Yes I'm using English again because we are so excited to be heading back to the land of those that speak English - the UK! Heading to London tomorrow afternoon/evening.
We left Florence yesterday and our GPS of course put us on the boring freeway full of tolls so we decided to detour thru the Tuscan countryside. We had pretty much no idea where we were going and it really was just off the freeway but it was AMAZING. The sunflower fields were in bloom and the rolling green hills and quaint little villages - something out of a storybook. 
As we entered Pisa we noticed that have those darn "no drive" zones like Florence does so we were super paranoid to drive too close but we found a parking lot that was really not far you just have to be really careful which street you turn down.
Literally once we got to the "park" that the tower was in we were there maybe 10 minutes - yeah you see it, you take some photos and "boom-ok time to go". It really looks as if they have totally painted it or something considering it's almost 1000 years old. It probably was more fun to watch the people doing photos of themselves looking like they were pushing it back up rather than seeing it. But like we agreed - we can say we saw it in person.
Cinque Terra Day - We got up super early so we could find parking (not a lot of tourist parking here - tons of special "yellow" marked off areas for residents). From the lot we found we had to walk about a half hour to the docks. We got our tickets and then went over to a little coffee stand that was in the area. Nick was so freaking excited because he FINALLY found the doughnut he remembered as a child when his family would camp in Italy. It's a filled doughnut with sprinkled sugar on the outside and the filling is a vanilla custard. I have to admit it was pretty good and he was so cute when he took a bite. His words were "this is it"! He had tried several on other stops on this trip and he would always say "something is not quite what I remember".
When we got our tickets they didn't tell us where to catch the boat they just told us wait "out there" and pointed in a general direction - well we don't speak Italian and apparently someone must have made an announcement we didn't understand so we were one of the last ones to load onto the boat so we were in the bottom which I knew was not going to work for me because I have been known to get seasick. So as we stopped at each town and people got off I found us a spot up on top of the boat outside - yeah for me - fresh air!
Cinque Terra is a National Park made up of 5 small villages all built into the hillsides/cliffs along the sea. All the buildings are painted in different colors and the seaports are all unique for each one.
The file villages are: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso.
The boat stopped at each one on the way up the coast and we stayed on until we got to the furthest one out (Monterosso). We walked around the city, took pictures and just enjoyed the culture and then found the train station to buy our day pass so we could just ride the train from town to town. We considered at some point of doing the hiking trail - more on that later.
We did Monterosso and Vernazza traveling by train and then while eating lunch in Vernazza decided that at the next town of Corniglia we would do the hike since it's only supposed to be an hour and 25 minutes long. Yeah well we found out it's now 3 hours long because of a landslide and we say no way. So we took the train to Corniglia which is the town with the landslides. We get off the train and immediately notice you cannot get to the town unless you climb this MASSIVE staircase - when I say MASSIVE I mean it. It probably took us an hour to climb it because it was so steep and yes we had to stop several times.
After that we decided our "hiking" requirements or ideas were now fulfilled. As we got to the top Nick said "this town better be worth it" and it so was. It was completely different than the others in that the buildings were really tall and really close together. It was definitely unique and had a much less tourist feel.
We took the train to Manarola which is the next town and thought we saw another staircase and said "NO WAY" - so we traveled on down to the last town of Riomaggiore. We were both so hot and sun drenched we found a spot in the shade to rest for a while which helped us mentally and physically so we hopped back on the train and went back to Manarola with the idea that we can conquor any staircase!
Low and behold there was no staircase just a really long tunnel that took you into the town. We worked out way to the water and we could not believe the water area. Like nothing I have never seen before that is not Disney produced. It is a natural stunningly beautiful swimming/playing/lazy river type area. We just stood there for the longest time and people watched. Then we found a place for dinner and headed back to LaSpezia on the train.
Cinque Terra was definitely worth it just the for beauty, culture and uniqueness of it - like Venice is. We highly recommend it and loved how we did the boat one way and the trains back. Gives you a great perspective from the water that you don't see on land.
Needless to stay we are tired/sweaty and our feet hurt - my Fitbit says 20,083 steps for the day and I think at least 5,000 of those were straight up that damn staircase.
I cannot believe our trip is almost over - just one more destination. I was afraid we might not be able to do 24/7 together for this long as we have never done it before - but it's been great. I am married to the most wonderful, patient man in the entire world and he has been a blast to be on this journey with.
We are heading out early tomorrow to go to Lake Como before hitting the airport in Milan and then onto London!
Love Nick and Barb
XX
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