Category: European Trips

Well. I didn’t get up at 8 to go run. Or 8:30. Or 9.. it is what it is. I did get up at 9:30 and decided I’d run later, of course. Mom was already awake and had perfected the coffee maker and had a cup ready and waiting for me. We sat and sipped and sampled some little pastries Andrea left us.

We got dressed and went to pick up my leather jacket around 11, we brought it back to the room and then hoofed it across town to the Gallery of the Academy of Florence, where the statue of David stands. We met up with our tour group and I was almost immediately annoyed. Our group was literally only 7 people, but one man.. ONE MAN.. was ruining it. He kept interrupting the tour guide, Natalie, mid sentence with a random question having nothing to do with anything she was talking about. It didn’t help my irritation any that it was crowded and getting hot-like low 80s.

We made it inside and through 2 rooms before getting to David. Mom and I walked around, got our pictures, took it all in-tried like hell to listen to Natalie, who was still getting her commentary cut off by this man.. so much so that other people couldn’t ask her anything at all, and that man kept getting close enough to her that we all heard everything he asked or said to her through the headsets. And I’m talking crazy things like, “well, we’re going to go to this other museum, is it easily accessible? How long of a walk is it to get there? How long with that take us?” Like how in the hell is this woman supposed to know how long it’s going to take YOU to walk somewhere? Sheeeeesh.

So, for the first time in my life, I turned my headset in early (Mom’s too, although she had turned hers off a long time ago lol), and Mom and I carried on through the museum without the tour. We escaped the crowded museum and started down one of the roads. We passed yet another (more like 400, but somehow this one seemed special) leather shop that Mom just had to go into. She spotted a purse she loved and after talking with the lady awhile we decided to go eat lunch and if she was still thinking about the purse, we’d come back and get it after we ate..

Which is exactly what happened. We ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating beside the big cathedral. We shared a caprese salad and a pizza. I tried the famous Aperol Spritz.. I’m not a fan. I’ll stick to wine from here on out. lol After we ate we went back to the purse shop and got mom her gorgeous leather purse, shes still giddy over it!

We walked back to our room, and she swapped out her purses and we put on dresses for dinner. As we walked out Mom spotted a hair salon and asked the lady if she’d wash and style our hair.. and boy did she! Mom was so happy to finally have her hair styled nicely-we bought a curling iron but it doesn’t quite work the way we thought it would and the hair dryers aren’t quite strong enough-that or we don’t have the patience-to get our hair the way we like it.

Once our hair was curled, we started our journey to locate the great smelling restaurant from yesterday. It only took us an hour and a half to find it.. some of that was because we’d pop in and out of a store here and there.. but mostly because I just couldn’t find it-until I did. The host sat us in the garden and it was already off to a better start than yesterday. I had my wine, Mom got a coke-and the waiter put ice in a wine glass for her, lol! So, we cheers’d my Chianti Classico and her Coca-Cola Classico in a fit of giggles!

Our main meal was awesome.. Mom had some type of ravioli like noodles stuffed with potatoes and covered with a meat sauce (phenomenal) and I had spaghetti carbonara (also phenomenal). I knew mom loved it because I only got to try a bite 🤣 My spaghetti noodles were fatter than a noodle from home, and I am here for it! It was delicious! We were so full from eating every bite of our dinner that we couldn’t even attempt desert.

We slowly meandered back to the room around 10:30. I changed my clothes and got my run in and then started a load of laundry when I got back. We attempted to watch TV, but there wasn’t anything in English and this remote isn’t as fancy as the one in the hotel, so it wouldn’t swap the language for us. I was too tired to read subtitles. Mom went to bed while I’m sitting here waiting on my laundry to finish so I can put it into the dryer before going to sleep. It feels like it’s taking a lifetime!

We have an early morning tomorrow.. we have a full day trip to Cinque Terre, the National park on the northwestern coast of Italy. There are 5 towns that are connected by tiny roads, steep hiking trails, and trains. I’m so very excited! It’s probably going to be another trip highlight, for sure!

We had to get up early: 6:20 for me, earlier than that for Mom. We left by 6:45 to walk to the bus station for our day trip tour to Cinque Terre, a National park in northwestern Italy. We walked our mile to the station, snagged some McDonalds for breakfast (it was literally the only thing open during that entire mile walk), and joined our tour group. It was a HUGE group.. double decker private bus huge.

