On Saturday, March 23, Marlene, Maggie and I travelled to Florence to see what Katie was up to. Austin didn’t make this trip as he was studying at Murray State in Kentucky. We stayed in an apartment that I found on airbnb.com and for the most part, it suited our needs. It was a little cold and the shower consisted of two curtains about two and a half feet apart, spanning the width of the bathroom between the sink and the toilet. The toilet seat was usually wet because of the shower and I guess I can see why the women always want us men to put up the seat while relieving ourselves.
We spent that first night getting a quick tour of Florence from Katie, including her apartment. The first thing that strikes you about Florence is the Duomo. It is massive and no matter where you are in the city, you are never too far from getting a glimpse of it. The other thing that took me by surprise was the stares of the Italian men at my two daughters. They made no effort to hide it and they checked them out both coming and going.
We are self-proclaimed “foodies” and made every effort to try new foods while we were in Italy. We had been to Rome three years ago so we had an idea of what was in store for us. Maggie and I remembered how good the gelato was so we tried to eat it twice a day. We fell one short, having 13 in 7 days. Katie had some new things in mind for us to try and they didn’t disappoint. The biggest surprise came from a tip from Rick Steves – anchovies. We tried some in Vernazza and actually enjoyed them. I’m not so sure I could eat Italian food all the time because after a while, I felt like I was sweating olive oil and farting garlic.
We took 3 side trips during our week in Florence and on Monday, we went to Venice for the day. We were there for 9 hours and it either rained or snowed for about 8 of them. It is an incredible city and one that we enjoyed exploring. Maggie took the lead, trying to get us to the Ponte Rialto and Piazza San Marcos. Maps do you little good in Venice because the walkways are a tangled mess and it is easy to get disoriented (Especially me). We eventually found the places we were looking for, stopping three times at restaurants (think warm and dry) before getting there. San Marcos was crowded and we were in no mood to stand in line in the snow so the tower and cathedral was skipped. We made our way back to the train station, after stopping at another restaurant, and spent our last hour in the train station before heading back to Florence.
Tuesday we took our second trip, an overnighter to the Cinque Terre (CT) on the Mediterranean coast. The CT is a string of 5 small towns on the cliffs of the coast and one of the big draws is the trail that allows you to hike from town to town. Each town has its own personality and we were able to visit them all. Cars are not allowed in these towns and travel between them is done by hiking, ferry or train. Most of the trails were closed because of mudslides but we found one open and hiked between Corniglia and Vernazza. The hike was easy (took about an hour and a half) and the views were spectacular. We spent the night in Vernazza and had a very good seafood and pasta meal. The weather cooperated on this trip and other than Marlene inadvertently stealing the blow dryer, it was everything we had hoped for.
We weren’t sure where we would go for our last day trip, so on Friday we let the weather forecast decide for us. We chose a medieval walled city named San Gimignano, a small town in the hills of Tuscany that is about an hour and a half train and bus ride from Florence. The weather held out and we wondered the streets of this very small town, taking in the sights as we went. We found a shop with the winner of the 2009 and 2011 best gelato award so we had to try it. Katie couldn’t help getting excited like Will Ferrell in the movie Elf and re-enacted the scene at the diner with the world’s best cup of coffee. We heard some good music while we were there and then made a short day of it and were back in Florence by six o’clock.
We kicked back on Saturday, buying some gifts and getting ready for our trip home on Sunday. I recommend Florence, especially if you have your own personal guide like we did. We only had one bad dining experience the whole week and we learned how easy it can be to travel by train in Italy. I learned a couple of other things too: Marlene is a magnet for older Italian men; Maggie scares me at how much she reminds me of her mom and her aunts; and Katie can take care of herself, no matter what country she is in.
Hi, it's Katie again. Thanks for the trip re-cap dad (aka Rick Steve's wannabe). Here are pictures!
1: Rick with his backpack
2-6: Santa Croce church in Florence. This is where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. Maggie and I both got in for free because we told them I was under 18..win!
7-8: Practicing karate?
9: A picture of the hole in the top of Santa Croce..my dad thought of this artistic picture...it took us 5 minuets to take it because we couldn't get the self timer to work and I think we were all blinded by the flash.
10: The gals by the Arno River..everyone stared at Maggie's blonde hair.
