Florence – Siena

Hey globetrotters

My travel went on from Lucca to Florence, where I gazed at the beautiful landscape of tuscany. Florence itself had it‘s beautiful spots and most italians like florence, calling it one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. Well, I wasn‘t so convinced about that. The dome had no piazza, so you could only stand some meters before the amazing building. But the river with it‘s bridges was kind of cute and the sandwiches were amazing! Oh and the statue of michel angelo with the naked man was everywhere…

Now to the important part. A hotspot for BJJ in italy is florence, and a famous gym there was Tribe Jiu Jitsu led by Luca Caracciolo, a former Judo blackbelt who got his BJJ blackbelt in something around 6.5 years. The level was high and since they were preparing for the biggest tournament in Italy, Luca focused on showing the basics and doing much sparring and he welcomed me as a host and I really wished I could soend some more time training with them!

I couldn’t find a place to stay in florence so I needed to leave after 2 days, the prices per night raised up to 150 dollars for a 10 bed room 30 km outside from the city center in the period of time I was there (ha ha ha). 

When I started to Siena I looked up to the sky seeing the grey clouds. Thinking of myself how intelligent I am, I already put on my rain protection and started my way to Siena. After 5 minutes it started raining and every rain drop had the size of one gallon. Standing on a bridge with my vespa, being unable to move in any direction, I felt like my underwear got soaked with cold water slowly but steady progressing till the coldness reached my balls. And I couldn‘t do anything about it. It rained like that for another hour of my two hours trip to Siena. Eventhough the landscape was one of the most beautiful I saw till now, I couldn‘t enjoy any of it, I just wanted to change my clothes and be in a warm bed!!

Through Airbnb I found a place where students lived from Iran and Turkey. The guys cooked for me the first night and after 5 days in Siena I left with having found some good friends!

The level of BJJ in Siena was mediocre, despite the coach most of them were white belt’s or fresh bluebelt, but their welcoming character was outstanding! The took me on saturday to an openmat in Florence and on Sunday to a Judocamp with Newaza. Despite taking me everywhere to train, they were also eager to go out to grab some food together. They are not training partners, they are a family!

Now imagine as a traveler finding a place to sleep where you have good friends and a place to train where they offer you a place in their heart how hard it was for me to leave Siena. But that’s how life is… If you get too comfortable, your personality can’t grow and in my eyes that’s one of the most essential part about traveling. Bye bye Siena ;)