Pisa and the Cinque Terre

For our last few days in Italy we decided to go to the Cinque Terre which is a region of five small towns on the west coast of Italy. 

We took the train from Florence and on our way we stopped in Pisa for a few hours to see the Leaning tower…

and to have pizza in Pisa.

We continued on the train through La Spezia to the Cinque Terre. We did not have any room reservations for this part of our trip. We had heard (from our best friend Rick Steves) that in the off season you could arrive in this area and bargain for a room.  We decided to risk it and arrived in Vernazza with no place to stay.  No worries…as soon as we got off the train a man named Egi approached James, showed us the apartment he had available and after a bit of haggling he and James settled on a price which was about 2/3 of the going rate!

Vernazza

This is the view of the harbor in Vernazza where we stayed for 3 nights.  It is a little town built into the hillside with about 500 residents.  They make wine and olive oil in this region. 

We took the train from Vernazza to Monterosso where we looked around the town and had lunch then took a boat ride/water taxi from Monterosso (the northern most town in the Cinque Terre) and stopped at each little towns harbor. We had a nice view of each of the towns from the water. 

 Vernazza

 Corniglia

Manarola

 Riomaggiore

 We got off at the southern most town called Riomaggiore and had some gelato then hiked a small section of the Cinque Terre Trail called Via dell'Amore that goes from Riomaggiore to Manarola.

 The trail goes along the cliff side and is dedicated to lovers.

We also did another section of the trail inVernazza to get some nice views of the town.

We did a lot of relaxing in the couple of days that we were in Vernazza. It was nice to have a few days of relaxation at the end of our trip.  

Today we took the train back to Rome and will fly out in the morning.

We have loved Italy and have had a great time here. 

Ciao!

James and Maija

Florence

We spent 5 nights in Florence and have taken a couple of side trips from here (Tuscany and Venice).

We stayed at a B&B called Le Tre Stanze. It was initially a very difficult place to find.  As is usually the case in Europe it had a very small sign and it was hard to see the first night that we were here. (the sign for the B&B is the little gray sign hanging below #43).  In this picture James is opening the very heavy door (and big) to our building.

This is the hallway that goes down to our room.  The door to get in looked more like a closet.  

It was one of the most unique places we have stayed. It had a bed in the exact middle of the room under a canopy and really cool ceilings.  We had a garden entrance and a kitchenette.

 

We arrived in Florence on Sunday late afternoon in a horrible rainstorm. We walked from the train to station to our apartment and got completely soaked.  It was Easter Sunday that day so we quickly put our stuff away and went to Easter Mass at the Duomo (Santa Maria del Flore) which was only half a block from our apartment.   This is a view of the Duomo from our street.

The Duoma is a huge church that was built in the 1400's.  It's facade is covered in green, pink and white Tuscan marble that was not put on until the 1800's.  It has the third longest nave in the Christendom. It is a massive building and almost impossible to describe.  We walked by it every time we left the house.

This is the view of the Duomo from across the river at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

We spent a couple of days wandering around Florence and doing some shopping.

Piazzo Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

Santa Croce Church 

We went to the Uffizi Gallery today and the Accadamia earlier this week to see Michaelangelo's David.

James climbed the 436 stairs to the top of the Duomo's cuppola and took this beautiful picture of the city.





Florence has a nice, easy going flow to it.  The "feel" of this city is a lot different from Rome and much more quiet.

We are leaving in the morning for a quick stop in Pisa and then on to the Cinque Terre for our last couple of days in Italy.

Maija & James

Venezia

 

Yesterday we took the train to Venice for the day.   From the train station we got on a water taxi and took in the sights of the Grand Canal, which really is quite grand. What was amazing to me is that the canals are the only way to get things around in Venice so there are garbage boats, fuel boats, ambulance boats, water taxis, private boats and gondolas all trying to get through the canal at the same time. There was a lot of traffic.

The buildings lining the canal are very interesting in their architecture, design and color.

We made our way to St. Mark's Square….

and looked around St. Mark's Basilica (no photos allowed inside).  It was a really interesting church with a lot of brilliant gold mosaics and a floor that rolls like the sea from the shifting and sinking of Venice.

 We walked around looking through some shops and made our way to the Rialto Bridge where we sat in the sun eating gelato and watching the grand canal traffic go by.

Then we made our way back to the train station to head back to Florence.  It was  quick trip but worth the time to see the Grand Canal and experience the magic of Venice.

Maija

A day with Giacomo

On Monday we set out for a driving tour of the Tuscan countryside.  Our escort on our trip was going to be "Giacomo", a 64' Fiat 500.  A vintage Italian car.


We found Giacomo in  a garage a 10 minute walk from our B&;B in Florence.  These cars have to be double clutched, so I had take an operators lesson in a Fiat simulator.  Turns out my farm upbringing benefited me once again, the proprietor said I was a natural and turned us loose with a google map showing us the way out of town, well the first 5 turns anyway and how to get the car back into the garage

 

         

Monday is a national holiday here in Italy, Easter Monday. Therefore nothing was open, no stores, no gas stattions. So we were unable to buy a map. We pulled out our trusty Rick Steves book and with his rough sketched maps we were on our way. Sometimes the wrong way, sometimes on the autostrada all in a car with at top end of 80 kph.  Oh yeah, picture us smoking up the freeway in our rodeo clown car going 50 MPH!!!

But the good news is we we lucked into all the right places, happened onto some others and returned the car safely to it's owners.


It is still early spring here in Italy, the trees and flowers are not quite out yet.  So although the countryside was beautiful, with hills that rolled to the snow capped mountains, you could see that late summer or fall would be exquisite.  Another trip I guess.