September 19, 2017

Florence, Tuscany, and the Cinque Terre

Every time we leave a city, it’s hard to imagine how the next city will top it. Each one has its own set of charms and quirks, and we can’t help but love each one of them for their own special reasons. If you read our post about Capri, you know that the town that followed had some pretty big shoes to fill because we were completely smitten with that little island. (If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it right here!) Little did we know that were about to find the one city to top everywhere we’ve been so far.

We rolled into Florence late in the afternoon and Gabriel had a work call that evening. So, we checked into our AirBnB (super cute, see photos below), took a stroll around the neighborhood, did some laundry, and got a pre-dinner gelato at Gelateria La Carraia. Y’ALL. This was the best gelato I’ve had in Italy. Having tried at least one gelato every day for the past 3 weeks, that’s saying a lot! This is the only gelato place we visited more than once.

Bathroom (included only because I am obsessed with this tile)

Vanilla with dark chocolate sauce, orange sauce, and orange peels

When Gabriel finished his call, we headed out for a late dinner at Trattoria Pandemonium, which was a recommendation from our friends Courtney and Andrew. We were both craving protein after so many days of pasta and pizza, and we knew steak had to be first on our list. Honestly, we couldn’t have had a better first meal in Florence! The restaurant was cute and cozy, dimly lit and small, which made it super romantic. And the food and wine were fantastic. Gabriel had steak and I had rabbit cacciatore, both of which we shared, and then we split tiramisu for dessert. So. Good!

Three hours, a great meal, and a bottle of wine later, we were ready to call it a night…until our waitress brought out two shot glasses and a small bottle of limoncello for a (free!) post-dinner drink. Seriously, this place is great! We had such a good night that we decided to keep the good times rolling and booked a winery tour when we got back to the house for the next day.

Tuscany

Somehow, we dragged ourselves out of bed early the next morning to catch a train to Siena. This was a beautiful town, and we wished we had more time to explore it. The walk from the station to the center was full of so many picturesque Italian moments, so we can only imagine what it would be like to see even more. We had a couple of hours until we met our group, so we parked ourselves at one of the cafes in the piazza and enjoyed pizza and salad with a fantastic view.

Prosciutto and mozzarella pizza + pear, pomegranate, and pine nut salad

After lunch, we had a bit more time to enjoy the city, so we found coffee to go and sat in one of the mini piazzas to enjoy the weather and people watch. Then we headed toward the bus station where we met up with our driver, Daniel, and another couple. After two more stops to pick up the last three members of our group, Daniel drove us out into the Tuscan countryside to visit a castle and two wineries in the Chianti Classico region.

Truck load of grapes being pressed and separated

We highly recommend doing a wine tour through Tuscany. This was the one we booked, but there are so many to choose from. In our opinion, small group tours are the way to go so you can actually get to know the other people and having a driver means you can enjoy all the wine. You will spend the day in the beautiful Italian countryside drinking wine and eating food with some great people. What more could you really want?

Cinque Terre

The next day, we beat the sunrise to meet another tour at the train station for an all-day adventure in the Cinque Terre. We were going to visit 4 of the 5 towns with a local guide. Lucky for us, it was a cloudy and cool day, which is our idea of perfect weather. This was much larger group than our wine tour, so we and about 45 other people piled into a charter bus with our guide Christina. (Aunt JJ, if you’re reading this, we found your doppelganger!!) We drove for about 2 hours to La Spezia, where our bus drive dropped us off in the middle of the mountain, and then we walked 15 minutes down to the first town – Manarola. This was a tiny town, so we had about 20 minutes to walk up and down the main road and see the port before getting on a short train to Riomaggiore.

20 minutes of free time = just enough time for focaccia and pistachio cream cannoli

Riomaggiore was a much bigger town, so we had about an hour to explore and appreciate the colorful houses and the cliffs. This area is incredible with its lush vegetation and its almost untouched feel. We think this area is even more beautiful than the Amalfi Coast because it feels so secluded, its rustic and earthy while still having some great touristy shops and cafes, and there is so much more space to walk around. We highly recommend!

