Italy

Italy was absolutely amazing! I fell in love with Cinque Terre, it is so relaxing and beautiful! Cinque Terre consists of five little towns (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) which are perched up on rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. The five villages and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park. Jill and I were so surprised when we got to our room and it had an amazing ocean view and balcony. We had read that our room would have an ocean view, but we weren't expecting to be able to lie in our bed and see the whole city of Manarola and the ocean! We visited each of the five villages by hiking or by train. Each village is a little different in its own way, although they all look really similar with the brightly colored buildings. Monterosso is the most “touristy” village, with a big sandy beach and a boardwalk. The walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore is called Via Dell'Amor, or Lover’s Walk, because it is probably the most beautiful path between all five cities. I couldn’t possibly pick my favorite of the five villages, I loved them all!



^ Views from our balcony in Manarola, Cinque Terre ^

After spending three days in Cinque Terre, we left on the train for Florence. We stayed at a really nice hostel in the heart of Florence. It was a big change going from a quaint and peaceful place like Cinque Terre to the bustling city of Florence; however I enjoyed the change of pace. The first evening Jill and I bought a ticket to enter the Duomo, a famous cathedral in Florence. We walked up the four hundred and something stairs to the top of the dome. It was a very hot day in Florence, and the stairway up to the top was not exactly made for many a lot of people to use at once. To say the least, we got a little bit sweaty on the way up hahaha. However, the view from the top was definitely worth it. We could see the whole city of Florence! The next day we bought a ticket to take a bus tour of Florence, which was the best idea ever! The bus took us all around the city with stops at all the major attractions. You were able to get on and off the bus as you wanted, with a new bus coming every 30 minutes. Without this bus tour, we probably would not have known about Piazza Michelangelo, a beautiful plaza with a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. We had our fair share of gelato throughout our backpacking trip through Italy, which was soooo yummy! After two days of touring around Florence, we left on the train to head back to Genoa, where our flight flew out of for Madrid.




^The beauty of Florence!