Destination #49 - Florence, Italy

With our bellies (still) full of delicious Italian food and wine, we made it to what would be my last stop of the trip, Florence. We started and finished the evening in the best way possible: Karaoke.

Feeling woozy the next morning, we kicked things off with another walking tour where we hit up the Ponte Vecchio, the Palazzo Vecchio (which had a replica statue of Michelangelo's David), and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Afterwards, we had a demonstration of how they make leather in Florence as they are well known for it and then we grabbed some food at the main food market.

Emma, Lee, Camden, Gayen (G Boy), Trisha, Me, and Drew

Cam, Drew, Gayen, and I spent the rest of the afternoon following Trisha and Lee as they strolled up and down the leather markets and eventually walked away empty handed. A reminder that we were all still very hungover. Drew did his best to get a bag down from €69 to €15 but was of course, unsuccessful. We made an attempt afterwards to go see the Pitti Palace but we only sat in front of it for a few minutes before making our way back to the hotel to recuperate.

For dinner, we went to a local restaurant where I finally got my hands on some risotto which needless to say was amazing. As this would be mine and 5 others last meal with the group, we had the idea to recreate Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' but never took shape. We got too caught up in getting one last gelato (at least for me).

The next morning, it was time to say goodbye to my fellow travellers as most were continuing on to Cinque Terre (as part of their larger tour). It is always so depressing having to leave a group of people you just met and were just starting to get to know. Leaving these tours never gets any easier. I now have even more friends spread across the world (...well mainly Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, and America).

By myself, I headed over to the Galleria dell'Accademia where the real 'David' statue was kept. I couldn't reserve a ticket online so I was prepared to have to wait in line. When I got there, I was told the wait would be 45 minutes. Well, 45 minutes turned into nearly 2.5 hours. The museum was pretty tiny so I can't say it was all that worth it but I can now at least say I have seen the real 'David'.

After finishing up there and checking into my next hotel, I made my way over to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore just to get a few more photos. Along the way though, I ran into this parade of men dressed in medieval attire.

Now that I've educated myself (as I write this), the parade is for the Calcio Storico Fiorentino, a game with a combination of soccer, rugby and wrestling (more like boxing). This is a sport only found in Florence that goes back all the way to the medieval times and they seem to do it only in June. The prize for the winning team is a cow...

Some mean looking boys

This sport is extremely barbaric. To give you a taste, have a look if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imI7dpzKIoE

Once I finished up at the Cathedral, I made my back to Palazzo Vecchio, again to get a few more photos, but the parade was in the way several times and was now starting to get annoying. The Palazzo was jam packed so I made one final stop up to Piazzale Michelangelo, where I got some stunning views of the city.

I topped off the last day of my #farewelltour with a fresh pizza (this one had 4 toppings which is unusual for Italy) and a glass of red vino. No better way to do it.

I write this post from Frankfurt Airport, waiting to board my flight to Vancouver. It has been an amazing last 4 weeks but has gone by way too fast. Big shoutouts to Camden (my sleep talking Kiwi roommate), Drew, Lee, Gayen (G Boy), Trisha, Jess, Cameron, Zoe & the rest of the Topdeck group, Nicole, Ash, Jacqui, Renae & Chris, Josh & Jenny, and the French Canadian gang from Cinque Terre (Cinque Pluie/Rain Team) for making my travels so much fun, days I will never forget.

Next:
Home

Destination #47 & #48 - Assisi & Siena, Italy

It was a bit of a journey over to the small town of Assisi and sadly enough, it was raining when we started our walking tour. We basically went from church to church to church, one of which had Saint Francis (San Francisco) burried. The town was really quaint but had a medieval, game of thrones vibe to it. Before we left, I got myself a pistachio cannoli. Amazing.

Our dinner was at the hotel just by Assisi, which consisted of a really good pasta, and some chicken & fries (a nice break from Italian food). My friends and I were craving some gelato after but the closest thing we had to us was McDonald's so we settled for mcflurries. Sure enough, when we left we noticed a gelato place right across the street.