The drive from Florence to La Spezia took 2 hours on the bus. The tour guide talked into the overhead speakers the majority of that time.. loudly. I did enjoy some of the history he was sharing, but he had my ears throbbing with the speaker volume. When we arrived in La Spezia, we split into two groups and went into the train station. We were told where to meet in 15 minutes.. we stood in the bathroom line for 14 of those minutes and had to leave before actually making it inside.. only to stand at the train platform listening to this guide say all the things the other guide said before on the bus.. cool. Had we known that, we wouldn’t have gotten out of the bathroom line..

We board the train to take us to the second of the five towns in Cinque Terre.. the towns go in order from La Spezia north like this:

0. La Spezia

1. Riomaggiore

2. Manarola

3. Corniglia

4. Vernazza

5. Monterosso

So, we went from La Spezia to Manarola. When we got off the train, we were supposed to be listening to the guide to know where to go and when to be back.. Mom had other plans. she went into a cafe and bought croissants and water so we could use the bathroom. There were two other women in there doing the same thing, also annoyed we didn’t get a chance to do so earlier when there was clearly time to allow it.

Mom and I then walked up the ginormous hill into the cliff side of this town. When we got to some great views, we turned around and walked back the way we came, so we could go into a dress shop and then walk down to the pier before it was time to meet the group. We both got cute dresses, and then rushed to snap a pic of the water.. and then all but ran back to the train station. When they said “fast pace tour” I don’t think this is what we thought they meant.

From Manarola, we went a whole 4 minutes to Corniglia. From the train station you have to walk up about 400 steps to the top of the village (with gorgeous views of the cliff side homes and vineyards surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea). So absolutely beautiful, but hot and apparently we had to be up those steps within 10-15 minutes to “stay on track..” Hearing that even that would be rushed, Mom opted for the shuttle bus to the top and met me at the village center.

We didn’t do the lunch option with the tour because so many of the preset meals had something with seafood, and mom doesn’t do seafood, so we’d be on our own to explore Corniglia and find lunch, then meet at the restaurant the group went to (those that opted in), by 1:05. It was less than an hour from this moment, and the guide kept repeating himself over and over, so we went to walk away, and he stops us.. fusses, “I am trying to tell you something important, I’m trying to tell you the meeting time and meeting spot!” So, I said back, as polite as my irritation would allow, “1:05 in front of that restaurant, we got it! Thank you so much!” And kept walking.. it has already felt like we’re being herded like cattle, please quit cutting in to free time we actually do have..

So, we find a sandwich shop, get food and a lemon soda to try, locate the gorgeous terrace and eat our lunch on a bench. It was pretty, for sure, and I loved the idea of it-but this tour was annoying us both by this time. And trust me-one thing you don’t want to do, is tell Connie to hurry up. Yikes. We snap some pictures along the walk from our lunch spot to the restaurant meeting spot. We actually make it there early and our guide spotted us and asked if everything was ok and if we enjoyed lunch.. we tell him we did and ask if we have time to order a glass of wine here before time to go.. he grabs the waiter for us and gets our order in.

We enjoy (well, I enjoyed) our wine on the terrace and took advantage of the restrooms before walking down to meet with everyone. From here, there were 2 options: hike from Corniglia to Vernazza and have the absolute best views, or take the train.. the hike is estimated to take 1.5-2 hours, the train-5 minutes. It was a no brainer to me, I wanted to take the train, get to town, have 2 hours of freedom from cattle probes, and enjoy the views we’ve paid to see. Mom was shocked! Look, y’all, just because I hiked the AT doesn’t mean I want to sweat my ass off and be miserable on vacation!

When we made it to the train station for our 5 minute ride, one of the women from this morning at the bathroom asked me something.. I don’t remember what it was now, but I’m thankful she did because it sparked our conversation that turned into making the rest of this day trip wonderful. Her name is Jennie, shes an ED nurse in Florida, she’s here with her Mom, Diane, who reminds me of Mom so much it’s hysterical. The 4 of us quickly bonded and decided to find a place for drinks together with the view of the sea in Vernazza!

We did just that. Jennie and I tried a lemon spritz, which is 100x better than an aperol spritz, for the record. It was like a lemon candy in a drink-but put a lemon drop to shame. We talked and shared our stories-everything from nursing nightmares to traveling mishaps. At some point we were all laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes! After some time, we all went perusing through the shops until it was time to be at the meeting spot. Ugh. Meeting spots.

