Europe

May 22 2018

The best of Cinque Terre in a day

On day three, I discovered chocolate-filled croissants. They are AMAZING. That is all for this post!

Cinque Terre

Just kidding! On day three, we had options. Our options were: to enjoy a free day or sign up for a planned excursion to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a string of five, centuries-old seaside fishing villages along the Ligurian Sea and is best known for its colorful houses along steep hillside terraces. We visited three of the five lands: Manarola, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare.

Manarola

We set out from the hotel on a bus on the way to La Spezia, where we hopped on the train to the first stop, Manarola. Here we were able to hike up the cliff to snap beautiful pictures of the beautifully colored hillside houses. After pictures, a few of us even went swimming. The water was freezing and challenging to spend much time in. However, there was a large rock to jump off, which had a rope to help climb up.

Vernazza

Our second stop was Vernazza. There is a remote beach that can be reached through a cave entrance from the main street. Unfortunately, the cave was closed due to flooding. Instead, we spent our time eating gelato from Gelateria Stalin which came highly recommended by our tour director (I had lemon, honey, and mango. The real kind this time…unlike our first night in Florence.) and exploring the Doria Castle and Belforte Tower on top of the hill. After climbing the steps, we paid a small, 50 euro fee, and climbed to the top for some beautiful views.

Monterosso al Mare

Our last stop was Monterosso al Mare. We had decided to wait to eat lunch at this stop since we had the most amount of time here. However, by the time we got here, we were all hangry and exhausted. The train dropped us off near the beach, and we made the short walk through the tunnel to the town to find some food. After wandering around, we finally found Ristorante Belvedere, a place that had enough seats for all of us. We ate linguine with pesto and seafood (separate dishes, of course!), served family-style with wine. After eating, we regained some of the energy and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Fortunately, we were able to find a seat underneath one of the buildings for some shade (I was sweating sunscreen at this point). I had brought the wine I bought from La Tancia; which we drank it, very classily, from plastic cups, on the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming before we had to run back to the train station to catch the train.

There was a chance of rain all day and, fortunately, it waited until we were on the train to begin. However, it began down pouring on our walk back to the bus, which made for a cold, soggy ride back.

Making the best of our last night in Florence

We returned to the hotel, showered, and walked across the street for another late night, European dinner. We ate pizza at Pulcinella Pizzaiolo Di Rosario, which Jason informed us, has one of the best pizzas in Florence, and was quite literally the best pizza I’ve ever had. Lastly, another repack of the backpack before heading to bed with dreams of Rome in my head. Heh!

May 20 2018

From Florence to Venice and back in 24 hours

Venice

Due to the sweet, sweet combination of jet lag, daylight, cold air, boats on the canal, and excitement, we woke up around 0600. The original apartment we booked was under construction so our host had us stay in another apartment overlooking the Grand Canal.

Here’s a virtual tour of the Grand Canal from Venezia Autentica:

Before we left for the trip, Amanda and I discussed how we were going to pack, and instead of luggage, we both brought 60L backpacks in order to avoid dragging roller bags. Thus, we began the day with our first of many repacks. ( I use this bag from WANDRD). Our host allowed us to leave our luggage at the apartment during the day and we wanted to be able to just grab them on our way back to the train. I recommend clearing this with your hotel/Airbnb before in order to avoid extra charges. We ate protein bars for breakfast, slathered on the sunscreen, and set off to roam the streets of Venice before our first tour of the trip.

It is very easy to get lost in Venice because it’s made up of 121 islands weaved with a combination of bridges, winding, narrow streets, and dead ends. While beautiful, the water is filthy and the smell leaves a lot to be desired. We made our way to St. Mark’s Square stopping at the Rialto Bridge and at several other squares in between. Thanks to offline google maps and the Grand Canal, we were able to make it to the square by 0820. We had booked a tour of the Doge’s Palace through Avventure Bellissime for 0900 and needed to check in early.

Jetlag was on our side because when we arrived at the square it was practically empty. There were a few people roaming about near the square, but nothing compared to the shoulder to shoulder people we witnessed after exiting the Palace about two and a half hours later.

Doge’s Palace

The Doge’s Palace was built as the home of the Doge or Duke of Venice but has been a museum since 1923. Although it was built as the home of the Doge, the palace also housed administrative offices and the political institutions of Venice. It is connected to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs. This tour allowed us to walk across the Bridge of Sighs in the same was the prisoners would have on their way to jail. It is said that the bridge got its name from the sighs of prisoners as they caught their last glimpses of Venice on the walk from sentencing at the Palace to their cells.

