Life with Mrs. T.: Italy Recap - Florence & Cinque Terre

As promised, onto part 2 of the recap of our vacation to Italy.

From Venice, we took a train to Florence. When we arrived at the train station in Florence, we set out (on foot) to find our hotel, knowing it was nearby. We also knew of a store we wanted to find that shared a name with us (the store's name is our last name), but we had no idea where it was. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the square where our hotel was to find that the store was right behind it! We actually found the store before we found the hotel (don't ask, the sign for the hotel was a brass plaque, about 12"x18", on the wall, behind a shrub. That's it. They're lucky we found it as quickly as we did). I won't be sharing the many pictures we took of us in front of the store for obvious reasons - but trust me, it was cool :)

After dropping off our luggage with the hotel (it was too early to check in), we made our way over to the Duomo - probably Florence's biggest tourist attraction. This is the largest dome in the world situated on top of one of the largest basilicas in Italy. We walked the 623 stairs to the top and the views are amazing!

(clicking on images will show larger version)

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

door to the basilica

detail around the door

inside the basilica, this is the inside of the Duomo

view from the top

T, me, P, S, G at the top

After settling into our hotel, we took off to explore the city a little. We walked by the Uffizi (which I've heard is incredible, but you need to book reservations ahead of time to get in and we never had the chance) and made our way over to our cooking class. The food we made was simply amazing and we even got the recipes (which I will share in another post - I promise!).

copy of Michaelangelo's David. We saw the real thing too, but no pictures allowed and I couldn't sneak one in

this is a real man - he was being statue-like outside the Uffizi

the Uffizi

Ponte Vecchio

view from the Ponte Vecchio

The rivers in Italy are not all that attractive - very brown and mucky

cooking class

brothers

rolling dough for gnocchi

gnocchi ready to be cooked

artsy shot of ingredients for chicken dish

huge meatball inside zucchini (I'm sure it has a much better sounding name, but that's what I called it). This was delicious

where we got to eat all the food we cooked

with our chef

the walk back from cooking class brought us this beautiful view from the Ponte Vecchio

The next day was a beautiful day, weather-wise (we hadn't been super lucky in that department for most of the trip up to this point). T and I spent the morning people-watching in the square our hotel was located in (Piazza Santa Maria Novello) and enjoying some delicious Italian gelato. Then we headed to a small town, San Gimignano (san gih-me-ah-no) for an afternoon at a winery and some wine-tasting. I have never been a wino, but let me tell you - the wine in Italy is a.maz.ing. We ended up ordering a case and it should be arriving at our house any day now. Not only did we order a case (6 white (a pinot grigio), 6 red (a chianti)), we ordered one bottle of their top of the line red wine (it's a world champ apparently) and we'll save it for a special occasion (T says our 5 year anniversary). We'd better save it for something special considering how much that single bottle cost! After leaving the winery, we stopped by the Piazzale Michaelangelo where the views of Florence are breathtaking.

Santa Maria Novella church

we'd been waiting for skies like this!

winery

lots of wine

P chumming it up with Pierluigi, the owner

us with Pierluigi

visiting the winery cats

I was walking away, stopped to take a picture, and within second, both cats were laying at my feet

T and me at the winery. Smiling despite having just ordered $500 worth of wine

we stopped on the way back to Florence to take pictures of the countryside

view from Piazzale Michaelangelo

it was a tad windy

T makes a good wind shield

We then visited the Palazzo Pitti (another palace) and it's gardens (the Boboli Gardens). This was another one of those lesser known gems (like the Palazzo Ducale in Venice) - the gardens, especially, were out of this world. I couldn't take a lot of photos inside the palace - usually I'm good at sneaking some in, but this place had staff in every room ready to yell at anyone taking photos

Palazzo Pitti

Boboli Gardens

Boboli Gardens cat. this one didn't want to be friends like the winery cats did

Our last day in Florence, we actually spent at Cinque Terre. I had heard it was a must-see so I was very excited to go. The day started out poorly - with torrential downpours and thunder. Seeing as the point of visiting the Cinque Terre is to hike the coastal trail that connects 5 tiny villages, we weren't happy campers. Especially once we found out the trails between villages 2, 3, 4, and 5 were closed due to the rain the area had received over the previous week. However, there is a train connecting all 5 villages, so we traveled that way instead. Luckily, the day brightened up very nicely for us (you'll see the progression in the photos) and by the time we reached the fifth village, it was sunny and 80 degrees! Then we saw the views we had been waiting for - it was breathtaking. If we ever get to go back to Italy, I will definitely be getting back to Cinque Terre (on a nice day!) to walk the trails.

case in point about the weather. Picture on the left is from the morning when we first got to Cinque Terre. Picture on the right is the same exact shot taken that same evening when we were leaving.