We boarded the next train from Vernazza to Monterosso. They split us back up into our groups, so Jennie and Diane had to go with the other guide. Boo. In Monterosso, we had almost an hour (45 minutes actually), so Mom and I found a bathroom, paid our €1 each to use, changed into our bathing suits and promptly walked to the beach. I cannot-hear me now-CAN. NOT. See a gorgeous body of water and not get in it if I have the chance!

We drop our stuff in the rocky sand and walk towards the water. People are sunbathing all around, but only 3-5 people are actually in the water. We step in- HOLY SHIT that’s COLD! Hahaha, but not the coldest water I’ve ever been in (thanks, Lake Tahoe).. so, I walk out until I can swim out farther, keeping my hair out of the water.. mom got her toes in and called it quits! Hahaha

I swam, I floated, I smiled and I giggled. I flipping loved it! And I didn’t have to dodge, bob, weave, or talk to anyone else. There was no one out there! I kept a close eye on my watch and stayed in the water for 30 minutes, giving myself just 10 to walk out, get my towel and attempt to dry off before throwing my dress back on and walking to the meeting spot with mom. We got there and met back up with Jennie and Diane before getting on a cruise boat that would take us from Montorosso back to the first town (the one we skipped this morning), Riomaggiore.

The boat ride was beautiful, but too crowded to even attempt getting a picture. Dang it. Then, once off the boat we walked along the coast just long enough to snap some pictures, stand in a bottleneck line attempting to go down the stairs, and then stand at the train station for 20 minutes.. you know, the train station with no views.. when we could have been enjoying the breathtaking beauty surrounding every other step of this gorgeous town. Awesome.

We take the train back to La Spezia, then walk for 20-25 minutes to the bus.. to take our 2 hour bus ride back to Florence. Good gracious, this trip was so beautiful and could have been so much more enjoyable, but we were honestly worn out and frustrated from the rush rush rush of the day. We originally thought it was just us, but we overheard others say thing the same. Oh well, they meant well-it is so beautiful, and honestly now I know if i ever make it back here that I can navigate this area without using a tour group.

After getting back to Florence, Jennie and Diane walked back with us from the train station. We went into a square with another lovely church and quickly found a restaurant to sit and eat some dinner outside. The best part this trip has been meeting these two! Man, they are funny!
We said our goodbyes sometime around 11:15 (we didn’t get back to Florence until after 9pm), and we walked towards our Airbnb and they walked to their hotel-all exhausted by the day. Upstairs, I changed into running clothes and knocked out my mile-showered-and then we both crashed, hard. Reeeeeeal hard.

When my alarm went off at 6:30, I wanted to bury it and never hear it go off again. Instead, I woke Mom up and got back in bed for 15 more minutes.. haha

We got ready to go back to the same bus station from yesterday, for a Best of Tuscany tour, that had an 8 am leave time. A whole 30 more minutes! Yay! We walked a bit slower to the station and got the same McDonald’s for breakfast, don’t tell anyone-but I’m about all croissant-ed out. I ate, mom chose not to, and then we met up with our group. We were so worried today would be much like yesterday, being rushed and frustrated and missing the beauty of the excursion.. only time will tell.

It was about half the size of yesterday’s tour.. so that’s a plus. Our guide asked if he was too loud on the speaker (yes), he fixed it.. so, two checks in the better column! Ok! Not too bad at all! The group was quite a large mix and while some folks were a bit loud, and it still really wasn’t bad at all.

Our first stop of the day was in the city of Siena. A local guide from the area did a walking tour of the city with us, she was informative and funny-and we got to go inside the Duomo too. The people of Sienna are “separated” by 17 different districts, each district has a name, like the SheWolf, the dragon, and the Porcupines, which sounds so funny to me. They take their districts very seriously, and you’re born into the district and it can never change. For example, the tour guide was a porcupine, where she and her husband were born. But they moved districts when they married, so their children are in the Forest district. They eat some meals together, they celebrate things together.. it’s like a community within a community.

Siena is also known for their famous horse race twice a year called the Palio. 10 districts of the 17 have a horse entered into the race (it’s a lottery type thing to decide which 10 are in, then it rotates out).. the horse for the district is also by lottery.. they race around the main piazza 3 times and the horse that wins means that district gets to celebrate for months on end, until the next race.. bragging rights, parties, etc. Our guide said in 2019 her children’s district won, the Forest, so for months on end she didn’t see them because they were out at the community celebrations every night.

