands.
The nicest part of this trip was the scenic bus ride and the sunset we caught after our day of shopping ๐
But okay la, we did buy stuff in the end…from NIKE!
๐ ๐
49 euros for a female Roche with pretty prints and 56 euros for a dark green Roche as our "couple wear" (that doesn't look the same ๐ simi couple wear you tell me) and 18 euros for a nice Nike black bag that we can use for our future staycations. Not bad right!!
I was telling N he'll enjoy outlet shopping in USA more ๐
At the Arno river.
On a sidenote, my skin has been so unbelievably good this entire trip?!?
My skincare routine in Europe
Back in Singapore, my skin gets oily real quick and breaks out easily. Plus,if I wear makeup for more than 10 hours, my makeup will start to smudge / melt (yes, even the so-called oil-proof or smudge-proof ones). That's why I'm usually barefaced other than concealer and light eye makeup. No makeup base / foundation / blusher / bronzer / highlighter for me!
But over here, my skincare routine is simply:
– wash face at the beginning and end of the day (vs 3 to 4 times in SG)
– organic sunblock by Blended
– concealer + eyebrows
and out I go! Zero pimple cream or moisturiser needed, and my skin is so unbelievably good?!? It must be the weather!
And thanks Blended for the organic sunblock, made by my good friend who runs most of the business operations!
This one!! My holy grail since three years ago #dayrebeauty community you guys should seriously check this out!
It is the same sunblock I gifted my bridesmaids for their thank you gifts as well! Very refreshing, light and has a minty feel when applied on the skin. Great for oily and sensitive skins like mine, but I know friends who have dry skin and swear by this too!
Blog post : #dayrebrides ala carte or bridal package??
On a separate note, I forgot to mention that my blog post on whether to go ala carte or get a bridal package is up on www.sgbudgetbabe.com !
I did extensive research and shopping with different vendors for quotes before making my decisions, so the post details my experience and an easy tip to figure out which route is best for you. #dayrebrides
Still drafting the post on my Taobao gown for #budgetbrides #diybrides and hopefully I'll have it up by the time I'm in Rome!
We're headed for Cinque Terre for a DIY trip tomorrow, so will update this space again then!
We spent so much on shopping today ๐ฅ these 3 wallets cost us (from left and clockwise) 15 euros, 25 euros and 60 euros.
The dark blue and Bottega designed wallet was bought from La Cattedrale Leather Factory near the Duomo. The Italian shop owner was brash (he tossed aside hubby's Nike bag on the floor) and claimed he designed and made everything in his shop on the upper floor which was a leather factory.
Edit: okay so apparently "Vera Pelle" means real leather in Italian and is stamped on any leather product in Italy. But when we compared the quality of the three, it seems the same leh, yet prices vary so much. So errrrrrr did we get scammed or are both shopkeepers telling the truth??? ๐
