Buona Sera

Before we begin ... This trip was schemed a year ago.  I was deep within the trenches of a wee baby.  She was 5 months old I think.  She had been on her second or third flight and we were in Wisconsin, driving to the Dells to see a water skiing show.  Someone was crying, the children hadn't napped, it wasn't awful or anything.  It was just ... fairly ... typical.  

I had gotten it in my head that I needed a trip.  An adult getaway.  Our 10yr anniversary was coming up.  I used that as an excuse.  Where did we want to go?

We threw around revisiting our original honeymoon spot.  But 10 years of travels together has taught me ... my husband doesn't do the beach well.  He can't sit.  I can sit in a lounge chair and read and wave down waiters and reapply lotion and drink water and then mosey back to a hotel room and take a nap and do the whole thing again before showering to find something to eat.  He can not.

Do you want to play volleyball?  Should we look for shells? Oh maybe hike those rocks? What else is in this area?

It's just not very relaxing and islands tend to offer only so much in the way of exploration.

And at any rate we'd already been to that island.  Didn't make sense to use well found funds - not to mention childcare - to go somewhere we'd already been.

We threw out lots of places in Europe.  Greece.  Ireland.  Scotland.  London. Lew was keen on Asia but I'm too squeamish and ask me sometime about my friends honeymoon in those parts.

Somehow, on this drive to the Dells, we settled on Italy.  And for near on a year we planned.  He wanted to bike ride through Europe.  I narrowly escaped that.  He wanted undiscovered towns ending in Florence.  We settled on Cinque Terre and Florence, with trains in between.  We couldn't quite work out flying anywhere other than Venice.  Which we decided wasn't a bad thing.  One should see the city before it sinks.

So I worked and studied logistics and trains and planes and I got it all settled.  The pictures below, the story here, is the result of all that.

And if I do say so myself ... I did a great job.

We took off on Saturday from Dallas to Philadelphia, and that evening from Philadelphia to Venice.  We landed before 9am on Sunday.  We made our way to the public water bus and it took ... forever almost seems like to kind a word.  We just got on the wrong one.  The one with all the stops.  It was near 11 by the time we got to our hotel near the Rialto Bridge and checked in.  It wouldn't have been near so bad but 11am was 4am our time and I didn't sleep at all on the plane.

We were in a bad way.

We slept till 12:30 and then the alarm went off and we had to go.  So.  Go we did.

This was the view from our hotel room.

The Rialto Bridge (which is being worked on) out the other way.  Coincidentally if I had it to do over again we'd stay closer to the San Marco and further from this.  But.  Hindsight.

Our room.  It was lovely.  The bed was awful.  But one night and a beautiful view and a free breakfast and wifi.

Lewis was not thrilled with the four flights of stairs and carrying our bag up jet lagged and grumpy.

Gelato!

Piazza San Marco.  My favorite part of Venice.

They have three dueling orchestra's that played I guess all afternoon?  It was lovely.  We sat and watched children dance and feed pigeons and drank Pinot Grigio. 

Basilica di Santa Maria

Our necessary gondola ride.

After we walked we went back to the room and showered and changed and found a quiet restaurant near the hotel.  I think this is the only time I didn't take pictures of the food we ate or where it was.  But I was bone tired.  We walked back as the sun was setting (we said we only had to make it till the sun was gone).  And we crashed.

The next day we had to catch a water bus to the venice train station for a two hour train ride through the northern lake towns to Milan, where we'd catch another train to La Spezia, where we'd catch another train to Manarola, one of the Cinque Terre.

This hotel was an airBNB and took a bit more logistical planning.  I'd been emailing with the staff to let them know which train we would be on where we would be meeting.  But here was our one few language barrier situation.  And it went just fine.  We met the owner - who spoke no English - and with hand waves and yes's and smiles we got the keys and he showed us the property.  This is a funny  story of "comprende?" over and over and over again and Lew and I saying "si, si" over and over.

Having no idea what he was saying.  None.  Absolutely none.  He spoke really fast and with a thick accent.

