So if you are like me, I have never heard Florence called Firenze. That is the actual name of Florence. The name that Italians call it! It shocked me. Why don’t we call it Firenze? Sorry Firenze…It’s too late now, everyone knows you as Florence!

“Florence was founded by the Romans in the 59B.C. and called Florentia, which is probably why we call it “Florence” rather than “Firenze”. In italian, “Florentia” (pronounced flo-rent-zhee-ah) sounds more like “Firenze” (pronounced fee-rent-zhee) but with an easier pronounciation without the “L”.”                                               -yahoo answers  

But first, on the way to Florence we stopped for about an hour in Pisa. We heard from our apartment contact in the Cinque Terre that the tower was about the only thing to see in Pisa. So we trained it to Pisa, then bused it over to the tower. Quick bucket list side trip. It was cool. 

Florence has been great! The hustle and bustle. Bargaining for leather goods at the street market, high end shops, art, amazing  architecture, the “Line of David” (record scratch)  Wait, what?? That’s right, after waiting in line for two hours to get into the the Accedemia museum to see the statue of David, they cut the entrance line off 5 people ahead of us!!! It was heartbreaking!! So let this be a lesson to you, if you can reserve a ticket online to the museums you want to go to, before your trip, DO IT!! Some people waited 3 hrs in the blazing sun. Not something I care to do while the city is waiting there in front of me to be explored!! Other than that fiasco, Florence is stunning and vibrant with life. 

Today we rented a car to tour the Tuscan countryside and wine region. It was nice to get away from the throngs of people! Again, like in France we were a little nervous about driving, but we figured we made the reservation, we have to do it! It was great! It was much easier getting out of Florence than Paris. We were at our first stop of San Gimignano within 45 min. A really cool hill top medieval town with gorgeous vineyard views. 

From there we went to Volterra and then to the Chianti region. The day went by really fast and we saw some of the most beautiful countryside. Just gorgeous!

Tomorrow we are going to train it to Sienna for our last day. Sorry David, I guess it just wasn’t in the cards! 

Oh I almost forgot, our apartment is awesome! Great location and even better it has a rooftop porch with a view of the Tuscan hills and this time, there was an elevator!! Woohoo! How did we luck out? It has been nice!! 

Our Florence Apartment. The porch was so great, we ate dinner in every night with a bottle of wine. Which by the way is crazy cheap here. I guess because it is so close to where they make it. It barely has to travel!

Around Firenze   

Funny traffic sign graffiti 

  
The Duomo is seriously impressive. It is massive! 
                     

Tuscan countryside

Etruscan ruins 600BC 

Voltarre  

Dogs of Italy  part 2

ok so my wifi is spotty here in Riomaggiore. I’m going to keep it short so I can post this before the wifi stops working. The Cinque Terre are 5 cities nestled into the coastline of the Italian Riviera. We are staying in Riomaggiore. You can hike between cities or take a train. There are no cars allowed in the cities unless you are dropping off luggage or goods. 

We toured around yesterday, took a boat ride to see all 5 cities from the ocean. Went to the beach and had a fantastic meal. The Cinque Terre are known for lemons, pesto, terraced vineyards, sea food as well as the quaint towns that are still locally run. No hotel or restaurant chains here.  It is unspoiled. We took a hike today from Volastro to Corniglia the trail meandered through vineyards and olive trees along the coast. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It took about 2 hrs.

Ok so here are the photo highlights of the Cinque Terre!

   
Riomaggiore 

Monorola  

 
Corniglia 

Vernazza

Coming into Monterosso   

  Watching the locals play boccie  

One set of the ten thousand  steps we climbed  all 5 cities are located on hillsides = a workout!! 

Morning from our apartment, which by the way couldn’t have been better !

The start of our hike. Trail starts behind the church in Volastro.   

The terraced vineyards are amazing. Who would have thought to farm here? 

 And ended in Corniglia. So quaint!

We then trained it to Vernazza for a bottle of wine seaside!

Nighttime in Riomaggiore! Tomorrow, Florence! 
 

This concept of graceful decay kept coming to mind as we walked the streets of Venice. The brightly colored cracked, patchy stucco of the buildings. The stone on the floor of the churches that has been worn smooth from hundreds of years of use. The weather worn painted shutters that show the peeling under layers of paint. People pay good money for these types of faux finishes in the states! Here, this is just how it is. This city is so old it is hard to comprehend. 

George and Karen were discussing a painting they saw in the Dodge’s Palace ( the Dodge was like the King of Venice. This palace was built in 1340) they were looking at a painting of the palace in Saint Marks Square with medieval people lining the square and the balconies of the palace.  It looked identical to today’s palace only the people have changed. How surreal to be standing in the very same building that an artist painted hundreds of years ago! It’s crazy. 

Anywho we’ve had a fantastic time. We’ve put in about 5-7 miles a day! We leave in the morning to catch a train across the country to the Cinque Terra’s on the Riviera. Should be an adventure. 

Here are a few pics highlighting out stay here in Venice.    

          
This church and bridge was featured as the “library” in Indiana Jones and the last crusade    

A few of the many alleyways we wandered…   

The Doge’s palace    

Looking out the Bridge of Sighs- where sentenced prisoners could get their last glimpse of Venice before being locked in the dungeons!   

Looking at the Bridge of Sighs from the outside.  

Last but not least. My first instillation of      The dogs of Italy…   

    It was a long travel day but we made it! Venice is unbelievable. We keep looking at each other and saying “Are we really here?” It is very surreal. So, by the title of my post you can guess that I had some fierce jet lag! But I muscled through, after a two hour nap 😉   and managed to salvage the evening and end on a high note with some gelato! 

  The view from our apartment is stunning   

 The apartment is perfectly charming. Really cool beamed ceiling.  

 After checking in to our apartment, we went to Piazza San Marco, which is just a 2min walk from our place. Had some wine and ice cream and listened to music.    

      
  Below is the gate leading to the courtyard for our apartment building. 

 This is our courtyard 

 Access to the canal is right when you walk in!  

 We spent the evening roaming the narrow alleys of Venice. It was stunning.  

      
Tomorrow… More Venice! 
Ciao! 

That is an understatement. I think hell froze over and renamed itself Pittsburgh! Sure its been cold here before, but to be in a deep freeze for so long, it was rough!

One way we like to pass the time on these cold winter days when we are trapped inside because it is 1degree outside, is to watch Rick Steve’s travel shows. It was on one such Sunday when we were watching a show on Italy that George turned to me and said   “what are we waiting for, lets just go!” . You don’t need to ask me twice! Our tickets and apartments were booked within the week!

We are headed to Italy in June! Once again we are not staying in hotels, we have booked apartments through Homeaway.com. This is by far the best experience we have had when it comes to booking a stay. We feel immersed in the experience.

So far we are hitting, Venice, Cinque Terra (Italian Riviera) and Florence with Florence being our longest stay so we can plan a few day trips to the Tuscan countryside.

Cant wait to share our next adventures!

Stay tuned…..