ITALY: CINQUE TERRE {VERNAZZA}

Words don't do this place justice.
It's honestly got to be, without a doubt, the most beautiful place on the planet.
I'd heard of Cinque Terre through some high school friends who traveled there and after googling it, immediately put it on my "must visit" list. I realized though, in telling people the cities we were visiting in Italy, many hadn't heard of Cinque Terre.

It means "the five lands" and it's 5 small and ridiculously quaint towns nestled in the cliffs. Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. The big "thing" this area offers, is the ability to hike from town to town along challenging but beautiful trails. Trails are hit or miss (there IS an "easy" path but various paths may be closed at any given time for repair) but as long as you're willing to put in a work out, there's always an option.

We stayed in Vernazza- which has the largest harbor, and was my favorite. 

We arrive Friday afternoon and were grabbing a snack in the piazza when we heard our names, looked up, and see Dan and Jamie- two friends of Matt's from college. 

We had plans to meet up with them Saturday night for dinner when we realized we were going to be there the same time. Dan and Jamie are living in London right now for Dan's job. We were also meeting two of M's other friends from college who were planning to be in Turkey the week before we were headed to Vernazza, and happily extended their trip to meet up with us. 

SO, after bumping into those two, we made dinner plans for Friday night as well. 

Dan and Jamie were staying in Riomaggiore, so they trained over to us and the six of us met up for dinner in the piazza in Vernazza. 

We were up early the next morning- er- Matt was.. he went swimming with Tony and Gina and I slept a bit before wandering down myself to take some beautiful sunrise photos of Vernazza. 

We grabbed a light breakfast and got our hiking gear on in preparation for our morning hike to the next town with Tony and Gina- Monterosso. 

Of course I made friends along the trail: 

We made it there in about an hour and enjoyed a lunch of focaccia, pesto, prosciutto, and a hard provolone. It was the most simple and amazing meal EVER. The pesto there is just..magic. Genoa, just north of Cinque Terre, is where pesto was invented. 

{Vernazza} 

After Monterosso, we took the water taxi to Riomaggiore where we kayaked for a few hours further south along the coast. Sea kayaking wasn't as bad as I imagined (the kayaks are longer and built for it)- and we parked on some rocks and swam for a while too as a break. 

We kayaked back, picked up our gear, and hopped on the train back to Vernazza for some naps before dinner. 

For dinner we took the train back to Riomaggiore to meet Dan and Jamie for dinner at a restaurant Dan spotted on the very top of the hill. After our hike and kayaking I thought the stairs may kill me but OMG the views, and the INSANE melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi was totally worth it. 

We had champagne and toasted to Dan who was celebrating his 30th birthday that day. 

It was one of the most memorable and amazing days of my life. Honestly. 

The next morning we relaxed in our village and walked around before catching a train back to Rome to stay at our airport hotel before our flight the next day. 

Cinque Terre should absolutely be on your short list of top destinations.
Ack, take me back. I need some pesto.

ITALY: FLORENCE {DUOMO, GALERIA DE ACADEMIA, BOBOLI GARDENS}

Our last day in Florence was spent touring the Galeria de Academia first thing in the morning (where we, ashamedly (or not? can't say I minded) spent about 30 minutes. 20 observing the David statute, the other 10 feigning interest in some other art. Like I've said before, unless I have some prior knowledge of the art, or deeper appreciation for it, I didn't care to spend too much time seeing it. You just start to get overwhelmed when EVERYTHING is so special/historical/significant. 

After that, we ventured over to the Duomo, the cathedral in Florence, to climb the cupola. We were told to do this early before the line got too long, and it got too hot. and hoooooooooboy if there's one big piece of advice logistically I'd give, it's do this early. The line was starting to get bad on our descent down, and the passageways were SO narrow and hot it got real unpleasant in there real quick. It was about 400 stairs to the interior cupola, and that's about halfway to the top, so it's not for the faint of heart or unfit. It offered some spectacular views of the city, as well!

Last, we went to the Boboli Gardens behind the Palazzo Pitti. We didn't go inside the palace itself, as we didn't have a ton of time, but spent a good 3-4 hours in the gardens. Wandering around, and even laying in a clearing with a bunch of other people and relaxing for an hour. It was a nice afternoon, and we needed something low key after the schlep to the top of the Duomo. 

And now, some photos, in reverse order. :) 

{Boboli Gardens}

{View from Boboli Gardens}

{downstairs in the Duomo- they discovered an earlier version of the cathedral during renovations/excavations of the basement and they have a neat historical display of the changes to the church over the years.}

{Duomo

{view from the cupola at the top of the Duomo}

{Duomo}

{the paintings on the interior of the cupola}

{does this need a caption? the David}

One last post and I'm donezo, promise. Last up is Vernazza!

ONE.

A long overdue (since it's been ages since I've done one) weekend recap.

Friday and Saturday were spent rehearsing for, and attending, the wedding of good friends of ours. This was made all the more special by the fact that my handsome husband is the one who married them :-)

M got ordained a few years ago to do another wedding and when Chris and Kristin found out, they asked him to do theirs as well. He knows them both really well and is an excellent public speaker so he was a shoe-in.

Sunday, we slept in so we were well rested for a "big" day.

Sunday marks 1 year since we said "I do."  

I think everyone has an idea of how their first year of marriage will look: celebrating all the little firsts- first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, ..and living in your newlywed bubble. Few expect their dad to have a major heart attack just 25 days after the ceremony, requiring quadruple bypass, 11 days in the hospital, rehab, and home care; let alone losing their mother a few weeks after finally getting dad a clean bill of health. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed the holidays, but there was a definitely an undercurrent of stress and fatigue worrying about my dad. 

That being said, going through all this further cemented that I picked the absolute best guy to do life with. 

Marriage IS the "real stuff" and we went through a shit ton of it this first year. M was the one constant. He visited my dad in the hospital with me nearly every day, and when he wasn't there, it's because he was setting up the house for my dad's arrival home. He slept over at the hospital with us all but 2 or 3 nights the week we lived there essentially to be with my mom. He didn't say a lot, because he knew me well enough to know I just needed someone there. He handled my rough year just the way he needed to and didn't complain once. We survived year 1. I feel pretty confident we'll be able to handle the next 50+ (hopefully less eventful) years together. 

We managed to have a lot of fun on our anniversary: lunch with his mom and my dad, a visit to the zoo where we had our reception, dinner of "fancy cheese pizza" in homage to the most hilarious best man toast, and FINALLY opened up a bottle of wine we got in Malta in 2010 (that turned out to be terrible..woops..) to enjoy with our anniversary cake from our baker. The perfect understated day with my favorite guy.

One gripe: we had talked about our anniversary a few weeks ago and M asked what I was planning on us doing. I said super low key, dinner and the zoo, no gifts or anything huge. I asked him last week whether he got something because he was being cagey. He wouldn't say "no" but I didn't get a yes out of him..so I didn't get him anything. So what does he do but crushes it with THIS gift. Paper for 1 year:

I hadn't even gotten him a card (seriously SO BAD at buying cards, ever.) so of course I see this and burst into tears about being the worst wife ever. I'm going to fucking CRUSH cotton next year. (derp..worst wife.)