Cinque Terre Trek: My second favorite day in Italy

I am on the plane home as I write. We set low expectations for ourselves for this flight considering the awful experience we had on American Airlines on the way over. But we were pleasantly surprised to find TV screens on the back of each chair with more movies to choose from than one could imagine! Cam is currently watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies and I am getting ready to watch The Book Thief, followed by Twenty Years a Slave. The seats and tray tables are comfy (I sleep on a tray table like no other!) and we managed to get seats together despite our late check in at the airport because we couldn’t’ figure out how to check in on line. So, it’s all good.

Before I explain the wonder of our last day in Italy, I have to attempt to put in to words how grateful I am that I got to have these experiences. So many people are suffering right now and so many cannot have these opportunities. I don’t know why I get these chances, but I do know that I will take them while I can. God is in control of my life and only he knows when good or bad will happen. So I choose to live life to the fullest as long as I can taking every chance to pause, pray and be thankful for each day that I am healthy, my family is healthy and we are together. I do not take good times for granted because I know that those times can turn in a flash. Life is full of surprises.

So on to Cinque Terre which means “Five Lands”. These are 5 small villages on the Mediterranean Sea linked by train and windy curvy roads where you must honk to let a possible car around a corner know that you are there. The Cinque Terre is an area that I always saw in pictures and thought was beautiful but never really knew much about it. My friend, Michelle, went last year and up on her and her husband’s suggestion, we too decided to check it out.

I am not a big tour person. I like to navigate things on my own. But after this trip I see the value in scheduling a few tours during an international trip. For one, after using a map and getting lost and found again for hours, it was really nice to get on a bus and relax and have someone else take care of me for a day! And second, and most importantly was what we were able to learn from our tour guides. I never would have enjoyed any of the places I visited on our two Walkabout Florence tours, had it not been for the knowledge of our guides.

Our guide for the Cinque Terre was Freddy. Freedy was an interesting dude. He speaks 6 languages, tried banking and mortgage for a while, made a killing and took his money to Europe where he did what he wanted until his money ran out. He did say something about a cousin that actually stole his money while they ran a restaurant together. So he decided to live simply, on what he needs, not wants and he makes very little doing tours. But, he loves what he does and it shows.

He made in incredibly and almost annoyingly clear that this was a trek, not a walk. This would be 6K (about 4 miles) and down hill, which is harder on your knees thatn uphill. He said we’d be moving fast and he wasn’t kidding. I decided to follow right behind Freddy to try to get info from him and just because I was up to the challenge. I didn’t want to get stuck behind the people I knew would be slower.Good choice! I got a ton of info that others couldn’t hear. I got one on one info about all of the greenery we were seeing. He explained how the grapes they grow on the terraces are in canopy form and that old ladies get on their knees and crawl under them to gather the grapes. He showed me wild asparagus and oh gosh, it will come to me later, but my potatoes were seasoned with it the other night and it had a very distinctive taste. Also we saw chestnut trees and learned how during WWII people would grind these nuts and use them as flour for baking. We even saw wild boar poop! The face was fast but I kept up.

Lunch was in the small town of Corniglia. It was a tiny town of about 200 people with a beautiful, nice restaurant that served us fresh fish (mine had an added dead fly that I didn’t notice until later and you can see in the picture….and I did NOT act like an ungrateful, demanding American and request it be taken back. I just knocked the fly off and told myself that the fly could have been there as they were bringing me my food and the server would have knocked it off and I wouldn’t have known) The next course was a traditional pesto pasta made with potatoes and green beans in it. It was not as good as I thought it would be but the fried bread and cheese I had later made up for it. We shared a table with a young couple from New Zealand and had a lovely time!

Next up was the next town by train and I do get them all confused. This is where Cam and I got to swim in the Mediterranean! Changing our clothes proved to be interesting as we found a café, ordered 2 cokes, sat there for a few and then used their restrooms. After swimming (which was amazing and refreshing) we used a towel and made our own cabana of sorts, pulled a Houdini and we were changed. We saw that most people were doing thing so we followed suit. I think Cam thought he was going to die of embarrassment until I pointed out that he never once noticed anyone doing that until I made a point to show him.

