Riomaggiore and Pisa.

We got to Riomaggiore and the first thing you see when you get off the train is the Mediterranean Sea. It is a really small city right on the coast with a little harbor as the center of town. We grabbed lunch at a little restaurant called Via Dell Amore. We had some of the best pasta, pesto, and bread I have ever had.

The next thing we did was hike up a hill and catch a bus to our hotel- Borgo Di Campi. The hotel was located about 4 K away from the city up on the side of a cliff. The view was unreal! Seriously, it was the most beautiful place I have ever been, you will have to look at the pictures because it is so hard to explain how beautiful it really was. All of the rooms were more of an apartment style- it was kind of like we had our own little house. The layout of everything reminded me of Frontier Ranch. We walked from the check in to the hotel restaurant, which over over-looks the Mediterranean Sea and all of the apartments. We then walked down a little path of stairs to our apartment. The path was adorned with flowers and green plants with grapes growing everywhere. There where gazebos and swings and hammocks.

First thing we did was go check out our amazing two-room apartment. We have two big bed, a kitchen, a patio, a clean bathroom to ourselves, a closet, and best of all… air-conditioning! I hardly remembered what air-conditioning felt like. We dropped our bags off. The second thing we did was take a nice hour nap in a hammock over-looking the sea (yes- we shared the hammock… cute we know).

We woke up and met our new Seattle friends at the bus stop to go get groceries for our room. They were a super fun couple that was just traveling around for a couple weeks before they went to his sister’s wedding in Naples, Italy. We had fun hanging out and talking to them. When we got in to town we did a quick little shopping trip to stalk up our fridge for the weekend. We bought stuff to make for lunch and dinner as well as a bottle of some wine that had been made in Riomaggiore!

We caught the bus back up to our place and then had the nicest, most romantic dinner together at the hotel restaurant (yes, Angie and I have had a very romantic time together in Europe). Again, our view- unreal. And the food- amazing. We took our time and enjoyed every second of it. After dinner we walked down the path to a little garden area with a swing. We enjoyed a glass of wine and watched the sun go down over the Mediterranean Sea and great conversations. I would say that this is one of the most relaxing places in the world. We didn’t have anything to really do but to relax and enjoy the view- it was perfect after a long 2 weeks of being busy little tourists. After a while we headed back to our room and took nice long showers and went to bed.

The next morning we slept in for the first time in a long while. When we woke up we made ourselves some amazing sandwiches. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch of fruit, olives, and sandwiches at a table right outside our room. We then caught the bus in to town. When we got in to town we explored the city a little bit and got a cup of coffee before we started our hike over to the next town over. Riomaggiore is the first city of 5 cities that make up Cinque Terre. Many people come here to hike all 5 cities, and I hope to one day come back and make it to all of them! Angie and I just hiked over to the next town over- Manarola. The trail was called Via Dell Amore. It is supposed to be a “lovers hike.” The views were amazing. It wasn’t a long hike but it was an amazing one.  The entire hike was right along the coast of the ocean. Along the entire path were tons of “lover locks” with two people’s names on them- very romantic (as is everything in Europe). Went we arrived to the city of Manarola we explored the city a little bit and went and sat by the ocean in the cities harbor. We grabbed some ice cream and looked in a couple of shops and then walked back to Riomaggiore. We hung out at the harbor for a little while and then both bought some straw hats. We hung out in our hats in the center of town and played cards. We played rummy and Angie beat me, again, just like she has been beating me ever time we play cards. We played cards for a while and then caught the bus back up.

We got to our place and started cooking some pasta! We jammed out to some oldies on my ipod and had a blast cooking together. We made the most amazing pasta dish. We sat on our patio and drank to our local bottle of wine and ate our amazing pasta. We just hung out, talked, and enjoyed the sunset. It was a very relaxing night. We woke up, checked out and headed in to town to catch our train to Pisa. Again, I’m writing on the train and the views are amazing. I can’t believe we are in Italy and it is the 4^th of July- doesn’t seem very American! Part of me wishes I was at PK watching fireworks! But then I remember I’m in Europe!! We only have 2 more days til we are home though… it is very bitter sweet. I can’t wait to see my family and friends but I’m not ready to leave here yet! There are still so many places I want to see! But I guess that’s a good excuse to come back one day… hopefully sooner than later!

