Cinque Terre

So Nate and I are both home sick from church.  Whatever this is that's going around it is nasty.  

From Firenze we took a day trip to Cinque Terre (pronounced Chinkway Terra), or the Five Lands.  We got up at 4:30 in the morning, walked to the train station and took a train up the Western side of Italy.

The train ride up was so picturesque.  Beautiful green mountains, miles and miles of vineyards.  I had planned on sleeping on the way, but just couldn't do it.

This is Nate enjoying the scenery from his seat on the train. (Nate wrote that.)

The cool alleyways in Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore, the first village on the hike.

Me in Riomaggiore.  

Another view.  This was probably my favorite of the five villages.

The start of the hike.

This part of the trail was called the Via dell' Amore, the walk of love... or something like that and so carved into every plant and cactus on the way were the names of couples.

Some Italian guys fishing in the Mediterranean.

View from the tunnel there.

A cactus.

Manarola... I think.

Some cool magenta plant against the teal of the Mediterranean.

A view on the hike.

Nate sometime along the hike.

A rickety old bridge along the way.

Monterosso, the last and largest of the five villages.  Nate and I had our best lunch here at a little bakery.  We ate on one of these benches overlooking the sea.

We also hopped on the train to get here (skipping that part of the hike) because we had left our swimsuits in Florence and Nate was DYING to swim in the sea.  (Those of you who know Nate know that he loves swimming and never passes up the opportunity, regardless of how cold the water is.)  We finally found one shop that sold them.  Nate bought the most ill fitting shorts I've ever seen... I doubt he ever wears them again.  And I bought the only one-piece even close to my size.  Only until I put it on did I realize just how scandalous it was, although it was still more modest than a two-piece.

Still in Monteroso.

Again on the Via dell'Amore.  Couples place locks on the railings or anything accessable as a symbol of their love being bound together.  There are hundreds of locks along this path.

Nate finally swimming in the Mediterranean... notice the big grin.  None of me, due to the aforementioned swimwear issue.  I did swim, but decided against posting any pictures.  It was the saltiest water that I've ever swam in... I think I prefer fresh water.  Nate, he really didn't care.

Still stoked about swimming in the Mediterranean.

Man, I don't remember what city this was.  It was either Vernazza or Corniglia.

Me after a lot of hiking.

Before returning to Florence we ate dinner in Cinque Terre and it was the worst food we had on our whole trip.  Mine was so salty that it was seriously inedible.  One bite would have finished up your sodium intake for the day.  Nate and I shared his, which was a very small portion.  He was so sweet to share.

The trip back was very long and I was very tired from all the hiking that by the time we got to Florence's train station we decided to take a taxi to our hotel.  And just like every night in Italy, we slept like babies.

Up next: Venice (my favorite!)

Firenze

We were sad to leave Rome, but were also really excited for our second stop, Florence, or Firenze in Italian.  Florence was much smaller than Rome and our hotel was centrally located so we were able to walk everywhere.  Nate and I figure that in Florence and Venice we probably walked an average of 15-20 miles a day... at least.  It was nice to not have to take the bus.

My first real train ride.  It was probably the nicest one of our trip.  We sat next to this sweet lady from Sicily and we were able to communicate with her pretty well with the little English she knew, the even littler Italian that we knew and some pretty awesome hand motions.  Again one of my favorite people that we met on the trip.

Our first stop was to see this guy.  I didn't take this picture, as we weren't allowed to.  (Many places were like this.)  It was amazing and much larger than I had imagined.  It was so cool that people chatted in the other rooms of the museum, but the minute they came to David everyone was silent.  Michelangelo was one talented guy.  And after being disappointed with my experience in the Sistine Chapel (it was so crowded, noisy and dark there) it was nice to have a good experience here.

More gelato... we had it everyday.  And it was amazing.  I'm not the biggest ice cream fan and I'd hear people talk about gelato and I thought, "Ice cream is ice cream."  Boy was I wrong.  I don't know how they do it, but I don't think I will ever be satisfied with American ice cream again.  My favorites were Chocolate Hazelnut, Pistachio (seriously amazing), and strawberry, although they were all really good.  

Seriously, how lucky am I?

Okay, so I hate this picture (remember what I told you about the hair?)  But I had to put it up because this was one of my other favorite people.  We purchased some small watercolors from this artist... the best we'd seen in all of Florence... and trust me we looked everywhere.  

Nate and I had the most horrible luck when it came to food.  Not only is Italian food... dare I say it... extremely overrated (and I love my pasta!) but we would see food that looked really good and we would plan to go back.  But when we'd get hungry we'd search forever trying to find it.  We'd finally give in and eat somewhere that wasn't very good.  Then immediately after eating we'd find the place we were looking for in the first place! 

 (Oh, and this is right after getting hit up for money by some gypsies.  Funny story... Nate is stingy with his money (He once was asked at Safeway if he would donate his change, which was $0.03, to some cause and he said, "no.")  So this woman comes up to us begging for money.  I politely said "no", but Nate reached into his pocket.  I was surprised.  When Nate put his change in her cup her smile immediately disappeared.  I asked him how much he gave her and he replied, "One US penny and a .05E."  That's right folks about 8 US cents. 

