Here we are in one of my favourite parts of Italy! The Cinque Terre means “five lands”, which refers to the five small fishing villages that hug the coastline of the Italian Riviera. There are no roads to link these villages, only a train track or walking paths. Our goal today was to hike between two of the villages, Monterosso and Vernazza. We had to get an early start for this very full day. We left the hotel at 8:00 am and travelled for an hour to Levanto. It was a beautiful drive as we travelled parallel to the coast, through the mountains. It felt like the road was almost continuous tunnels. The bus dropped us off at Levanto where we took the train to Monterroso, the first of the villages. Upon arrival we had 30 minutes to check out the shops or grab a drink before setting off on our hike. We regrouped at 10:00 to begin our hike. This hike is a trail that heads UP UP UP from Monterroso and follows the side of the mountains over to Ve...
We woke up to the best news ever, our suitcases finally arrived! We got them just in time to have them sent to the bus! We said goodbye to Montecatini and headed south. We drove past field after field of tree and shrub nurseries, it was very interesting. Our first stop was at the American War Cemetery. A guide hopped on the bus and gave us a brief explanation of the site. After the war, the families of the deceased soldiers were given the choice to have the body sent home or to have it sent to one of two of these cemeteries in Italy. It is a very beautiful bit somber site. We were all very appreciative that our TD made the stop. We then entered the Chianti region and began to see many of the beautiful Tuscan hillside homes with the Cypress trees that we see in pictures. Breathtaking! We stopped out in the country to do a vineyard hike. We couldn’t resist sampling some of the tasty grapes that were on the vines! We started our ...
We left this morning at 8:45 and travelled 1.5 hours into Florence. We had to say goodbye to our bus driver, Constantino, once he dropped us off at the hotel. We were sad to see him go as he was such a wonderful driver and person. We couldn’t check in yet so we left all of our bags locked in a room and set out on an orientation tour with Laura. She walked us along the River, past the Pointe Vecchio, into the Piazza Della Signoria and down to see the Duomo and Baptistry. This was really just a free day in Florence so everyone headed off in different directions for the rest of the day. Some went to the Academy Museum to see “David”, some went back to check out the piazzas and churches that we walked by and others checked out the street market and did some people watching. It was a beautiful day but very busy, very different from the slow pace that we had grown used to. This evening we will regroup and go for our farewell dinner. We leave fo...
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