Cinque Terre: the five lands

I'm thankful to everyone who ever told me me to go to Cinque Terre... They're these 5 gorgeous towns on the coast, about an hour (by train) northwest of Pisa. In fact, most train rides have a connection in Pisa.

We were able to get direct tickets from Florence to La Spezia, the big town right before the Cinque Terre. From there, we bought a local train ticket to Manarola, the second town, where we were staying. We probably could have gotten that ticket when we bought ours in Florence, but this worked too. The local train goes to all five towns about every 30 minutes, so we didn't wait long.

When we got to Manarola, we went through the tunnel connecting the train station to the town, and walked up “the street". As far as I can tell, there is only one. It's about 3 minutes uphill until you get to our hotel, Ca D'Andrean, recommended in guidebooks. Our room was, again, a step up from the previous ones: a balcony overlooking a lemon garden, and a terrace that you access... through the bathroom? That's fine, when I washed my clothes in the sink, it was super easy to get them to the outside.

We had a late lunch (as we tend to do on travel days) down “the street" at a place called Porticciolo, where the prices were good and we could sit outside. I ordered seafood spaghetti, expecting shrimp and mussels. I got those things, but also tiny (whole) squids and octopus. I think I figured out how to eat most of it? It was tasty, though.

We wandered around Manarola and probably rested for a bit, but I'm not sure where the time went. We asked the guy at our hotel where to go that night, especially because it was the 4th of July. He suggested Riomaggiore (the first town.) I saw online that “the bar" there often does something big for the whole town on the 4th, so we got on a train to Riomaggiore. On the way, we met Rachel, an opera student about to do a program! We ended up walking around Riomaggiore with her and had dinner together up “the street" (yeah, they're all pretty small.) After dinner, the three of us went next door to, I assume, “the bar", which was not doing anything for the 4th but was playing the World Cup game on a huge TV outside. Brazil was playing... I forget who, but we started watching just in time to see the Brazil player get stomped on the back...

We made the last train home that night!

The next morning, we had breakfast in the lemon garden, which was adorable. The man serving breakfast made us cappuccinos. We then went to the Manarola train station to buy our Cinque Terre passes: 12€ that gets you on the path between the fourth and fifth towns (Vernazza and Monterosso) and also gives you access to the trains and buses in between the towns as well as Wi-Fi access in the train stations.

We normally would have taken a train to Riomaggiore to start at the beginning, but there was a rock slide a few years ago and the paths between Riomaggiore and Manarola and between Manarola and Corniglia are closed right now. This was disappointing because we wanted to do all of it, but I was also disappointed because the first leg, with the Via Del'Amore, is the easiest... The recommendation was to start in Manarola, walk up into Volastra, and back down into Corniglia. Great.

That ended up probably being the hardest part. We hiked for 2.5 hours to get to Corniglia. It's important to realize that any time you leave a town, you're going to be going UP. Which direction you walk depends on how much UP you want. Based on my two trips here, I think either way is hard, but going in the direction of Riomaggiore to Monterosso is less extreme of an UP than the opposite direction. Every time we went down, I thought “I'm glad I'm not climbing this."

We stopped in every town for pictures of the buildings and took pictures while we were walking. We got some fruit in Corniglia because, even though it was lunch time, we were too hot to really be hungry.

An hour and a half after leaving Corniglia, (getting to use the coastal path now) we got to Vernazza. There is a small beach here, so we cooled off with a swim. We knew we wanted to do that, so we were walking in our bathing suits, feeling particularly fresh. We each had a slice of pizza, then kept walking.

It was this last leg when fatigue and exhaustion really set in. Had we done this part on a separate day (which a lot of people do) it wouldn't have been nearly as hard. The first half was, of course, uphill, and I had to stop very frequently to rest. I was carrying a backpack with two towels, two pairs of chacos, and a water bottle, so I'm using that as an excuse. Eventually, the climb leveled out some, Emery and I switched bags (since mine had stuff that belonged to us both), and we found a cat guide that all made it easier. (Really, a cat started walking in front of us and would wait for us when we stopped!) We passed a limoncello stand on the way down and obviously got some, and finished that when we got to Monterosso.

It was 8pm and we had been walking since 11am, so we didn't stay there long. Monterosso is normally where people spend their beach time, but it was late enough that not many people were there anymore.