The view from inside the Bridge of Sighs

After the Doge’s Palace, we set off on a walking tour of Venice. This included the inside of Basilica San Marco (luckily it was not closed due to flooding), several of the famous squares of Venice all the way up to Cannaregio (near our Airbnb), and ended at the Rialto Bridge. Luckily, we had stopped earlier because the area was so crowded.

We raced back to our Airbnb, grabbed our bags, a snack and some water, and made the mile trek back to the train station. It was only 1430 and we had already walked about 16, 000 steps. We were able to catch the 1435 train and made it back to Florence by 1630. Please note: we have yet to eat any Italian food. *facepalm* It is hard to eat when you’re on the move.

Meeting the EF group

After arriving in Florence, and again using offline maps (this is a lifesaver…use this if you ever travel anywhere) we made our way to our first hotel, Hotel Palazzo Ricasoli. Another mile. Check. Amanda and I checked into our hotel, met the first member of our group (the rooms were booked in triples), showered and waited until orientation at 1800. The shower was made of glass doors surrounding a small dip in the floor, which I managed to flood. European fail number unknown.

After orientation we walked as a group to our welcome mixer. What started out as a “10-15 minute walk” turned into much longer and actually brought us right back to the neighborhood near the train station where we had just walked from. The mixer included wine and appetizers and was a chance to meet the other 28 members of the travel group.

Florence

After the mixer, our tour director offered to give us an informal tour so that we could orient ourselves to the area. We walked to the Duomo at the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Ponte Vecchio. We then stopped to get our first taste of “real” Italian gelato . . . well, the joke’s on us because we were drawn in by the towering piles of colorful gelato which are pumped up with gas and are a huge tourist trap. It was still delicious. Tip** Go to the places with small tins that fit down into the freezer. We walked back to our hotel and settled in for the night. 28,000+ steps later…we were beat. However, I think I got about three hours of sleep.

Day 1: Venice/Florence Due to the sweet, sweet combination of jet lag, daylight, cold air, boats on the canal, and excitement, we woke up around 0600. The original apartment we booked was being worked on so we ended up staying in a place overlooking the Grand Canal. (See pictures below) We both brought 60L backpacks instead of luggage, in order to avoid dragging a roller bag, so we began the first of many repacks. We were able to leave our luggage at the apartment during the day and wanted to be able to just grab them on our way back to the train. We ate protein bars for breakfast, slathered on the sunscreen, and set off to roam the streets of Venice before our first tour of the trip. It is very easy to get lost in Venice. It’s made up of 121 islands weaved with a combination of bridges, winding, narrow streets, and dead ends. While beautiful, the water is filthy and smells terrible. We made our way to St. Mark’s Square stopping at the Rialto Bridge and at several other squares in between. Thanks to offline google maps and the Grand Canal, we were able to make it to the square by 0820. We had booked a tour of the Doge’s Palace for 0900 and needed to check in early. This turned out to be amazing because when we arrived at the square it was practically empty. There were a few people roaming about, but nothing compared to the shoulder to shoulder people we witnessed after exiting the Palace about two and half hours later. Our tour included not only the palace, but also a walk across the famous Bridge of Sighs. It’s said that the bridge got its name from the sighs of prisoners as they caught their last glimpses of Venice on the walk from sentencing at the Palace to their cells. After the Doge’s Palace we set off on a walking tour of Venice. This included St. Mark’s Basilica (luckily it was not closed due to flooding) and several of the famous squares of Venice all the way up to Cannaregio (near our Airbnb), and ended at the Rialto Bridge. Luckily, we had stopped earlier because the area was so crowded. We raced back to our Airbnb, grabbed our bags, a snack and some water, and made the mile trek back to the train station. It was only 1430 and we had already walked about 16, 000 steps. We were able to catch the 1435 train and made it back to Florence by 1630. Please note, we have yet to eat any Italian food. *face palm* After arriving in Florence, and again using offline maps (this is a lifesaver…use this if you ever travel anywhere) we made our way to our first hotel, Hotel Palazzo Ricasoli. Another mile. Check. We checked in, met the first member of our group (the rooms were booked in triples), showered and waited until orientation at 1800. The shower was made of glass doors surrounding a small dip in the floor, which I managed to flood. Europe fail number unknown. After orientation we walked as a group to our welcome mixer. What started out as a “10-15 minute walk” turned into much longer and actually brought us right back to the neighborhood near the train station where we had just walked from. The mixer included wine and appetizers and was a chance to meet the other 28 members of the travel group. After the mixer, our tour director offered to give us an informal tour to orient us to the area. We walked to the Duomo at the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Ponte Vecchio. Stopping to get our first taste of “real” Italian gelato. Well, joke’s on us because we were drawn in by the towering piles of colorful gelato which are pumped up with gas and a huge tourist trap. It was still delicious. We walked back to our hotel and settled in for the night. 28,000+ steps later…we were beat. However, I think I got about three hours of sleep.

