Tuscany.

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!!! Italy was fantabulous!  As was the south of France.

I haven't exactly figured out how to approach blogging each day, but I figure I will just go with it.  There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of wonderful photos and so many awesome details I just can't wait to bore you with everything!

Ashleigh and I met at Châtelet/Les Halles Monday morning to catch the RER B out to Orly for our flight to Pisa.  We flew Easyjet, the "Southwest Airlines" of Europe.  I absolutely hate Southwest Airlines...I hate queuing for boarding, not having assigned seats, and the rude customer service so you can imagine my preconceived disdain for Easyjet.  Turns out it wasn't so bad, and the price was just right for our budget.  We were able to sit together and near a window to my liking!  We flew over the Alps which I thought was pretty cool seeing as how I have never seen them before.  

We landed safely in Pisa around 1:45 in the afternoon.  After grabbing my suitcase we headed off into the beautiful land of Tuscany.  Our hostel looked a bit old and rugged from the outside, but it was lovely on the inside.  The area surrounding was very safe, and everything was quiet and clean.  We dropped our bags, grabbed a fresh bottle of water and went out to make the most of our afternoon in Pisa.  First off the Field of Miracles of course.  That's what you do in Pisa, take a photo holding up The Leaning Tower, right?!  haha...of course we did!  

Here was our problem, we kept tilting the camera when we took photos so it doesn't even look like its leaning!  

The sun was shining and absolutely beautiful compared to the cold, rainy Paris we left behind.

We went to the ticket office to find how to get in the tower and discovered they were 15 euros! 15 euros?! Maybe its because we don't pay anything to get in anywhere here in Paris, but that sounded pretty steep!  We discussed and asked ourselves how many other times will you be in Pisa at the Leaning Tower and finally decided to suck it up and go for it.  We got tickets for the Tower and the Cathedral.  Our Tower "tour" didn't start until 7:30 so we had a couple of hours to kill.  We went to the Cathedral, which was beautiful on its own.  The gold painted ceilings, the artwork and molding comprised an Italian masterpiece.   

We bought a few souvenirs for ourselves and others and went to have our first meal in Italy.  Pizza!  Yes.  Margherita Pizza-4 euros.  SO much cheaper than Paris.  Me getting excited about my delicious pizza.  

 The pizza was bang on.  The sauce was not as heavy as in the States and made of fresh tomatoes and herbs-you could tell!  The crust was perfectly crispy on the bottom and a little chewy on top and tasted of fresh, nutty, olive oil.  After pizza and before the Tower, why not a little gelato?  My choice?  Strawberry and Nutella.  ALWAYS a winning combination.  

We sat in the grass at the Field of Miracles in a little patch of sunshine until it was time for us to climb the Leaning Tower.  294 stairs to be exact.  Which was nothing compared to what we would climb in the days to come.  The catch was, all the stairs were leaning (imagine that....) and one side of the tower is much easier to climb than the other.  There is also the fact that the stairs aren't exactly even.  There is quite a dip in each stair so looking down is necessary.  

But....of course the view at the top was worth any agony you could have suffered ascending those crazy, leaning, stairs.  The sun was just setting so everything was gleaming with an orange glow.  The mountains in a distance were shadowed by a few clouds and you could see the entirety of the city of Pisa.  

Unfortunately that night in Pisa was spend tossing and turning in my bed.  Our window didn't actually have a glass window, just a bug screen and a shutter.  The square just below was bustling all night long with cars and trucks, college students staying awake until all hours of the morning, street cleaners, etc.  We had no choice but to wake up bright and early to head on to Florence Tuesday.  

I found these amazing gems in the train station at Pisa.  I wish so badly I would have bought one or two just to have!  They are little miniature jars of Nutella!! The picture doesn't really compare size, but they are probably equal to one (maybe two) hefty spoonful of Nutella.  Love it!

We didn't really have a plan for Florence, or really what there was to do in Florence and were in hopes of finding a map with points of interest on it and going after it with a vengeance.  We arrived around 10 am and had to be on the train to Levanto at 3 pm, with a stop in Pisa to pick up our bags.  We got off the train station expecting to find a tourism office or something to grab a map.  Nothing.  We stumbled upon a church with a bunch of people in line and thought...gee, there's a bunch of people here, maybe we should go in?  After a few more wrong turns we came upon the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.  A giant, beautiful sculptured church right in the center of the city.  The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and the dome at the top remains the largest brick dome in the world.  The line to get in was ridiculously long, but we decided to wait it out.  The outside was most impressive to me, as the inside didn't even compare to the detail in the marble on the exterior.

View looking down from the dome

The impressive ceiling

We heard that you can climb to the top of the dome and being suckers for a good view we jumped on that chance.  The line was an hour long, and after climbing to the top we knew why.  It wasn't a straight spiral staircase up, but several different staircases that intertwined with each other.  You had to circle the top of the dome from the inside then follow 30 or so stairs straight up.  All while pausing to let other people come down because the path isn't wide enough for two people to cross.  Finally reaching the 464 stairs to the top of the tower it took your breath away (literally).  Firenze (Florence) looked terra cotta orange with spots of green, red, and yellow tucked away inside each street.  

My eye spy camera lens zooming in on a Tuscan mansion.

Our map led us next to Michelangelo's Statue of David.  We approached the museum where it is housed, the Galleria dell'Accademia only to find an enormous line.  I asked a girl how long she had been standing in line and she said 2 hours.  2 hours?! Unfortunately we didn't have two hours so we decided to head to the Piazza Vecchio for the replica and it would just have to do.  Passed the longest line of scooters/motorbikes I have ever seen.  There are a million here in Paris, but people just park them wherever there is space available on the sidewalks.  In Florence apparently there are designated parking lots.  How great is that?!



We of course passed the Ponte Vecchio, where merchants sell souvenirs, art, and other goods.  I think the fact that the bridge is still standing is pretty amazing itself, much less that it gets most of Florence's foot traffic daily.  The buildings sit over the River Arno proudly and welcome tourists at any time.





After grabbing a quick lunch at the Piazza Vecchio of Spaghetti Carbonara, I of course had to have another kind of gelato.  This time with a chocolate cone!  My choice in Florence was chocolate and vanilla swirl with chocolate chips.  The shop was amazing and had mounds and mounds of gelato heaping from each container.  They were passing out gelato so fast I could barely keep up!





Unfortunately because of the unending tourist lines for everything we didn't have time for much else and we left feeling as if we could have stayed another day.  That wasn't really in our schedule, and since Florence was a last minute decision we felt satisfied to just have seen the city!  We hopped back on our train to Pisa, grabbed our luggage then got on the next train to La Spezia.  In La Spezia we then got another train across the Cinque Terre to Levanto, our destination for the next 2 nights.  We couldn't find any rooms available in the Cinque Terre for both nights, so decided to spend them both in the next town over (a 5 minute train ride) of Levanto.  I am very glad we made this decision because we got to explore yet another Italian town on our adventures!  We dropped our bags at our very nice hotel, and ran to the beach to catch the sunset.  We were both amazed and in awe of the beach and so glad to see the Mediterranean Sea!  Not to mention the killer sunset which set the tone for our next two days in the Cinque Terre.









The Cinque Terre was my favorite part of our whole trip and I cannot wait to show you why!!  Beaches, colorful Italian villages, beautiful hikes and views, delicious local food (and wine).  Tomorrows blog photos will not disappoint.