We caught our train to Pisa! On our way there we met to juniors from University of Virginia.  They sat next to us for the train ride and we both swapped funny stories of our trips and it made the ride go by much fast! We got to Pisa, checked into our hostel and headed out into the city. We grabbed lunch (pizza of course) at this little restaurant with the leaning tower right behind it. After lunch we walked over to the Piazza del Duomo, where leaning tower is and took some picture. It was funny to see all of the tourist posted-up trying to take the exact same picture (holding the tower up). We then went into the Cathedral. It was beautiful, but my favorite part was going into St. John’s baptistery. It was really small, but after looking around for a while the man at the entrance closes the doors and starts 'shushing' people. He walked to the middle of the building and without any explanation, began to do a bit of vocalization. The building echoes and held his note wonderfully. It was really pretty. After that we did a little window-shopping, walked around to a few markets, and grabbed dinner.

It is so weird to think we are not in American for the 4^th of July, but we are wearing our red, white, and blue in honor of the U.S.A.! We leave Italy in the morning and head back to Madrid where we will being getting out big bags out of storage and sleeping in the airport.. wish us luck, tomorrow should be interesting. The next morning (the 6^th) we will be heading back to Lubbock! Geez, time has gone by so fast! I’m sure I’ll be writing at least one more blog on our flight home with some final thoughts or story!

Florence.

We got off the train around lunchtime in the marvelous city of Florence. First we headed to our bed and breakfast at the Franz House. It was extremely close to the train station, just a short 5 min walk. Our place was right on the river and covenant to everything we wanted to see and do. We had our very own room with a huge bed, TV, fan, and closet. It was perfect. We grabbed a nice Italian lunch right on the river and then took a bus that afternoon to see the countryside of Florence. It was absolutely beautiful! And then we took a bus to drive us around the city so we figured out where everything was. Florence is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, or maybe I’m just used to the huge cities of Paris and Rome. It took us just a few hours that afternoon to figure out the streets and where everything was until I (you know Angie and her direction) felt completely comfortable with the city.

After seeing the entire city and countryside we walked around. We took a little walk up to The Michelangelo Plaza. On our way we stopped by the love tree and took some pictures. The tree is really old and really pretty situated right behind a pretty little fountain. We walked around that area for a while and after a little bit we went on over to the Plaza. The weather in Florence is much more mild than anywhere else we have been. It felt great with a little breeze and some clouds, so we did a lot of walked around Florence. 

The Michelangelo Plaza is right above the city of Florence with a spectacular view of everything. There is a giant statue of The David right in the middle of the plaza and tourists are crowded around everywhere. There was this little, fancy restaurant right behind the plaza, still with the same great view. Angie and I walked up to the Restaurant and sat under an umbrella on the patio. It had started to drizzle a little bit so we sat here for a while enjoying the rain and the view. We ordered a tiramisu dessert to share and I had an amazing cappuccino. There was an older couple singing Italian songs on the patio as well. They were amazing. He played the guitar and she sang.

After the rain had let-up a little we grabbed a bottle of champagne and walked over to a little part of the plaza away from the crowds of tourist. We sat on the ledge that over looked the city and had a little champagne. The view was unreal, especially after the rain-the sky was beautiful. We just sat and talked. I know it seems like all we are doing in Florence is sitting and talking and walking, but that’s exactly why we both have enjoyed Florence the best. It is relaxing and beautiful. We have not had to stress about transportation at all or where we want to go next, or anything.

After a while of watching the sun go down over the city (and after three creepy Italian boys tried to tell us to go dancing with them in the worst English I have ever heard) we decided to walk down the hill to the river. We walked down to the river and then walked along the river for a while until we got to one of the bridges (Ponte Vecchio). We were at this bridge forever! There was live music that we just sat and watched for hours. There were two guys playing the guitar and sing Italian, Spanish, and American songs. They were amazing! The only distraction was this one drunken old man stumbling around and carrying around a box of wine and trying to sing and dance with the band. At first we laughed, but soon it just became very very sad. The cops got him to leave and the band carried on.

They played as the sunset over the river right behind them. The mixture of amazing music and the beautiful sunset made the night perfect! The most precious, fat little kid kept running up to us, laughing a smiling and then turning around and running back to his parents.  We also made friends with this one lady who was the bands biggest fan. We clapped along to the music and danced around with her. We even watch the most perfect proposal ever. The night was amazing. We started our walk down the river to our place after a few hours and stopped by the Art Bar and One Eyed Jacks (thank you Taylor for the suggestion) before turning in for the night. They were both really chill and nice places to just sit and relax at.