We showered, had dinner in Manarola, and went to bed to rest for our day of traveling to Madrid the next day!

Dear Florence...

I could spend forever there! It was so nice to be in a place that I was familiar with (for the first time this trip) and that is just the perfect size- big enough to have lots to explore but not too big that you get swallowed up.

When we first got to Florence, we had to walk to our hostel, Mia Palace. It was probably a 15-minute walk from the train station and the directions provided by the hotel on the booking site were pretty helpful. I had also printed walking directions from Google maps before we left, so we had no problem. The hostel is basically on the Arno River, just down away from the center of town. Our room was spacious, air conditioned, and had good Wi-Fi! We've also noticed that the bathrooms we've had have gotten bigger and nicer as we've progressed through our trip.

The first night, we wandered. First stop: gelato. We got it at a place by one of the bridges, La Carraia. I had it last time I was in Florence and it is still just as popular. And cheap! Next, I wanted to show Emery Piazza Michelangelo because it has a gorgeous view of all of Florence. We went there, took pictures, and walked back into town. We had dinner in Piazza della Signoria next to the Palazzo Vecchio, which was lovely. I was going through Florence in my head, thinking of places I ate last time, and hoped we'd make it to one the next day. We crossed the river, got gelato, and headed back to the hotel.

The next day was probably my favorite of the trip so far. Even though we were in Florence, we did something new to me. I had been in the cathedral in Florence, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, which is free (as it should be). However, for €10, you can climb the inside of the dome, climb the bell tower, go into the baptistry, and the crypt below. We did all of that, got great pictures, and loved it! It also started training our legs for the climb to come in Cinque Terre...

We had a quick lunch in Piazza della Signoria, got gelato by the Ponte Vecchio (golden bridge) and made our way to the Bargello Museum. We had seen online about a dance festival in Florence with different performances throughout July. That night, stars of the American ballet were performing! We wanted to go ahead and get tickets while it was convenient.

We went to the Uffizi Museum next (€11). It's a large, impressive collection of primarily paintings and some statues. “Uffizi" means “offices", and the rooms were used by the Medici family. We had a Rick Steves podcast, but that's hard to follow in a museum where things get moved and shared around. It was still very enjoyable, though I was very ready for a rest back at the hostel after all of that.

Our goal was to rest, go to an appertivo someplace, and then go to the ballet. An appertivo is often a drink and buffet before dinner, and a lot of places by the river host these. Well, apparently the rest we needed was more than we anticipated, because we ended up only having enough time to get gelato to hold us over to after the ballet.
*let's review: that's 4 times we had gelato in Florence!

The ballet was in a museum where I actually saw a ballet last time. The central area is an open-air space where they set up seats and a stage. The ballet started at 9:30, so true to Italian form, we got let in at 9:35. The performances were by the principal dancers from the New York, Boston, and Miami ballets, a total of 6 people. It was a combination of group, partner, and solo dances that we enjoyed a lot. I liked that every number was very different.

After the ballet, we finally went looking for dinner at midnight. Nothing in the main, touristy part was open anymore, and we were beginning to think we'd be having gelato a third time that day. I remembered a couple of restaurants behind the Bargello that I had been to, and hoped that we'd find them quickly. They were actually a lot closer than we thought, and one of them, Acqua al Due, was open! We split two dishes, wine, and tiramisu, and the best part was that the ballet dancers went there too! Before they got their food, we went to tell them that we enjoyed their performance (so glad they'd understand us) and they were appreciative.

Very happy with our evening, we walked back to the hostel!

The next morning, we packed, had breakfast at the hostel, and accomplished a few things before we went to the train station. We walked towards the Pitti Palace to get cheap postcards, hit up the ATM, and stopped by the street market next to the bronze boar for Emery to shop some. I parked myself with our stuff in a plazza and finished writing my Rome post :)

The train station was easy for me to find,  being the Florence expert that I am (haha) and we bought our tickets to La Spezia just fine. We got tickets that did not require a transfer in Pisa. It stopped there, but we got to stay on the train. When we got to La Spezia, we had to get on a local train to get to the second town, Manarola, where we were staying in Cinque Terre.

That will be my next post!

