Amore Mio, Italia

Did you miss me?  I apologize for my disappearance over the last week and a half, but I have a good excuse, I promise.  My parents came over to Europe for their 3rd visit, and we've been living it up, Italian style.  Are you ready for a photofest of Italian goodness? 

Let me back up first to mention that my parents arrived last Tuesday, and we spent a couple of days in the Netherlands.  On their first day we visited Haarlem, where a highlight was taking a tour of the Corrie Ten Boom house. Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian woman, who hid Jews from the Nazis in her home in Haarlem. I can definitely recommend that tour of her home for any of my readers who gather travel tidbits from this blog.

On Thursday, my parents and I hopped on a plane, destination: Florence.  Todd joined us the next day, so it was just the 3 of us for our 24 hours in Firenze. Clearly not enough time to spend in this incredible city, but I'll just hope it's not my last time there.  Our first stop upon our arrival was the Galleria dell'Accademia, home of the David.  No photos are allowed in this museum, but David is quite the specimen.  Perfectly sculpted by the orange ninja turtle, the David really is a masterpiece. For dinner that evening, we wandered the streets, stopping to read menus and settled on a lovely spot called Tratoria Marione.  Delish!

After dinner, we sauntered back to the hotel, stopping for some espresso and cappuccino (total rule breakers there since Italians don't drink cappuccino after noon) and a look at the Duomo, with the harvest moon peeking over the roof.

Due to our limited time in Florence, we spent the next morning taking a 3-hour guided tour of the city.  This was an amazing way to see the top sights without feeling like we were rushing around.  And it gave me a break from using the map, which is always appreciated.

Our guide.

 

Courtyard in the Strozzi Palace.

Ponte Vecchio.

Arno River.

Vasari Corridor.

Masses of people on the Ponte Vecchio.

Palazzo Vecchio.

David replica, where the original used to stand.

Il Duomo.

Interior of the dome.

What an historically vibrant and beautiful city!  Firenze was wonderful, but next we were off to more goodness as we headed northwest to the Cinque Terre.  Translated as "Five Lands", the Cinque Terre is five small villages perched on cliffs along the Ligurian Sea.  I have been wanting to visit Cinque Terre for years, so I was so happy that it worked out to travel there.  We met Todd in Pisa and all took the train together to Riomaggiore, the first of the five cities. Riomaggiore was our home base for the weekend, and it was the perfect little town.  Our first day there, we did a walking tour of the city, grabbed wine on a bar overlooking the sea, and had a wonderful dinner.  Here's the spoils of our first day:

Nearly too pretty for words.  The views were stunning, and the whole place had an ethereal quality to it.

On Saturday, we did the hike between 3 of the 5 villages.  We would have done the entire trail between all 5 villages, but the area was badly flooded in 2011 and they are still repairing parts of the trail.  So we took a train to Corniglia, where we first explored the village and then set out on our hike along the coastal trail.

To Vernazza.

View from afar as we approached Vernazza.

Getting closer...

That portion of the hike took us about an hour and a half, and it was decently challenging.  We were all pretty sweaty as we headed into Vernazza for lunch.  Some pizza was calling our name.

After refueling and cooling off, we set out for the second half of the hike. This time on the trail connecting Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare. This portion of the hike was slightly more challenging, but the views were once again incredible.  Each bend of the path led to another breathtaking photo op.

Starting on the second hike.

Looking back to Vernazza.

Monterosso.

We did it!

Taking a break.

This was definitely some of the best hiking of my life.  I love the juxtaposition of the cute, old villages with the nature in between. Just lovely.

That night we ate at one of our favorite places of the trip, called Dau Cila, which was perfectly located in the Riomaggiore harbor.  And we found some cannoli afterwards to finish up the night with something sweet.

The perfect way to end an awesome day.

The next morning, we took a boat to the one city we had missed the other days, Manarola.   This was definitely one of my favorite villages.

On the boat, here's a great view of Riomaggiore.

On the boat, approaching Manarola.

And now a panorama of Manarola, pretty great right?

This might be my favorite photo of the bunch.

What a memorable trip!  I love you Cinque Terre!

Our last evening in Italy was spent in Pisa, since we'd be flying out of there in the morning. Or course we showed my parents the Leaning Tower and then had another excellent meal of great food and wine.

Push it just a little to the left.

We headed back to Eindhoven on Monday.  The last 2 days with my parents (again poor Todd needed to go back to work) were spent touring the Postel Abbey in Belgium and of course spending time in Eindhoven, shopping and eating at our favorite places.  What a blessing to get to spend that time with my parents and share such great experiences!  Thanks for coming again, Mom and Dad!