So many pretty colors, from the houses to the florals

From Riomaggiore, we hopped on another short train up to Montesrosso, which turned out to be our favorite town. The first priority was lunch, which we enjoyed with a small part of our group. Since we knew how delicious the pesto was from our focaccia stop in Manarola, we were excited to be served fresh pesto pasta, along with seafood salad and ice cream with fruit. Our little group was made up of two couples and a solo traveler from Australia and another solo traveler from Hungary. We all happened to be doing extensive travel through Europe, so it was great to hear everyone’s stories and travel plans.

After lunch, we had about an hour and a half to wander, shop, and people/puppy watch on one of the public beached. The water was too rough for us to get in, but it was quite fun to watch groups of people try to brave the waves – and promptly get knocked down. There was also a huge German Shepard (looked more like a small bear) that b-lined for the water, dragging his owner behind him, and had a grand ol’ time jumping in and biting at the waves.

The public beach in Monterosso where we spent most of our time

The last town we visited, Vernazzo, was the most crowded with tourists, so, admittedly, it was not our favorite. It was a beautiful town, but it didn’t have the same secluded feel as the other three and seemed to cater the most to tourists with the number of restaurants and shops.

The Cinque Terre is a great day trip from Florence, and we highly recommend it for the beautiful sites, the delicious food, the quiet atmosphere, and the truly unique landscape.

Full Day in Florence

By now, we’d seen some spectacular countryside and coastline, but now I was ready to dive into the actual city of Florence. Our day started early again with a skip-the-line pass into the Accademia. This is where, among other great works of art, Michelangelo’s David resides.

Then we thought it was time to see the Duomo. Unfortunately, the line to enter nearly wrapped around one side of the church! That wasn’t happening. So, we decided to take our chances that it would clear out around lunch time, and headed to the San Lorenzo Market for some shopping. The temperatures had started to drop, and we were wanting to find a couple of cozy fall items and a leather belt for Gabriel, so we wandered up and down the outside market stalls for about an hour. After Gabriel found a snazzy navy blue leather belt, we headed to the indoor market and were immediately hit with the smells of bread, meat, and cheese.

We sampled some cheeses and meats and wandered around the stalls on the first floor, admiring the homemade pastas and the fresh produce. Then we headed to the second floor, which was lined with restaurant counters – essentially, it was a giant food court. Since we wanted to beat the crowds back to the Duomo, this was perfect spot for an early lunch. There were so many options, we decided protein was a must again and found a counter with freshly roasted chickens. Sold.

Then we headed back to the Duomo and were excited to see the line was much shorter. Hooray!

We were surprised at how modest the interior of the church was, considering its majestic exterior and the exquisitely decorated churches we’ve seen all over Italy. I think that made it even more awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to go up to the top of the Duomo because all of the reservations had been sold for that day. But, we did get to walk up to the top of the Campanile, which is the stand-alone bell tower right next to the church. The view from the top was worth every one of those 414 steps!

This view was everything I’ve dreamed of and more

Bucket list item from my childhood = complete!

While we were waiting in line at the Duomo, someone handed us a flyer for the Da Vinci Museum that featured invention models based on the Da Vinci’s drawings. We decided to check it out, and it turned out to be pretty neat! Most of the models were interactive and every display showed the original drawing and explained its significance.

Then we wandered through the streets some more – really, we were on a constant mission to find either gelato or coffee, or both. We found Florence to be the perfect city to wander around for hours. There was always something fun and new to explore, and every turn seemed to be prettier than the last. During this portion of wandering, we found the famous boar statue (Porcellino) and rubbed its snout, so we will definitely be coming back to Florence!

Then we walked around Santa Croce, another famous church. By this point, we were tired and hungry, so we didn’t go in. This is on our list for next time for sure!

Finally, we found the cookies and cream gelato that all of our friends raved about, and it was fantastic!

With our sugar levels back in check and the sun beginning its descent, we made our way to the Westin Excellsior for a cocktail with a view of the city. These photos hardly do it justice – we got quite a show.

View from the top of the Westin – looking toward Ponte Vecchio

Another view from the top of the Westin – looking away from Ponte Vecchio

The last food item on our list in Florence was boar sauce, per the enthusiastic recommendation from our friend Amanda. We stumbled upon a cute little restaurant, Osteria Il Mostrino, near the Westin with boar sauce on the menu, and it was one of our favorite meals. The prices were relatively inexpensive, the quality was great, and the owners were extremely friendly and gracious.