Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Day 5- Tuscany

So on Day 5, we did a day trip through the same company we did the Cinque Terre Trek through. This was probably my favorite day while in Italy!

Our first stop was to Siena. It was such a quite and cute town, we want to come back here and stay maybe next time.



 This is the main square



 The inside of the Basilica in Siena
  The inside of the Basilica in Siena
 Outside of it
The is the world's oldest BANK!

Next we drove deeper into Tuscany and went to this amazing winery and organic farm! We had lunch there and everything we had besides the cheese was made there on the property. It is a family run business and we loved it!! When we go back to Tuscany I want to come and stay at their B&B!! The wine and food was amazing and the views were just breath taking!


 Look at the baby grapes!
 Baby Olives!

Our view during lunch!!! That is San Gimignano in the back ground!

San Gimignano is where we went after lunch. It is known as the Medieval Manhattan! They had some of the first sky scrapers! A few are still standing. It was such an old city but really cute! And they had some amazing views from the city of the Tuscan country side! We also had some gelato there from one of the world's grand champions!! YUMMM





Next we headed up to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower!!!! SOOO cool!

 The view coming into Pisa





We then made our way back to Florence and took some amazing pictures of the city at dusk!



We really enjoyed our time in Florence and our day trips!! Next up, VENICE!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

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! 


Friday, June 10, 2011

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!