May 18 2018

Italy and the Greek Islands with EF Ultimate Break

A little background

My friend Amanda, from PA school, and I had not seen each other since graduating in 2014. We had talked on several occasions about taking a trip, but nothing ever really worked out since we both had crazy schedules. Low and behold, four years later, we figured out! We had difficulty deciding between several places but eventually settled on Italy and Greece in May of 2018. After attempting to plan the whole trip ourselves, and realizing we did not have enough time, we end up deciding to travel with a group of strangers. We chose EF Ultimate Break which is designed for people between the ages of 18-29. They also encourage solo travelers! Being 28 years old made us basically the grandparents of the group. Hahah!

Image result for ef ultimate break italy and greek islands — Our EF itinerary

EF scheduled everything. Hotels, flights, transfers, ferries, guided tours of all the big tourist sites, you name it but still left us plenty of free time. We also met some really cool people! We opted to travel a day early to add a trip to Venice; however, we had to book our own transportation and hotel. Airbnb was the cheapest option. And we got to add the train to our many other modes of transportation!

And we’re off!

My trip started at 1630 on May 16 when I made my way to LA. Yes, I’m aware that this doesn’t make any sense, but we had plans to go to Disney Land at the end of the trip. I arrived in LA around 2030 and helped Amanda pack her things. We exchanged a small amount of euros in the morning and headed to the airport for a 1510 flight the Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa. The flight was 10 hours long and I slept for about 8.5 of those (with breaks for meals). The flight attendants thought I was German, as they would only address me in German and then would speak to Amanda in English.

Weirdly enough, you go through customs once you enter the European Union and again when you leave, so no stamps from either of the places we actually went. As we only had an hour and 10-minute layover, it wasn’t a huge surprise we missed our connection when we left over an hour late. We were given 10 euro vouchers for food and booked standby on the next flight out. Luckily, we managed to make it on that flight. This put our arrival in Florence about three hours later than expected. I panicked briefly when we managed to end up outside the airport without going through customs (this is when I realized the whole concept about the EU). Surprisingly, not the last time I thought we were going to get arrested on this trip (read about #2 here).

A brief stop in Florence

We were able to find a city bus to bring us into the city and closer to the train station. This saved us from paying for a cab. After some confusion, (the bus dropped us off at a bus station and not the train station as we expected) we managed to book tickets on the next train to Venice. Travel tip** The ATAF Volainbus travels between the Florence airport and the SITA bus station every half hour. It costs about 6 euros for a one-way trip and takes about 20 minutes. When you exit the airport you can see the bus stop to the right. The Santa Maria Novella railway station is just around the corner to the left of the bus station.

Venice

As expected in travel…things don’t always run on time. The train was late arriving and we were, again, delayed. Forty-five minutes later we finally left for the two-hour journey to Venice. I had been updating the host of our Airbnb all day letting him know about delays. He decided at this point that we were inconveniencing him (since we were now 5 hours late) and required that we pay an extra 30 euro late check-in fee. Since hotels were much more expensive we decided we really had no choice, but to pay it. We were able to negotiate a little and didn’t have to pay the city tax that was required to stay there.

A mile-long walk to the house, settling in, showers, and re-configuring our plans put us in bed around 0130. We missed out on a Vaporetto trip to Burano to see all the beautiful colored houses and a gondola ride, but all in all, not a terrible start.

Below are some of the pictures that drew me to Burano. If you have the time, make your way out to the island to experience the beautiful colors. If you’re not wanting to brave the Vaporetto ride and make your way to the other islands by yourself, you can also book tours of Burano and Murano. Dark Rome has a tour that comes highly recommended.

