Europe Day 16: Florence

April 29 dawned bright and sunny, and we were a bit sad to race out of Monterosso...but excited to see Florence.  We arrived in Florence, had some lunch, and headed to the Accademia for our 1pm reservation.  Note to future European travelers: reservations at certain sights are well worth the few euro they cost, especially in high season! 

Unfortunately many places in Florence don't allow photography inside, so no pictures of the famous David or other incredible art in the Accademia.  I didn't realize the David was such a big sculture!  Sculpted by Michelangelo in the early 1500s, it stands 17 feet tall.  Pictures you may have seen don't do it justice - it's pretty incredible in person.  Michelangelo was a talented dude.  We also enjoyed the paintings and frescoes that had really ornate, 3D frames or interesting shapes. 

Next up we walked to the Duomo (huge - really huge church).  Pictures don't show its size - it's too big for a camera to capture.

Our first order of business was to get in line to climb to the top of the dome.  That probably goes without saying, as you have likely figured out by now that we pretty much climbed everything we could in Europe : )  It was really cool though - part way up the stairs we got to go on a little ledge around the inside of the dome.  Neat to see the painted ceiling (kind of like the Sistine Chapel) up close, and also to look down into the church from that high up. 

Looking up to the painted ceiling/dome...

...and down into the church.

Then we kept going, up very narrow, windy stairs to the top of the dome and went outside for great views of the city.  It was getting pretty cloudy at that point, but we enjoyed the views from up top.

The fun climb up!

Going back down was a tad bit tricky because it's the same narrow set of stairs for both directions...but we did make it down and out...and into rain.  So we bought two umbrellas off a street vendor and went in to the Baptistry.  Which has a phenomenal mosaic dome ceiling.  We sat and stared up at it until our necks hurt! 

It was mostly just drizzling when we exited the Baptistry, so we snapped a few shots of the very cool doors, then headed to the Orsanmichal Church.

Part of the Baptistry's doors.

We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the church, which we found out as this one was shot...thus it being crooked and the only one...

After visiting the church, we headed back to our hotel to get jackets, then hit the San Lorenzo Market.  It was fun - a vast area filled with leather and souvenir stalls, scarfs, masks, and all other kinds of fabulous treasures.  We enjoyed the festive atmosphere and browsing through various stalls, then found a fantastic place for dinner where Bryan had "the best pizza of his life!"

The gelato shops were enticing!

A small reproduction of the David in a courtyard.

Pillar in the Palazzo Vecchio courtyard

Palazzo Vecchio

Inside the restaurant

It finally stopped raining, so after dinner we walked over to Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge spanning the "old" and "new" town.  We also passed by the Duomo again on our way back to the hotel, and took a few night pictures.

Despite the gray and rain, we had a fabulous day and really enjoyed our brief time in Florence!

Europe Day 15: Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is a pretty phenomenal place.  April 28 we set off to hike the trail that connects the five towns.  It was warm sunny in the morning, and just beautiful hiking along up above the coast.  Monterosso to Vernazza was a lot of stair-step climbing, but afforded amazing views of the sea, towns, cliffs, and vegetation. 

Heading out of Monterosso, south, toward Vernazza

Looking back at Monterosso

We hiked by vineyards...

...up stairs...

...along the coast (Monterosso again)...

...up more stairs...

...over waterfalls...

...by cliff-hanging houses...

...and amidst lovely flowers.

We took a few breaks to ponder life...

...and capture the moment.

Our first glimpse of Vernazza

I almost joined this little band...

...while Bryan practiced the Italian blown kiss.

We arrived in Vernazza and wandered around for a bit, taking in the sights and visiting the church. 

We also got some more water and found a restroom...which wasn't much to speak of...before setting off on the trail toward Corniglia.

Corniglia in the distance...and cloudy skies upon us.

Corniglia

We made it to Corniglia in decent weather, and found a spot for lunch after walking through town a bit.

Just as we started out after lunch again, on our way to Manorola, it started dumping buckets of rain.  We made a mad dash to the train station, and after hearing the trail would likely be closed due to mud, we caught the train back to Monterosso.  We were disappointed that we didn't get to finish the hike and that we didn't see Manorola and Riomaggiore, but we did complete the longest/hardest sections of the hike and now we have a great excuse to return!

Back in Monterosso Bryan took a siesta and I did a little souvenir shopping.  The rain stopped by the time we found another little place for dinner, where I had whole grilled fish for the 3rd time in 2 days.  But this time I be-headed and de-boned it myself!  After dinner and a bit more shopping, we walked back up to the church and the cemetary area to get a few photos before it got too dark.

Monterosso from the hilltop church

What a great day!  This is a place we definitely hope to return to.  I'd like to visit early summer or fall to avoid the crowds but take advantage of the beach and sun!

Europe Day 14: Trrraaaiiinnnsss to Italy

April 27 started out a bit rough.  We knew something was off when we awoke to a stationary train in the middle of nowhere and our wake-up call didn't come as promised the night before by our car attendant.  Turns out our engine died and we had to wait til a new one arrived...and while it did mean we got to lay back down for a while (notice I didn't say "sleep"), it also meant we missed our connecting train to Cinque Terre so we weren't thrilled about it.  Once we got going again we observed our first bit of cloudy, gray weather out the windows, which made us all the more thankful for the lovely weather we'd experienced so far.

Once we arrived in Basel, we found out that the next train to Cinque Terre didn't leave for a while so we employed the very helpful Swiss train agent to make the rest of our train reservations for the trip (yes, even though we had Eurorail passes, reservations were still required on certain trains).  Then it was on to Arth-Goldeau, Milan, Genova, and finally Monterosso (the northernmost of the 5 utterly picturesque towns making up Cinque Terre on the north-western coast of Italy). The scenery between Milan and Monterosso was stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed staring out the window as it sped by. 

We got into Monterosso around 7pm, so we found our hotel, deposited our bags, and stared out the window at our lovely surroundings.  That's the great thing about hotels in Europe - even if the inside isn't that great, the view probably is : ) 

Then we took a short walk through town...

We found Bryan's dream car in Monterosso.  This is about all the streets would allow for.

...and picked a place called Ciak for dinner.  They had fresh fish on display, so I picked one out and they grilled it up whole, then de-headed and deboned it for me at the table.  YUM is all I have to say about that.  Bryan had a ginormous bowl of pasta with clams that looked delish too.

Though the window to Ciak's kitchen

After dinner we set out for an evening walk.  Monterosso, like all of Cinque Terre, is fabulous.  Small, charming, and authentic, with oodles of character.  We walked through "old town" down to the beach, where we climbed out on the rocks.

"Old town" is behind me, and "new town" is what you see across the water.

This is "old town" Monterosso, where our hotel was, taken from the rocks/beach.

Then we saw a path winding up around a hill...so of course we started up it despite the impending dark of night.  What a find!  We climbed up to a church, then on past it to a hill-top cemetary.  Call me weird, but it was really neat...wall after wall of "tombs," each lit by a candle and some with flowers.  Walking through, we found numerous people who lived well past 90, and several stones that dated back to the early 1800s.  All-in-all, it was a peaceful way to end the day.

Heading back down the hill, we took a different path of alleys back to our hotel and crashed after deciding we really like this place!