This is our rented house.

We got settled and walked down to find some dinner.  And this is where the food was just ... otherworldly.  I've decided it's because it's all grown on these rocky cliffs on the Ligurian coast.  Something about it all just infects the basil and the tomatoes with amazingness.

The food was to die for.  The pesto.  The pesto.  I believe I'll never have pesto that good again.

We ate dinner and walked to the cliff to watch the sunset.

Manarola.

It was really beautiful.

The next morning we set off to hike the Cinque Terre.  Well imagine our surprise when both paths from Manarola were closed because of rock slides.  Bummer.  So we walked a bit and then got on the train to Vernazza to hike from their to Cornigilia.

Vernazza.

It was a lot of rock steps and rock paths and dirt places and steep upward climbing.

Cornigilia.

Breakfast on our last morning in Manarola.

Vernazza.

Almost to Cornelia.

Cornigilia as seen from the path from Manarola.  The beach walk was closed due to rock slides.

So we had lunch in Vernazza before we started the hike back.  And on the top of the cliff overlooking Vernazza was this place that served drinks and had a great view.  there were lemon trees all over Vernazza so Lew decided he wanted lemonade.  So we orders it and the waiter brings over all this sugar.  He makes a big show about not needing sugar.

The waiter must have thought we were idiot Americans.  It was literally just squeezed lemon in a cup.  So tart.  So very, very, tart.

Vernazza.

Gelato in Corniglia before catching the train to Manarola.

The morning we left Manarola.  We had an 11:30 train to catch in La Spezia to go to Pisa.  From Pisa we had a 4pm train to Florence.

Pisa!  We decided we were too close (just an hour from La Spezia) and we were actually going by anyway on our way to Florence so we said we had to stop and see the tower.

So we did.  It's a tower.  It leans.  And they say they have no idea who first built it.  Lewis made me climb to the top.

The view from the tower.

Onward to Florence.

In Florence we arrived at the train station at around 530.  We walked the 4 blocks to our hotel and got checked in.  We had drinks on the roof before getting a cab to dinner which was dinner theater.  It was very interesting, and very Italian.  The cook was yell out what ever the course was (in Italian) and the guests would all line up and grab food and bring it back to the tables.  It was maybe 6 courses?

After that - I was still jet lagging pretty good, and waking up almost every night at 2am unable to go back to sleep for a couple hours.  So we crashed.

The next day.  Museums.

And so many vespas.

And churches.

Lewis made me climb that tower too.

The fake David where the real David used to stand.

View from the top of the tower I mentioned that he made me climb.

Lunch on Palazzo Vecchio.

The lunch restaurant at night.

View from the roof of our hotel at night.

The next day our train back to Venice wasn't until 2:30.  So we crossed the Arno to see Santo Spirito and Pitti Palace.

View from Pitti Palace.

We said arrivederci to Florence and got on a two hour train back to Venice.

Lewis and our bag had a lot of fun on cobble stone streets all over northern Italy.

Our hotel was on an island across from Saint Mark's so we took the water ferry over.

On the roof top bar (a theme?) before we went to dinner.

The next day we flew back to the United States and we got to Dallas on Sunday from Philadelphia.  It was an amazing trip filled with amazing food and beautiful sights and wonderful locals and hotels.  I did love Venice but not enough to probably ever go again.  Where we stayed felt very touristy and Vegas like.  Cinque Terre was a welcome change.  I loved the coast and that whole part of the trip and Florence was amazing.

Home today it feels sort of like a dream.  Did I really do it?  Was I really gone?  I spent so long planning it now that it's over I'm sort of at loose ends!  The build up for weeks and the strain of leaving Julia is now all over.  It's a big relief and a let down?  Does that make sense?  With three kids a trip of this magnitude took a lot of preparation on my part as there were school schedules and medicines and sports games and doctors and paper work and legal and blah blah blah.  Now it's done. Fine. Complete.

Time flies.  Thank you so much to those who looked after my kids!  I will be forever grateful.