I always like to go off the beaten bath whenever I travel. I found this great blog post from Indiana Jo while planning for our short visit to Venice. She gives great tips for exploring different areas and escaping the crowds; while still planning for the must-do gondola ride! Okay, fine. I still like touristy things, too.

May 21 2018

Touring Tuscany

Florence walking tour

Day two started around 0930. We met in the lobby and walked as a group back to the Duomo for a guided walking tour of Florence. We saw differences in architecture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, walked across the Ponte Vecchio during daylight hours when all the shops were open, and eventually took an old secret passage to the Uffizi Gallery, and ended up at Piazza della Signoria where we saw a replica of Michelangelo’s David (Fake David). On the tour, we saw street artists called “Madonnari” (Here is a brief history of street art from Kurt Wenner), a building with slides inside, and walked by, Il Porcellino, a boar statue which can, apparently, be seen twice in the Harry Potter films.

Orsanmichele

What I learned about European eating culture

After the tour, we stopped for pizza at a restaurant just off the square. Normally, I would recommend not eating this close to the square due to the increase in prices near tourist sites, but we were really hungry and they had shaded outside tables. This is where we first experienced European eating culture. If you sit down at a table, most places charge a small fee “pane e coperto” which includes bread. Tap water isn’t an option, but you can get still or sparkling water for 2-3 euros per bottle. Secondly, getting in and out quickly is not an option. It takes a few hours for a sit-down meal. If you’re in a hurry to go is your best bet. Lastly, the tipping culture is different in Europe. Minimum wage is much higher and tipping usually consists of a few coins, to round up to the nearest dollar, or at max 5-10%. We all brought cash and just paid our portion. Also, I still haven’t quite figured out how Europeans stay hydrated? Everyone was drinking wine and we were often given only one liter of water for five people. Yes, we carried around refillable bottles, but there weren’t many places to fill them (except in Rome). Being dehydrated did save on bathroom costs…Anyway, the food was delicious.

Free time

After lunch, we had some free time on our hands. We walked around a little more and made an attempt at seeing the real statue of David at the Galleria dell Accademia di Firenze. The line to get into the museum was about two hours long. There was a shorter wait option which included a guided tour of the museum, however, the wait was still almost an hour and doubled the entrance fee from 20 to 40 euro. A similar situation was encountered when we tried to climb the stairs at the Duomo. Check out out this site for off the beaten path towers which offer some of the best views of Florence!

We decided to continue walking around and spent the afternoon trying our bartering skills at the street market and taking in the views from La Terrazza restaurant on the top of the Rinascente Firenze store. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for a Tuscan winery tour.

Tuscan Winery Tour

We left the hotel around 5 PM and took a bus to a wine Tuscan winery called La Tancia which specializes in amazing Chianti wine. The tour was an opportunity set up by our tour director who had met the family through agritourism. They invited us into their home, gave us a tour of their bottling operation, fed us like we were part of the family and provided plenty of wine.

We ate bread with olive oil (made?.. squeezed?..is there a special word for making oil?… EXTRACTED! at the winery), bruschetta, cured meats, pate, and homemade pasta with pesto. The meal ended with Vin Santo, an Italian dessert wine, which tasted less like the Moscato and Riesling we’re used to in America, and more like kerosene…unless you paired it with biscotti. As we were leaving, we were able to purchase bottles of wine to go which I snagged for our visit to Cinque Terre.

On the way back to the hotel, the bus driver was trying to squeeze the bus down a narrow street in downtown Florence. He was unable to do so and ended up smashing the mirror off a parked car. Without saying a word, he stepped off the bus, put a business card on the window, got back on and drove off.

On return to hotel, we walked to an ATM (Travel tip** this is the best way to get cash when traveling. Airport currency exchanges charge exorbitant fees) to replenish our euro stash. I, also, did some light laundry in the bathroom sink. I always carry this travel clothesline and detergent with me. While my backpack allowed me to carry it in order to avoid dragging it over bumpy streets, it did not allow unlimited space for clothing and I was only able to pack about a week’s worth.

Limoncello on the rooftop

A group of us went up to the terrace on top of the hotel. We stayed up late sipping limoncello and telling ridiculous stories with new friends. I finished the day off with another not-so-great night of sleep.

Warning: potentially NSFW images below.

PS. We saw these magnets at all of the tourist shops. Hilarious.

Next up, Cinque Terre.