So for our last day in Florence, we headed out to Cinque Terra. It was exactly how I imagined the coast of Italy to look like. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It's made up of 5 little towns along the coast that are connected by a railroad track and some little paths. They used to be completely isolated so they are pretty small. They still have their own vineyards in their backyards, and it's really quaint.
Here are some of the highlights:
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On the Via del Amore. The girls and boys from neighboring towns
used to use this path to meet up, so they named it the walk of love :) |
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| the water was the perfect turquoise blue |
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| the view from the restaurant where we ate lunch |
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| Lunch! I had the best pasta mmmm |
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The cat enjoyed the anchovies....haha just kidding they were
actually really good. But we did treat the cat to the bones |
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| The towns were so picturesque it didn't feel real, I can't believe people actually get to live there! |
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| One of the streets |
After swimming in the Mediterranean, we made our way back down the cliff to the train station. Unfortunately, me and my Dad took a little too long taking pictures, so we had to flat out run because we could see the train coming. And....the strap fell off of my camera while I was sprinting so now the pictures look like this :( I'm going to get it fixed hopefully.
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This is actually a picture of the canal right outside our hotel room
window in Venice, somebody jumped in (which is illegal) and
they were being super loud and woke us up. Obviously the
picture didn't turn out, but you can kind of see him standing on
the boat on the left |
For our last two days in Italy, we headed to Venice. There wasn't too much to do touristy-wise, but it was really nice to just walk around. It's pretty crazy because there are no cars or bikes or any kind of transportation except boats. Everyone either walks or drives a boat to get around. So since my camera died I don't have too many pictures, just ones from other people's cameras. Here's a couple:
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A typical canal. People just have boats tied up next to their doors
instead of cars. For some reason I just think that's really cool |
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| So pretty! |
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This is us walking in front of the only grass we saw. Since it's a network
of tiny islands, almost every square inch is either a building or paving stones |
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| A famous tower, reminded me of the Tour Rose in Lyon |
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A gondola! We didn't get to ride in one cause it's ridiculously expensive,
but I think if I came back on my honeymoon or something it might be worth it.
But I loved watching people glide by in them. |
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One of the 5 bridges that cross the Grand Canal. Other than these 5,
you have to take a boat-taxi to get across it |
So after wandering around the city and we climbed up to the top of the giant tower in the Piazza San Marco. The view was amazing:
I don't have any pictures from the Basilica or the Doge's Palace because they were forbidden, but they were definitely my favorite. The basilica's ceilings were covered with gold mosaics--every inch. Beautiful. It must have taken forever. It was also interesting because it's a much more Greek Orthodox style. The Doge's Palace was also really cool--I had never known that Venice's Republic lasted more than a thousand years. You don't learn about things like that in history classes, everyone just talks about Greece and Rome and then nothing until the Enlightenment. But Venice was very democratic and lasted for quite a while. The architecture and art inside were beautiful too.
Well that's it for my grand adventure abroad. It's kind of sad that's it's over, but it's definitely nice to be home! Stay tuned for future (but maybe not-so-grand) adventures :)