I have no idea what church this is.

One of many adorable windows in Italy.  My dream is to have a house with windows like these.

Me outside Basilica de San Lorenzo.

Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, depicting 10 scenes from the Old Testament.  Funny right after this picture a tour guide moved in with her group and Nate was stuck there for 10 minutes until she was done with her explanation.  We really grew to hate guided tours.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly known as the Duomo.

Another view.

Nate waiting to get inside.

The stained glass windows inside the Duomo.

Another one.

The cool skeleton man painted in the dome there.

The Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.

A cute street.

Our awesome bathtub.  It had a hook on the wall to hang the shower head, but no curtains so it was impossible to not get water everywhere.  We just embraced being in a different culture and used it like this.

I apologize in advance for the kissing... we're dorks and thought it would be fun to end each video with a kiss, not thinking that we would post these on a blog.  And I don't know how to cut it out (if someone knows how I wouldn't be opposed to it)... sorry!

Coming soon: Cinque Terra.

Roma

I know this is long overdue, but thanks to a cold I actually have the time, so I'd better take advantage of it. Nate and I had talked over the last few years about traveling somewhere before we have kids, otherwise we knew we never would. We finally decided that we'd go as a graduation present for me finishing my bachelors and Nate almost finishing up his MBA. For months we debated on where to go and finally decided on Italy.

Our trip started in Rome.

First stop: the Colosseum.  It was amazing, although not as big as Nate and I had pictured it.

Then the Roman Forum.  Gotta love those trees.

The view from the Roman Forum.

Our second home in Rome.  We got to know the bus/subway system so well that we could get just about anywhere without even thinking about it.  While this is definitely the way to travel in Rome it certainly wasn't my favorite time of the day.  There were times that the bus driver would pull in at the next stop and I would think, "There is no way one more person can fit on this bus."  The doors would open and 6 more people would cram themselves in.  It was hot and many people there don't wear deodorant.  It was fun.

The view from our hotel.  I know, I never thought there would be palm trees in Rome.

Angel Bridge.  Nate took this picture.  Awesome, huh?

La Pieta by Michelangelo.

One of the domes in St. Peter's.

Nate looking angelic in St. Peter's.

The main dome in St. Peter's.

Me in Saint Peter's Square.  (And you'll notice in these pictures that the hair is never looking very good.  Despite buying an outlet converter to be able to use anything electric we noticed that it said in the instructions not to use it with things such as curling irons or clothes irons... so a flat iron was out of the question.  I had to get along with just blow drying it.  Some days it worked, others not so much.)

Looking down in St. Peter's.

The view from the Cupola... taken above someone's head.  

Nate and I on top of the Cupola.  I about had a panic attack on the climb up.  I don't think I could ever do it again.  The stairs are really narrow, once we got to the spiral staircases there were no hand holds, and multiple times we had to try to maneuver around people who were having to take a break from the climb.  But we made it to the top!  We're both terrified of heights, but I thought, "I may only be here once so I'd better get over it and look over the edge."  Nate, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with.  I had to beg him to scoot close to the edge so I could take a picture that I'm not even using in this blog.  I'm so mean!  I wasn't looking forward to the trip back down, but oddly enough I was just fine.

Saint Peter's Basilica- view from the roof.

Our first gelato experience.  Set us back 20E, which comes to $30 American... for 2 cones.  Thankfully we quickly realized that without all the jazz you could get a waffle cone and 2-3 scoops for 3-4E.

The Pantheon.  Afterwards we just hung out in the square and people watched.  It was so relaxing.

The Trevi Fountain.  Legend goes that throwing a coin into the fountain will insure a return to Rome... I couldn't pass that up!

Nate tossing his coin.

One of the few pictures of the two of us.

Trevi Fountain.

Trevi Fountain lit up at night.  We just hung out for awhile (and dozed off a bit) and watched it light up.  It was nice to just relax for awhile.

The Colossuem at night.  Loved it.

I loved this... had to take a picture.  Pretty much sums up the driving experience there.  It's frightening.  We had considered renting a Vespa, but after seeing how people drive there we decided against it.

Waiting at the bus stop.

A lake at the Villa Borghese gardens.

Man I love this kid.

Me at the lake.

The fun bike that we rented to get around the Villa Borghese.  Nate was so good being the driver.  Every time that I tried we ended up having to get out of a rut or having to push it backwards from a tree.  

After the park we had lunch in the ritzy part of town.  One of our waiters was really cold.  He spoke to us, but you could tell he was annoyed with us Americans.  The other waiter was this big-eared goofy looking kid with an adorable smile.  He was so excited to speak English and was so sweet.  One of my favorite people that we met in Italy.

Dessert... it was so hard to find desserts without coffee or some sort of alcohol in it, so we often ended up getting something that didn't really look that good.  

Overall we loved Rome.  Definitely was the best city at night.  I never felt scared.  But from there the trip just continued to get better (although our hotels didn't!) and I was really glad that the trip began here.

Coming soon: Florence.