We woke up pretty early and started our morning with a nice breakfast at the hotel and then started our walking around the city again. We walked over to Plaza San Lorenzo. We went to a leather market and bought little Italian leather owl key chains! We then headed over the Academy to see The David. Then we walked to Piazza del Duomo, Plaza Santa Croce, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della Signoria... we saw just about everything and crossed off everything on the list that Taylor gave me! We then went over to Giardino di Boboli. The gardens were beautiful and it was so overcast that day, it was the perfect day to walk around and just hang out in the garden. We stayed in the garden a couple of hours before we got caught in the rain! We hurried for shelter! We found a little panini restaurant right down the road near the river and stopped to take shelter and get some lunch. After we were done eating the rain had picked up a lot! So I told Angie to wait at the restaurant for a second and I would be right back. I didn’t want to sit at that one place the rest of the day so I ran through the rain and got us two umbrellas!

The rest of the afternoon we walked around in the rain with our umbrellas! It was so much fun! I’m surprised by how much fun we could have just prancing around the city with two umbrellas, but we did! We walked up and down the streets and around the river. The rain got really heavy again so we stopped and sat inside a little coffee shop and I had the most amazing cappuccino ever! We debated getting our faces drawn as characters so we could frame it and put it on our wall at home, but decided to save the money for something else. After a while we decided to go ahead and go back to the hotel and pack our bags and do some research for the next place we were going so that we wouldn’t have to worry about it that night. So we went back, I did some research and Angie fell asleep.

We didn’t stay there too long. After a little bit we went back out. The rain had stopped, so we sat on the bridge and watched some people rowing down the river. Next we walked down a little street and found and amazing little restaurant to have a candle lit dinner. After dinner we walked over to the same bridge that we watched the same band as the night before. We thought it would be a great way to say good-bye to our new favorite city.

We grab some dessert on our way- gelato of course. I got café and Angie got cookies and cream. We had an interesting conversation about how awkward eating ice cream off a cone is. And then we found our same little spot to watch the same little band on the same little bridge. Either we had something on our faces or I think people thought we were someone important- a few people kept coming up and shyly taking pictures of us- we joked saying that we were going to end up in some magazine: “celebrities are just like you- they have un-manicured nails- just like you; they eat ice cream like pigs- just like you; they dance like idiots- just like you…..” The conversation was hilarious.. or at least we thought it was funny. We danced with the same lady that we had met the night before (the bands biggest fan). She was honestly the happiest person I have ever met in my life! She was just a little firecracker.

After a little sitting and a little dancing we noticed all of the couples taking solo pictures on the bridge. After traveling for a couple weeks (just being Angie and I) we know a thing or two about solo pictures. I mean there are two of us- one smiles the other takes the pictures. Its awkward, but it is either that or all the picture we would get would be of just things. So we thought we would be nice and ask the couples if they would like a picture together. We took about 10 couples pictures. I know that is random, but I think it was pretty funny so I wanted to mention it so we could remember. We were everyone’s friends by the time we left.

We ended up leaving the bridge because some creepy guy was smiling awkwardly at us for a very long time. The creepiest part though, was that he started videoing us sitting there. So we decided it was time to go. We ran over to the next bridge, took a picture, then ran to the next bridge, took a picture, and then the next. We hung out on the last bridge, just us two, for a while. We said bye to Florence and headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for bed.

I know I keep saying how beautiful everything is in Florence, but it is truly amazing.  Words can’t really describe it, but every single bit of the city was beautiful and so romantic. I think we both liked this Florence the best because it wasn’t as touristy or as busy as Paris or Rome. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED both Paris and Rome, but I really loved the atmosphere and natural beauty of Florence.

We are sitting on the train now heading to Riomaggiore now! One of my favorite parts of this trip has been the train rides and getting to see the beautiful countryside. We have seen the more beautiful vineyards, fields of flowers, rolling hills. We have even seen mountains with snow on them. I am most excited for this next stop. Our place is right on the Mediterranean Sea! It is located in the middle of the wilderness of the 5 Terre National Park, in front of the sea, at 270 meters on the sea level We planned out a few things for when we get there, (like a hike, going to the harbor) but over all I think this is going to be a very relaxing trip. I can’t wait! I will keep you updated soon!