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Ciao from Cinque Terre! A bit to update you on since last I wrote...
Florence was fab!! Having visited Italy last time on a Contiki tour and basically being taken everywhere by bus, I didn't have my bearings at all so it was nice to be able to explore it independently. Dan has a pretty good nose for directions so we let him take the lead mostly. I gave the Uffizi a miss (still am daunted by it, but Kat did a good tour, so it's on the list for next time in Florence!) as well as David in the Accademia as I had seen him before.
It was raining cats & dogs when we arrievd so we made a beeline for the Duomo and attached Baptistry. I love the Duomo on the outside as it's my fave colours (pink & green) but on the inside the Baptistry is amazing - stunning frescoes and we just took a seat and looked up - my neck is sore from doing this in Italy!!! The others decided to climb the cupola and I hesitated as am very afraid of heights. When we got up to the top it was ok
tho - the sun had come out and it was a great view!!
We also went and checked out the local markets, buying a huge picnic feast to take up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a scenic lookout at the top of Florence. We had way too much food - bread, 3 cheeses (including gorgonzola), 2 meats, mushies, pesto, artichokes....and some sangiovese and chianti! I think we were the most organised bunch up there and everyone had food envy. On the way back we found a fab bar called Moyo which had cheap mojitos and we had a few too many....leading to me findign a great kebab bar on the way back to the hotel - who would have thought in Florence!!
Robyn, Dan and I checked out Pitti Palace which belonged to the Medici family and the royal apartments were amazing - you couldn't take photos inside which was a shame but each room weas coloured a different colour and had silk wallpaper, amazing drapes all matching, beautiful furniture and frescoes on each room. Truly amazing.
We also stayed in a great budget hotel which I'd recommend for next time - Hotel Dali (not sure of the significance
of Dali in Florence tho??) which was a stone's throw from the Duomo and other sights. What struck me most about FLorence was the Americans everywhere. Apparently a lot go there to study and everywhere we went were American accents.
After 2 nights in Florence we headed to the Cinque Terre for some much needed R&R after hectic sightseeing. Cinque Terre means '5 Lands' and is 5 tiny villages on the Ligurian Coast all joined by hiking trails. The scenery is spectacular! We're staying in Vernazza which is the pink town - the most picturesque of them all but one of the smaller ones. The night we arrived it was beautiful and hot and we headed down to the pier for some much needed gelato and hung out with the many cats down there hoping for a feed!! We went out for dinner and had much needed seafood - spaghetti alla vongole and then steamed mussels - yummo!
We did the walk from Vernazza to Monterosso which was amazing. This place is everything I expected and more and is heaven on earth. Quaint towns, great walking, fab food etc. The local wine is great and pesto is
also a speciality in the region so we had a big lunch feast of pesto gnocchi. Unfortunately once we got to Monterosso the weather wasn't that great so we jumped on the train and headed to Riomaggiore. We walked from there to Manarola and grabbed some stuff for dinner. It started raining so was perfect weather for staying in and cooking pasta with seafood - yummo!!
Yesterday we awoke to a massive storm - thunderbolts and lightening and torrential rain!! Perfect for a lie in. Fortunately it cleared up and we jumped on the train to Monterosso where there's a beach. We hired sun beds (very European) and soaked up some rays. I was the only one brave enough to jump in the water and it was pretty chilly!!! Am glad I did it tho. Also made sure we sampled the gelato from Monterosso - Robyn suggested we do Cinque Gelato and make sure we try the gelato in each town!! Fave flavours so far are chilli chocolate (yummo) and pineapple, as well as cinnamon and coconut.
We then headed to Riomaggiore for a meal to celebrate my bonus. FOund a fab restaurant that was family owned with
some friendly older Italians who liked the ladies, and especially Robyn & Kat who they thought were Italian. This was the best restaurant so far and we feasted on seafood pasta, grilled sea bass and the best tiramisu ever!! We finished it off with some schiatera which is local raisin dessert wine yummo. Unfortuantely we somehow got the train timetable wrong (think it was my fault!!) and got stuck in Rio for an extra 1.5 hrs until the 1am train...it was either that or an 80 euro cab ride!!!
Today we'd hoped for some more sun action & hiking but it's raining again. We're going to cook up another seafood feast for dinner and cross fingers the rain abates. Great weather for writing postcards and finishing my massive Penny Vincenzi novel!!
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George
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OK OK
So now I am really jealous. Sounds perfect. Sun, fab food, good wine, great hiking and good company....stay well. G