11-14: Dinner at il Teatro, my favorite restaurant. My dad had to get his smile ready...the cheese cake is the bomb.com there! The appetizer that I always fried pasta dough, prosciutto ham, and some type of spreadable cheese.
15-18: Venice when we first arrived..it was raining pretty hard when we first got there so we went to coffee shop #1 to warm up
19-28: My dad hiding in the and then frolicking because it stopped raining
21-28: Some pictures walking along the Grand Canal and up on Ponte Rialto. This is the only time of the day that it wasn't raining
29-32: And of course it started raining again so we took refuge in a church and then a restaurant..the waiter kept telling my dad to hold things and then he would walk away. We tried to stay in the restaurant as long as we could but we were sitting by a window so we didn't warm up much. We walked outside and it was still pouring so we walked about 20 steps and had dessert in another restaurant.
33-40: This is San Marcco and when the snow/ rain/ hurricane apocalypse hit...we were sooo happy!!
41: Dessert and tea #2
42-43: Some cool masks in a store. Venice is very popular for carnival in February. I also took a picture of tea # 3 that day and calamari that we shared
44-47: Change of scenery! This was on the way to Vernazza and the view from our balcony in the room that we stayed in. It was very comfy and the owners were really nice...they were so nice that they even let us keep the blow dryer that my mom stole on accident!
48-59: Pictures from Manarola. This is the 5th town and the biggest town. It is divided into two sections so we had to climb to get from one side to the other. We met people at the top who had just been on the hiking trail that we thought was closed so we decided to try and hike as well, which is why there is a picture of my dad climbing over the fence. My mom is waving her sweater above her head..she ended up losing that sweater while we were walking..she also lost her glasses and umbrella on the trip, hence this is where I get my ability to lose everything I own!
60-68: This is Vernazza at night and it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. There is also a walkway to the beach there. We had sea food for dinner and everyone loved what they ordered. I had grilled sword fish and Maggie even tried sea food pasta! I was proud of her. We went to this cafe away from the center of town called Pirates cafe (or something like that) and the brothers who work there are quite entertaining. They talked our ears off and I had Panna Cotta with fruit and it was one of the best desserts I've had so far!
69: I woke up the next morning and saw a huge spider above me on the ceiling. Good thing my dad came along to kill it!
70: Picture of Riomaggiore, the first town.
71-75: Pictures from Manarola, the second town. Maggie and my dad climbed out on a rock and found some wine down there. We also played soccer in the middle of the town and Maggie kicked the ball over the edge and made the store owner really mad :/ we watched some little boys play too and they were so good!
76: Rick Steve's teaching his little protégé his ways.
77-79: The stations of the cross were set up in the hills for Easter were on the hill and I think they light up at night...Maggie also ate gelato 4 times that day and so did my dad..impressive.
80: We had a giant bruschetta for lunch!
81-86: Pictures of our hike from Corniglia to Vernazza. It was an amazing view!
87-90: Pictures from the Bell Tower..the 3rd picture from in the Bell Tower is my apartment! We also had pasta for lunch that day and I ordered the best risotto! We went back to the same restaurant for dinner and my mom and maggie both got it.
91-95: Pictures from the Boboli Gardens on Florence..it was huge! I want to got back when all of the flowers are in bloom.
96-98: Meet Marcello - My moms friend in Poggibonsi. He didn't speak a lick of English and he talked to us for 10 minutes. Every time I thought I knew why he was saying I'd get really excited. He was the best!
99-113: These are pictures from San Gimignano. It's crazy how old and small the town is and it's even more crazy that it's surrounded by castle walls still. We had a big lunch and the Gelato was actually really good, so it deserved to win an award. There were surprisingly a lot of people playing music too and they were really good. The picture of the car in the alley is an Asian couple that tried to drive around in the town but failed miserably.. An Italian had to get in the car and turn it around for them. It was hilarious/ sad and I felt kind of bad but I don't think anyone in their right mind would attempt to drive a foreign vehicle through this town! The side streets were barely big enough for the cars to fit. We really liked this town for a day trip because its not something you get to see often.
114-116: More food pictures of course. I had sea food pasta in Florence for the first time and it didn't disappoint... We also got 3 desserts the last night my family was in Florence. We like food.
117: Thank you mother and father for coming to visit and for bringing mags along and for letting me do this whole traveling around the world thing! It's too bad Austin couldn't come but that just means we will all have to come back to Europe again! It's only fair... See you all in a few weeks!
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