We had more gelato and then returned to the train and went on. The next town was a sweet little town where we went to a wine bar recommended by Freddy and shared a table with our New Zealand friends. Of course service was slow so the girl and I went to the place that served the Pane Frite…fried bread pastry with the most delicious cheese inside. It was the same idea as my favorite meal from the other night but this was just in a different format. So the fried bread and wine tasting was fantastic and we had the best time with this couple. I never even got their names but they were really sweet.

And finally we took a boat along the coastline to the last town where we had just a little time to say our goodbyes to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

So it’s time to end the Italy trip blog entries 2014. Feeling grateful and thankful and ready to see my family and sleep in my bed…..for many hours!

Our fantastic tour guide took this picture of me and Cam.

My students might enjoy seeing a real life example of terrace farming.

 

Cliff divers. A few from our group (including the New Zealanders we met) did this!

Florence: Food, Science and Michelangelo's David

FOOD!
I think the best part about today may have been all three meals! Sure we visited several museums, and actually, Michelangelo’s David was simply stunning, but my meals…oh man!

Breakfast was all about atmosphere. I grabbed my eggs, bacon etc.. and went down to the eating area in a lower courtyard. The weather was gorgeous. I had my computer so I finished yesterday’s blog and just sat for a while with an amazing cappuccino.

Lunch was an accident. Well, it was the place Cam chose because he needed to eat…NOW. So we walked into a tiny little place where you could see the chefs preparing the food and took a seat amongst locals. We had fantastic spaghetti pomodoro. It was piping hot and just remarkable for something so simple. It was a great value too!

Cam said he needed meat and that having only carbs was making him really tired. So we found a place recommended by our hotel and walked a very quite walk to the east end of the Oltarno neighborhood. We probably only saw 2 people in our 10 minute walk. When we got to the restaurant there was a man standing in front of the door looking as if he was blocking it so we walked past. But I realized he was blocking the entrance so I just boldly walked up and past him into what turned out to be a very quaint, very nice place. It was practically empty I assume because it was Sunday night. It wasn’t any busier when we left at 9:00 so I don’t think it was that we were there early.

Our front desk lady was so helpful before we left in helping me decide on an appetizer. We were going for the Bistecca Florentine (sold by the kilo) but we knew we should order something else. So we ordered the most amazing conccoli stracchino e prosciutto crudo. Basically it was fried bread balls, with the most interesting and delicious cheese and prosciutto. So you would take the bread and put some cheese it which made it melt and then add some prosciutto. Oh my goodness! Heaven! The steak was good too☺

Michelangelo's David

Medici Palace

Our favorite gelato...mostly because they also sold my favorite, Schwepps Limone!

Best little lunch place by St. Lorenzo market

Galileo museum where I saw more inventions than I ever realized!

This wins the award for the best thing I ever ate in Italy. I've never had anything like it.

My favorite day! Tour of Tuscany.

A beautiful day at the Tuscan winery.

We always made fun of the tour groups; you know, the ones wearing the voice headsets around their neck and following the guide with the umbrella? Well, we have a different opinion now! Walkabout Tours, Best of Tuscany tour is one of the highlights of our trip. It was so nice to sit back and relax and let someone else tell us what to do and where to go for 12 hours. And although we thought we’d be exhausted at the end of the day, we found that actually we were energized by the entire experience.

We started by meeting a mom and her two college-aged students while we were waiting for the bus to show up. Just getting to the bus was a tad un-easy as we had to make sure we got on the right bus to get to the meeting spot. Once on the bus though, we made more friends, some from LA, a family from DC , and a couple from Arkansas.

Our first stop was Sienna. This place is so rich in history that I cannot begin to go into it so I will share a link…. http://www.abctuscany.com/siena/siena-town/
For me, the most interesting part about Sienna is the districts in which it is divided. There are 17 districts and they are very special to the people of the district. There are tiles notating which district you are in. And I could go on and on. This is tied to the Paleo horse race that is run twice a year in the summer. We just missed the last race and they were cleaning up after it in the Campo. One step in to the shell-shaped
Piazza and you feel transported to medieval times. It looks different than any other piazza or square we have been in thus far. The whole tour was fascinating!

Next stop, the organic wine farm (http://fattoriapoggioalloro.com/?lang=en) which may have been a favorite for both of us as we both agreed we needed to stay longer! We toured the vineyard and then had a fabulous wine tasting and lunch consisting of the best olive oil I’ve had, penne pasta with meat sauce and then a plate of cheese and prosciutto and I LOVE prosciutto! There was biscotti with a very strong dessert wine and tradition is that you dip the biscotti in the dessert wine. With just a dip it was delicious!

