Day 4- Cinque Terre

So on Day 4 we did a day trip up to Cinque Terre through www.walkaboutpass.com ! If you ever go to Florence, USE THEM! AMAZING!!!! Anyways for those that don't know anything about Cinque Terre, it is a coastal region where there are 5 small villages! We decided to do a day trip where we trekked through the towns! All the towns are along the cliff off the coast. To get to each town you can either ride a train, take a boat, or hike to each one! Let me just say that Kevin and I are not hikers or avid walkers either, so this definitely tested our pain tolerance! I was so proud of us!

So we left Florence by bus for I think a 2 hour ride to Cinque Terre. We really enjoyed the bus ride because we got to witness so beautiful country on the way there! We learned so much about the region of Italy. They have a huge textile industry in the area, as well as nurseries. Goodness we passed so many different rows or trees, plants, etc. They ship them all over the world; VERY beautiful! There are also some mountains that have marble in them that they mine for!

When we finally arrived in Cinque Terre we started out and hiked down into the second town, Manarola.

From there we had to take a train to the 3rd town of Corniglia because of some landslides! Once we got off the train we had to hike up to the town because it is way up in the top of the cliff!

 I don't know if you can tell but those are steps we were fixing to climb. I think there were like 400 of them!

 This is looking up the step, doesn't do it justice on how steep and tall they were! MAJOR WORKOUT!

We decided Biggest Loser should do a season here, they loose weight so fast here!

This is the view up in the town.

We ate lunch here and the picture above was pretty much our view!! The lunch was sooo amazing! In Cinque Terre they make their own Pesto sauce. So we had the most delicious pesto pasta with potatoes and green beans in it. I know that sounds gross but it was actually really really good!

Next we did our toughest trek to Vernazza; it was 4KM and took probably an hour and a half!

 This is looking back at Corniglia after a bit of our hike!

 Back at Corniglia again!

 This is looking at down what part of our hike looked like.

This is coming into Vernazza.

I think both Kevin and I decided we like Vernazza the best! We stopped here for a bit and had some amazing gelato! They have a beach front here!

Next we took a train to the last town of Monterrosso. It was gorgeous as well! Lots of beach front. They kind of have an old area and a near area! While there we went to a wine bar and had some wine tastings!!

After that we got on a boat and got to see all 5 towns from the sea! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! We took the boat all the way to the first city of Riomaggiore.

 Vernazza

 You can kind of see one of our trails!

 Corniglia

 Manarola

Riomaggiore

We got off in Riomaggiore and then trekked back to Manarola. It was so beautiful! We had an amazing day. I think Kevin decided this was his favorite place we visited! 

Day 3- Florence

Rise and Shine! On day 3 we woke up and said good bye to Rome! We headed to the train station and got on the EuroStar and headed for Florence! It was such a gorgeous ride to Florence and seeing all the country side!

Once we arrived in Florence we checked into our Sognando Firenze B&B. We enjoyed it, the only complaint we had was that breakfast wasn't free and it was a bit farther away from the main part of town than we would have liked! We definitely had to rely on the bus system to get places.

After getting settled we headed to the main area of Florence!

 The is the river in Florence.

 Most popular piazza in Florence.

Picture of the bridge we were on earlier!

This is the main bridge in Florence. It is lined on the inside with vendors and stores! Most of them pretty high end! This area was by far the most crowded in Florence!

Next we walked around a bit and found some lunch! We then headed to our appointment to get into the Uffizi Gallery! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of anything there, so I have nothing to show! But there were some pretty impressive art works and it was neat to see how art was evolving through the years.

Uffizi Gallery

We then walked through the town and made our way over to the Accademia where Michelangelo's David is! Again we couldn't take pictures of the David, but man was it impressive!! We also some some other art works and some more of David's sculptures!

After that we walked to the Basilica. It is a very Medieval Gothic Cathedral! Gorgeous!

 Outside of the Basilica

 Inside of the Basilica

 The Duomo

The Baptistery Doors

We then made our way through Florence looking at other sites along the way!

That night we rested up and got ready for dinner! Afterwards we got some great night shots of Florence!

Florence was a great city, full of Renaissance history! It is very much known for its art history!

Day 2- Rome

Well on Day 2, we woke up well rested! We had breakfast and then headed onto the Metro to catch our tour of the Vatican! The Vatican has a huge wall around it!

The Vatican is very interesting. They have so many paintings, tapestries, sculptures, etc. Filled very much with art history! We did a tour of some parts of what is now the museum, for the most part it just has works of arts to see!

 This a courtyard area at the Vatican.

 This is the maps room. There are maps of every region of Italy on these walls and maps on the ceilings.

This is a famous painting in one of the rooms.

After touring the Vatican Museum, we walked back around the HUGE walls and had lunch at a little pizzeria. It wasn't bad, but man sometimes the people can be very pushy to get you to stop and eat at their place!

After that we walked over to St. Peter's Basilica! Man is it impressive!! We did a tour of it using our iphones! Rick Steve is a famous tour guide that writes books and stuff. But he just came out with some audio tours on your iphone!! So cool, we used this so much over the course of our trip! Just plugged in the head phones and he guided us!

 Just to give you perspective, those letters up there in the background, those are 7 FEET TALL!!

 This is a famous Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding a crucified Jesus! 

Here is the outside of the Basilica.

After that we just kind of walked around Rome and made our way by other famous sites! We saw numerous ones but here are some of the more famous ones.

 Castel Sant'Angelo

 Piazza Navona 

 The Pantheon

 The Pantheon

 The Pantheon

The Spanish Steps

After that we made our way back to the hotel to relax for a bit and then get ready for dinner! We ate another fabulous place near our hotel that the front desk recommended. Kevin and I had the best Fettuccine Alfredo we've ever had in our lives!

Later that night we hit the Metro and made out way to take a few night shots!

We had a great second day in Rome! That night we got some much needed rest so we could head out for Florence the next day...

Day 1- Rome

Well we arrived in Rome around 6:45AM Rome time! Kevin and I were tired but we were pushing through! We checked into our hotel for the next 2 nights, Hotel Adler. We really enjoyed our stay there!!

We went to find something to eat around the hotel and of course the first thing I found was a bakery that had CANNOLIS! I came to find out though later in the week, that cannolis are Sicilian so they are more of a southern Italy thing. NO wonder I couldn't find them in Tuscany and Venice! :( Oh well!

We walked around our hotel a bit and saw a few sites!!

 Thought mom would appreciate this organ!

That afternoon we had a Guided Tour of the Colosseum and the Ancient Roman Forum. Kevin and I really enjoyed this! Such history! We loved taking a guided tour because we learned so much more about stuff. Did you know the Colosseum was covered entirely with marble? There are a few spots that still have it, but most of it is gone now. And most of the Ancient Rome is buried under the ground. So archeologists keep digging and finding new discoveries!

We also saw the prison Peter and Paul were at in Rome!

We then walked back to our hotel and saw a few sites along the way, including the Trevi Fountain! Kevin and I both threw some euros in there and made a wish! :)

That night we ate at a Restaurant right outside our hotel called, Target! haha, when I saw that on the map, I was like no way they have Target in Italy. But no, it was a restaurant! And it was super yummy!! We crashed early that night to get caught up on some sleep!

PS, We probably took over 1700 pictures, so it is very hard for me to only choose a few! I'll post a link to all of them at some point.

We're Back...

Well we are back from Italy!! We got in late last night after traveling for 23 hours :( We had a wonderful time and enjoyed Italy so much!! I think I'm going to blog about each day we were there over the next week or so! So watch out for it...here is a little tease of a few pictures...