The marble work of the Duomo is stunning! I stared at the floor for way longer than normal. The floors, the pillars, the artwork and sculptures were made from white, black, green, red, and yellow marble. Incredible! I absolutely LOVE the detail and the patterns, so much so that I want to make crochet blankets with some of these intricate details, maybe from velvet, maybe once the weather cools down at home some.. haha

From there we had free time. Mom and I walked around and then went to a cafe for cappuccinos and snacks. We met back with the group, walked back to the bus, and then had a 45 minute bus ride into the hills of Tuscany, to a farm & vineyard. We got a tour of the grounds-got to see some Sangiovese vines (my fav), spot some baby cows (that were HUGE), and see the barrels and vats for the wine making.

The woman giving us the tour told us the farm is owned by 3 brothers.. they’ve been in business since the 50s, and the one brother is 84 years old and still works at the farm by tending the garden, growing carrots, potatoes, lettuce, etc for the restaurant that they have on site! How awesome! I think the elderly seem much more fit and healthy here in Italy, just like in Spain, because they are so active and many are eating foods that contain so much less preservatives and chemicals, unlike what we have at home. Mind you, many of them drink and smoke.. but even still, they just seem so much healthier! It has to be the food!

Speaking of the restaurant, holy unbelievable. For €30 each, we got at LEAST 6 glasses of wine, pasta in meat sauce, a salad, a salami, prosciutto, and cheese tray, and desert cookies with almonds that you dip into the desert wine. At some point I had to ask the man to please not give me anymore food! (Oh, and bread with olive oil of course!) he even kept refilling my wine glass, not realizing I was swapping my empty glass with mom’s full glass of the red wines.. I’d swap, he’d refill mom’s, he’d see my now second glass going down, refill mine.. it was like a never ending wine cycle, and I was soooo there for it! They were very good! Mom even liked the white wine so much, she asked for an extra glass and even bought some of her own! Wow!

The winery also has a bed and breakfast, a gorgeous pool, a lake, and picturesque Tuscan hillside views with every blink. We ate on the terrace with those views, too. It felt a bit surreal, like someone was going to turn off the background and a green screen would appear any second. When I was planning this trip, I had originally booked us an Airbnb somewhere like this, but the host messaged me to say the pool wouldn’t be open during our stay-so I canceled it and gave us more time in Florence.. as much as I LOVE it here, I know there’s only so much wine and view watching we could do without a pool or something to entertain us for 5 days..

Back on the bus, we went a whole 10 minutes down the street to the town on the hilltop, San Gimignano. We explored the medieval city, snapped pictures of the viewpoints-all of the hills and rows on top of rows of grape vines and olive trees. Truly amazing. We got some wine for me and cappuccino for mom, then headed back to meet the bus. While today did have timelines and meeting points and repeating-it didn’t feel rushed or like we were missing anything because of lack of time. It was perfect!

From there, we were driven to Pisa.. so see, of course.. the leaning tower of Pisa. There’s other buildings there too, like a cathedral which is gorgeous. Mom couldn’t quite grasp the concept of moving the camera to make the optical illusion of pinching the top or looking like you’re trying to stop the building from falling, but bless her for her efforts in trying. She asked someone else to do it for her, and we did get a couple good ones, not *quite* right, but I’ll remember the laughs from trying forever!

She hated all of the ones I took of her, but I love them. I got them within seconds and other people from our bus noted, and then asked me to help them get theirs.. after bending, squatting, lunging, and laughing like hell, they all 3 loved their pictures.

Now, we’re back on the bus for the almost 2 hour ride back to Florence. We are so ready for tomorrow’s sleep in.. we don’t have any plans for tomorrow except to catch up on that missing sleep, and then ship a couple things home that we no longer need and don’t want to keep toting around-I have to lighten my load some, and I think mom does, too. Tonight, when we get back around 9:30, we’ll head home and I’ll run my mile, shower, and snuggle into that perfect bed with the even more perfect air conditioning unit set to 16 degrees (Celsius).

Today has been fantastic. It’s hard to believe we’ve been gone for 2 full weeks now! It’s really starting to fly by, and I’m loving soaking up every moment.