Next stop, San Gimignano (http://www.discovertuscany.com/san-gimignano/)
yet another city so rich in history that I must attach a website. Cam has always wanted to see this place. This is where he toured the “Museum of Torture” while I shopped☺ San Gimagnano is famous for porcelain which in the US doesn’t particularly interest me so I had to be careful to not buy something in the moment that I would later regret. I decided on a salt and pepper shaker because I frankly have been looking for one for a long time! I walked up and down the main street of this walled city and looked and looked and checked pricing until I about gave up. Then I walked in to one last shop and found the most beautiful designs different than any others and prices were not any more. Also, the salt and pepper shaker I found was smaller and prettier so for less money I got exactly what I wanted!

We met our bus and off to Pisa we went. Each bus ride from place to place was only about an hour which was the perfect amount to just relax in between. This is probably why we weren’t so tired at the end of the day as opposed to the other days where we thought our legs would fall off! We also got lucky with cloud cover and a nice breeze.

We weren’t all that excited about Pisa but once we were there we realized that actually this would be a great place for a picnic! The lawn out front reminded me of a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower lawn. So we walked around for about 10 minutes looking for a good place to take away sandwiches and drinks. We were patient and we found the perfect place. We got our favorite prosciutto and mozerella sandwich and a couple of sodas and went to the lawn below the tower. There was a sweet family there with the cutest little 16 month old boy who was wanting to interact with us. It really made the experience fun.

You could climb the tower but in my opinion, unless you end up with a fabulous view at the end, don’t bother! Plus is was $20!

After our hour or so in Pisa we were on our way back home. We were both energized after this day just loving the fact that we weren’t completely exhausted!

When we got back to our little hotel haven, Cam and I played chess; well, Cam tried to teach me how to play chess and I lasted for one sad game! Then he went to the room to do the shower/talk to his friends thing and I stayed downstairs watching the World Cup game with a few others from the hotel and started writing this blog post with a glass of wine from the “honor system” bar at the hotel. Actually they have you buy an entire bottle of wine, provide a nice glass and you just write down what you bought on a paper by the bar. The bottle I bought was only 7 euro so about $9 and it was fantastic! And the best part is that I have 2 more nights to have a glass from the same bottle. Best bargain so far!

I’m typing the last part of this blog sitting outside at breakfast where they make you a wonderful cappuccino and the food choices are completely European; eggs, croissants, meats and cheeses and the best fresh fruit salad around. They cut up the fruit into tiny pieces and it’s fresh fruit so it blends really well. I will be doing this at home when I have the time to cup up that much fruit!

Today is the day we finish off seeing any of the museums and attractions on our Firenze card. With this card we get free transportation on busses (which is great since we have a bus stop just outside the hotel) and entry into a ton of places while skipping the line. Today we will enjoy that as we are going to the Accademia to see the David. http://www.accademia.org/

Buongiorno!!!

Cam refused to do a cliche leaning tower pose:)

San Gimagnano

Had to bring some wine home from the winery. There is some olive oil too

White cows!

Olive trees

Sienna's cathedral

Sienna

This is where the district's horse is kept before the Paleo race. There is a "drawing' to see which horse the district gets and it's a big deal to draw a good horse. The district chooses the jockey. If the jockey falls off and the horse still wins, then the district wins.

Sight of the Paleo race. This is the main "square" in Sienna but it is shell shaped...water drains to one end. They cover the race area with dirt for the Paleo. The race had only been days before so there was still quite a bit of dirt around and workers washing it away.

The winning district flag of the Dragon. Each district is named after an animal .Our tour guide was part of the Turtle district:)

Bell tower in Sienna

This chapel's carvings were done by Michelangelo, but he never finished it as seen in the upper right hand side. The bottom right (which i don't think you can see here, is actually a self portrait of him)

Florence: A little bit of this and that...and gelato!

Today we ran along the Arno River. Cam would run ahead and then turn around and get me now and then. We had breakfast and then headed for the Uffizi and Duomo on Bus D. It was only a 20 minute bus ride since we are staying the Oltrarno whicIh is the other side of the river.

We started for the Duomo but were sidetracked when Cam saw the Santa Maria Novella. In my first post I went in to what this was but I won't now...

