Venice

Friday morning we took it easy and then walked 10 minutes to the train station dragging our enormous rolling luggage through the narrow alleys of old Florence. The train ride was quick and easy – two hours from Florence to Venice. Then a 26 Euro boat trip to the Rialto Bridge and a little searching in the rain to find our three-star Scandinavia Hotel. I am beginning to realize that the star rating, at least for this trip, has proved to be meaningless.  This hotel was kind of a dive.  We went to dinner and spent the rest of the night exploring the streets, shops and sights of Venice.  Oh, and we had some gelato.

Florence - Day Two

Thursday we had a full day in Florence and the weather was beautiful. Florence is an amazing city. We had pastries for breakfast and then walked around for the rest of the day.  We saw the Sante Croce church, and Dante’s church and home. Then we went across the river to the Palazzo Pitti. More gelato. After a short stop back at the Albergo Scoti (our hotel), we had pizza again by the Duomo Santa Maria -- then walked through a huge street market. Kelly asked “is this why they call it the Black Market?” (because of the many Africans selling illegal counterfeit goods) More  gelato, then we saw the Santa Maria Novella Chapel, bought train tickets for Venice, and again back to the Scoti to rest. In the evening, we grabbed some sandwiches and ate them back in our hotel as we watched some old Disney movies.

Kelly finally got her Swatch Watch.

Florence - Day One

We woke up Wednesday morning to rain and another yucky breakfast at the hotel.  We got packed up and took a bus to Florence.  We found there was a bus that was quicker and cheaper to get to Florence and the bus was walking distance from our hotel.  We dragged our luggage through the rain, took an hour bus ride, and then arrived in Florence with no taxi's to be found.  Maybe bus people don't generally take taxi's.  It was a downpour and we had to walk across the street to the train station to find a taxi.  We found our hotel online and I think it had only one star.  It is the cutest little boutique hotel and it is amazing.  We dried off, took a little rest and then headed out for the afternoon.  We went to the Gallerie Dell'Accademia Museum and saw Michealangelo's David.  Walked across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge and saw a bunch of other famous buildings in Florence.  

Siena

Got to Siena late Monday.  Took a cab to our hotel in the heart of the city and then had some great take out in our room.  Tuesday we had breakfast in the hotel.  Yuck, it was awful. Then took a walking tour around the city with a tour guide that was very interesting.  Ended the walking tour with a tour of the inside of the Santa Maria Cathedral.  We spent the rest of the day exploring Siena.  Again, the weather couldn't have been better and it was a wonderful day.   That night we had another very authentic Italian dinner and then went back to the same gelato place we had been to for lunch.

Pizza on Piazza Del Campo.

Piazza Del Campo

Santa Maria Cathedral

Loving Lucca

We had a great breakfast in the hotel.  Our room was spacious, wonderful friendly owners, horrible beds and a pretty miserable shower.  We headed into the town which was just minutes away and rented bikes for the day.  Rode around Lucca which is such a cute town.  Every building is just what you would expect an Italian village to look like.  There were beautiful cathedrals, tons of museums, and there is a beautiful tree lined path on top of the city wall that surrounds Lucca.  After we rode around the town for a while, we headed out to the Tuscan Countryside.  The weather was perfect.  We came back into town for a late lunch and then hopped on a train headed for Siena.

This was a typical courtyard in Lucca.

One of the many beautiful piazzas.

The path on the wall surrounding the city.

Tuscany

Pizza, pizza, and more pizza.

Lucca and Pisa

It took as an hour to get to Lucca today but we just about spent the afternoon in the train station.  We left La Spezia fine but as Italian trains often do, we sat on the tracks for awhile after one of the stops.  We almost missed our connecting train and I'm sure we were quite a sight as we ran with a ton of luggage up and down the stairs.  Did I mention, I hate Italian trains.  They don't even have ramps, you have to carry your suitcases up and down the stairs.

Just outside the wall surrounding Lucca.

We are so original.

We checked into our hotel which was just steps from the train station and quite amazing given the cost.  Lucca is a town in Tuscany that has a medieval wall around it.  We walked around the town which was very cool and then took a short train ride to Pisa.  We walked around Pisa for a few hours and then took the train back to Lucca.   We had dinner in Lucca at the most amazing and authentic Italian restaurant that the hotel clerk had recommended.  It was an Easter we will never forget.

Cinque Terre or should I say Quattro Terreni?

It began as a great day.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then took a five minute train ride from La Spezia to Riomaggiore.  The weather was perfect. We walked around Riomaggiore for a minute which pretty much allowed us to see the whole town.  We then started walking on the path of love -  Via Dell’Amore - a footpath cut into the cliffs above the sea from Riomaggiore to Manarola. We walked around Manarola for a while, got a ton of pictures, but were anxious to get back on the trail to the next three small villages.  But after a short distance, the path was closed because of storm damage. We could see the path all along the cliffs to Corniglio, and were sad not to be able to walk it. We went back into Manarola for lunch -- pizza and cannolies, of course.  The regional train only comes every 90 minutes, so we had more time to wander.  This turned out to be a good thing because Manarola was the coolest of the four towns.  We had some gelato and then hopped on the train for Corniglia.  From the train to the town there were about a thousand steps uphill, and I was grateful that the weather was so cool.  We walked through the town which was even smaller than the last two but was so charming.  Great smells came from cute little restaurants. The town was high on the hill overlooking the Mediterranean.  Next town was Vernazza which I was excited to see because my friend Annabell had said it was her favorite of the five.  We walked the six thousand steps back to the station (there were more on the way down) and headed to Vernazza.  I had heard there were floods last October and that Cinque Terre was hit hard, but so far the towns looked pretty good. In Vernazza though, there was a lot of damage. The ground floors of all the buildings along the main street were washed out and filled with debris.  It must have been a beautiful town and it made me so sad to see all the devastation.  As we talked to people we learned that this town was by far the hardest hit and again the path leading to the next town was washed away.  So much for walking from town to town.  We went back to the train station to catch the next train to Monterosso, but it never came. Eventually we gave up and headed back to La Spezia.  We didn’t get to see Monterosso, we didn’t get to take the amazing cliff side trail from town to town and we were stuck waiting for a train for the better part of two hours.  Still, the trip was unforgettable and we saw some amazing stuff.  We had dinner in La Spezia, slept in and had a great breakfast the next morning and are now waiting for our train to Lucca. 

Manarola

Gelatos are the best!

Josh attacking Kelly, a family tradition.  

Some of the devastation in Vernazza.

A picture of a picture of the mud slide.

Monterosso from the beach of Vernazza.

Getting There

I have been sick all week and woke up Friday morning feeling worse than ever.  We took a three hour train ride from Bern to Milan and the kids watched movies while I ran to the bathroom and continued to throw up.  We were seated in first class, not because we are big spenders, but because they were the only seats left. First class on a train is not like on a plane.  Not that I would know.  The Milan train station was huge, beautiful and terribly crowded.  We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat and then take another three hour train ride to La Spezia.  The trains in Italy are nothing like trains in Switzerland and every time I go to another country I appreciate Switzerland even more. 

Milan Train Station