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!

ITALY: FLORENCE {CENTRAL MARKET AND CASTELLO DEL TREBBIO}

The morning of our second day we wandered up to the central market, which is two parts: the first is a giant building with meat, cheese, pasta, produce..essentially a huge farmer's market; the second being the streets surrounding the market which turn into a big art fair with purses, scarves, and trinkets galore. 

But since I took zero photos of that portion of our day (was too busy scoping out the treats and purses)- we'll skip on to one of my favorite parts of the entire trip, hands down: the wine tour. We took THIS tour and while I'll say, I was nervous to sign up for a tour on some random website, this was easily the best "risk" I've ever taken. The bus was super easy to locate right by the main train terminal and as we wound our way up switchbacks into the hills of Tuscany, the group leader gave us some history of the area. 

One 40 minute bus ride later and we were at Castello del Trebbio- the oldest inhabited castle in Italy. It was built in 1100 by the Pazzi family (which means "crazy" in Italian). The Pazzi's were the second wealthiest family in Florence at the time, second only to the banking family- the Medici. Tired of being #2, the Pazzi came up with a plan to kill the Medici, but they had only one problem: no army with which to do it. So, they enlisted the help of someone who also wanted the Medici gone: the Pope. The Pope was the biggest debtor of the Medici and if they were gone, so was his debt, so he let the Pazzi use his army to do the deed. They hatched a plan to kill the family leaders on Easter Sunday in the Duomo. Only, the plan didn't work- and only one brother was killed. The Medici were enraged, but waited for their revenge. Some 20 years later, the Medici son became Pope. The Pazzi's were banned from Florence and those who were still alive, were killed and hung outside the Palazzo Vecchio. All art and coat of arms of the family were destroyed- all but one, that is, which still hangs in the doorway at the castle. Why was this one spared? Because it was made by Donatello (notice a theme of evil-art-appreciators?)

The grounds were stunning, the history was fascinating, and the wine was DELICIOUS. 

I don't even like red wine but I learned I like a "young" chianti, because it's a touch fruitier than normal red's, which tend to be dry. 

Chianti wine is named after the region the grapes are grown in, and in order to be a true Chianti, must be made with 80% sangiovese grapes. By law, the remaining 20% can come from elsewhere, but this particular winery uses 100% sangiovese. 

As a part of the tour, we hopped back in the bus and drove 10 minutes to a nearby town, which was incredibly quaint. This was just to give us a flavor of "small town Italy" which was every bit as picturesque as you could imagine it would be. 

There will always be more "sights" to see in every place you visit, so while I'm not a seasoned traveler, my advice will always be to take on at least one unique experience every place you go. I wouldn't replace this half-day tour with any museum or castle. It was so cool getting out into the countryside, and getting to hear about the process of wine making, and sample some fantastic wine.

I can't recall which night it was, so I'll include it in this post, but after returning to Florence we stopped back at the hotel and decided to venture out in search of dinner. M had an "idea" of what he wanted, and by that, I mean we would wander by menus and he would decide he didn't want something upon seeing it... without having narrowed down what he DID want. I was happy to go along with this method for the first twenty minutes, but I was starting to get impatient when we stopped outside a doorway to discuss our plan of attack. I looked at an advertisement for a "panoramic restaurant" and it hit me: this was the restaurant our friend we were meeting up with in Vernazza had recommended! It was a hotel rooftop (see the above "eat" category for details) that had great views of the city. The only catch was he had said we would likely need a reservation.

We trekked up to the top of the hotel and found ourselves on a rooftop with a ton of open tables. We sat down, and a server came over and asked if we were here for dinner. After replying, 'yes' he had us get up and follow him up yet one more flight of stairs, where we were seated at the very last table and enjoyed the most spectacular sunset, views of Florence, and meals of our lives. Seriously.

another fabulous day in Florence. Last up: a day packed with sight seeing.