Then we tried again for the Duomo but were again sidetracked at the bell tower...again I may go in to that later. I climbed 150 steps and stopped. Cam went to the top.

Finally the Duomo, which in my opinion is more impressive from the outside than the inside, but either way the whole thing has  cool history.

We stopped at a great little sandwich shop for a mozzerella and tomato sandwich and headed for the Uffizi with a stop for gelato in between. The Uffizi was amazing and I enjoyed taking picture of Medieval and Renaissance art to share with my students. To just be there was pretty awesome.

I Fratellini...great sandwich shop which also sells fantastic house wine by the glass

Santa Maria Novella

Fantastic tour guide!

At this point we went to the Ponte Vecchio (cool covered bridge with lots of little jewelry shops) and then walked home when we realized I left my debit card at the hotel and we had no cash.....ooops. I suppose transferring money and cards from wallet to money belt etc.. has its drawbacks. So we ended up at a recommended pizza place where I got carbanara and Cam got pizza and it was great! Nice little non touristy place!

So that's it for now. The rest will be told in pictures until I have more time to expand:)

Duomo

Duomo

Bell Tower at the Duomo...he climbed to the top and was looking DOWN on the Duomo..

In front of the famous bronze doors to the Baptistry

Start the day in Rome and end in Florence

View from the train ride from Rome to Florence.

Ahh.....grapes

That's grape juice....

The walk up to Piazza Michelangelo

Guitar player playing to the young kids hanging out at the PIazza Michelangelo

The Ponte Vecchio

Restaurant that Jay at at while he was here.

It's a REAL selfie!! ....and you can't even see the Duomo back there:(

       

The hotel entrance where they have free happy hour from 6-8;30...which became our dinner last night:)

Today Cam was tired and really wanted to just chill around Rome. I think he’s been up late talking to his friends since there is a 7 hour time difference and it’s the only time they can talk. Hmmm…that has to stop! It is clear that I really am a low maintenaince person! I'm proud of that! I can be ready before him, I go when my back it out or I have a "Roman cold" and I get up and am ready to run the Arno while he's wining that he's tired. I also don't complain when it's hot and I'm totally shower worthy:) That said, waking up and being hot are the ONLY things he has issue with. Cam is the best traveler ever! He has saved us numerous times and has the been naviagator extraordinaire. He's learned a lot and I know he could travel the world alone and be just fine!And it's fun to travel with someone with such desire to see and learn and with such extensive historical knowledge! Now if he'd just get out of bed!!!

I went to breakfast by myself and brought him a croissant. We finally left the room at checkout time at noon, dropped off the bags and the desk and off we went to Campo di Fiori. It was a cute market but small compared to city market in Kansas City☺ We found the most amazing sandwich place. It was just a tiny whole in the wall walk up place. We each got a prosciutto and mozzarella Panini and a soda for 12 euros which is a good deal! After that we just walked and walked and wandered. We sat around the back side of the Pantheon for a while and eventually it was time to get our taxi to the train station.

We heard that the train station was a dangerous place in that there are many people wanting to “help” you and pickpockets. I will say we were pleasantly surprised after reading so many negative reviews. We were approached by 2 sets of people but just kept walking and shook our heads and said “no”. After that it was a piece of cake. However, it wasn’t until we were in our hotel elevator that I breathed a sigh of relief and congratulated us on a job well done!!! There were a lot of doubts and unsure moments but it all turned out fine.

Train ride was nice and had beautiful views. Arriving in Florence, Cam didn’t take the time to really look for the taxi queue so I followed him out and he really just wanted to see the Duomo! Then we had a bit of a walk to the taxis.

Arriving at our hotel made it worth it all. This place it top notch. We arrived in time for the daily happy hour from 6;30-8:00 so we had some wonderful red wine and snacks out in the gorgeous courtyard! We met a couple that was having troubles because they had rented a car and within 10 minutes had been pulled over and given a ticket that apparently cost them a fortune. They were pretty upset and were trying to research how to use the train system to get where they wanted to go. I’m telling you, research is so important. I have to wonder how their trip might have changed if they had researched car rental and driving in Italy.

We walked up to the top of the Piazza de Michelangelo and saw the most amazing view of the city of Florence! It truly was stunning! There was a guitarist playing on stairs and a great restaurant that Jay told me he ate at when he was here. We walked down a different way and back at the hotel we are making our plans for a big day tomorrow!!!