Rome in less than a day

I think we did a <24 hr Rome trip pretty well!

When we landed from our flight from Mykonos in the Fumicino airport (outside the city) we had a driver waiting for us. After Athens, we weren't ready to navigate a big city on our own. Even with the driver speeding through in his fancy Mercedes, the drive still took 30 minutes. It was a nice ride, but definitely awkward considering the driver literally said 5 words the whole time.

We checked in at the hotel (Hotel Sant Angelo) and had the assistance of a porter who took us down the street to the annex of the hotel. The building reminded me of my apartment in Florence: gate to get in, small elevator, and big, stone staircase.  We squeezed our packs into the elevator and rode to the forth floor. From there, we went through a door to a hall of hotel rooms, where we found ours. The room had neat, old furniture and a big bed, so we promptly threw our stuff down and collapsed from exhaustion (like we have done in all of the hotels so far).

When we ventured out, we went looking for a bit to eat to tie us over until happy hour at the hotel. We made our way to the Trevi Fountain and... it was under construction! Emery and I had been there before so we weren't devastated, but it was disappointing. The water was not running or anything. Totally under construction. They did have a little pool of water for wish-making though.

We did find some food and then find the Pantheon, up the street from the Trevi Fountain. We had already planned to go back to the Pantheon the next day with a Rick Steves podcast tour, but I couldn't stop myself from going in... wow.

We went back to the hotel for “happy hour" which ended up being a carafe of wine, some water, and little things to eat. It was free so we obviously had some, but didn't stay long because there were only two other people there.

We looked online for things going on that night and Emery saw that a theater was hosting La Traviatta. We ran to the theater to find that it was the next night, even though online it said it was on Tuesdays (and it was Tuesday.)

We needed another plan! We wandered down the streets and ended up on some steps... the Spanish Steps! Looking at another fountain (Neptune), also under construction. We sat for a bit, heard a large group of maybe study abroad students sing the Canadian national anthem loudly (it wasn't the Americans!) And decided to get on the metro to the Colosseum.

We found it! It's really prominent when you get off the metro, so we talked across the street and took some pictures. It was probably 9:00 at the time, so the Colosseum was lit, which was gorgeous. We had both been to the Colosseum before and had a tour, so leisurely taking pictures was exactly what we wanted.  We thought we'd find someplace fun with the U.S. v. Belgium game (too soon?) around there, but we got back on the metro to get close to our hotel instead. Emery had seen a pub that publicized that it was playing the game that night, so we headed there and had a great meal!

The next morning, we packed, checked out, went to breakfast, and asked the hotel to store our luggage. We weren't done with Rome! Emery had downloaded Rick Steves podcast tours for St. Peter's Basilica and the Pantheon. We went to St. Peter's first because the line to get in would only be getting longer. Rick Steves does a good job of telling you where to go and how to get in and also reminds you that your shoulders (and knees, I think?) must be covered. The Basilica is obviously amazing and the podcast tour was perfect.

We walked towards the Pantheon, only using the map a few times (because we're experts...) and stopped for lunch at a place with Wi-Fi. A pigeon joined us inside for lunch and our waitress asked if we wanted it with fries or not. We chose pasta instead.

We made it to the Pantheon and listened to the 20 minute podcast tour. It was neat to hear about the inspiration for the design of the building as well as the combination of pagan and Christian decorations.

We went and picked up our bags, walked to the nearest metro stop, rode it to the train station, and got tickets for a high-speed train to Florence, only an hour and a half. (Note to self and other travelers: don't accept help from a stranger in the train station. They're not being nice, they want you to pay them.)

I'm currently sitting in a plazza while Emery shops at street markets before we leave Florence. I will post about Florence as soon as I can! We are headed to Cinque Terre very soon!

I will press “post" as soon as I have WiFi. Follow my twitter feed for more immediate updates!

On to the next part...

Our time in Mykonos has been so relaxing. I think Emery would agree with me when I say we needed relaxing after our first day in Athens... We didn't really slow down while we were there because we had too much to see. However, in Mykonos, our priorities were to see beautiful things! Check!

We leave in about 30 minutes to go to the airport (and again, we have a free ride from our hotel!) and then we'll be on our way to Rome! We're both excited to go there again, but we're only staying one night because we're even more excited to move on to Florence after that!