We had only one night in Assisi so in the morning, we were headed for the town of Siena for a guided tour of the town. After that was done, we went and grabbed some massive slices of pizza for a quick lunch.

We then headed to the hills of the Tuscany region and this was the part I was looking the most forward to. We visited a family run winery where we had wine tastings and a 4 course dinner of bruschetta, penne ragu, meat & cheese (with also some really expensive parmigiana), and an Italian cake. It was amazing and the Tuscan hills are breathtaking.

Next:
Florence

Destination #46 - Sorrento & Amalfi Coast, Italy

Pompeii was our first stop for the day, the ancient city that suffered a volcanic eruption by Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and kept intact by the cover of volcanic ash. This was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The city was kept so well intact, it was really easy to imagine walking down the streets just like they had nearly 2000 years ago. We got a little feeling of what it was like at the time of the eruption as well. If you looked one way, you had blue sky and if you looked the other way, there was a thunderstorm brewing with some of it hovering over the volcano. We didn't get to see many, but we saw a couple of people and a dog in the positions they died in.

After Pompeii, we made our way over to Sorrento, part of the Amalfi Coast. We arrived in the evening so after checking in, we headed into town for a local dinner of prosciutto and mozzarella for antipasti, gnocchi for the main, and tiramisu for desert.

The next day was a free day so I headed down the coast to see the towns Ravello, Amalfi, and Positano. Unfortunately, I think I spent more of the day on the bus than actually exploring the towns. They were still beautiful though and I got some breathtaking views of the coast. I met up with the rest of the group for dinner at a local pub and got myself a calzone.

I don't think I got the chance to truly scratch the surface of the Amalfi Coast and see it in all it's glory so it is definitely on my list of places to head back to.

Next:
Assisi
Florence

Destination #45 - Rome, Italy

My arrival in Rome was greeted by a free bottle of red wine from the hostel. I liked Rome already.

I would be starting my Topdeck trip the next day so I tried to stay away from the main sights on the first day as I knew I'd probably be doing them with the tour group. I have no idea where I was walking but the first thing I stumbled upon was some ruins, which happened to be a reoccurring theme in this city. Thinking I was walking in a different direction, I eventually found the Altare della Patriain, a big marble building signifying the unification of Italy, in front of me. It was a pretty impressive building and I soon discovered that I could walk in for free and get views from the balconies. Not too far off, there she was, the Coliseum.

Afterwards, walking down a street to get to the Piazza del Popolo, I stopped and got a Snickers gelato and needless to say it was amazing. I can also no longer remember exactly how many gelatos I've had so far in Italy. The Piazza was underwhelming, so then I walked along the opposite side of the River Tiber and took in the views of the Castel Sant'Angelo where I could also see a little bit of the Vatican in the distance.

It was then time to eat and as I walked back to the hostel, I passed by one street that had the Coliseum at the end of it. Despite my efforts to avoid the main sights, I just had to go see it. There aren't enough words to describe this thing. It's simply amazing.

My dinner was probably the best I've had in Italy so far. I ate at a local restaurant recommended by the hostel where I had lasagne, some bread with this amazing spicy salami/pesto/mixture, and some limoncello.

Before meeting my group the next day, I went and caught a glimpse of the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. This group was a lot bigger than my Busabout group as I would say there was about 25 of us. Everyone is either Canadian, American, Australian, or Kiwi. After we had all had orientation, we made our way into the city centre where we caught the sights of the Spanish steps (which was annoyingly closed), the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon.

After having some pizza for dinner, we hit up this gelato place that had over 100 flavours. After a moment of deliberation, I settled on Twix and Ferrero Rocher. Tough life. We topped off the night visiting some more ruins and finally seeing the Coliseum.

It was an early start the next day as were headed to the Vatican City for a guided tour. We were full on tourists this morning as we wore the headsets to "hear" our tour guide. I say "hear" because unless you were right beside the guide, the headset would cut out and you couldn't hear him anyway. We got the low down on Michelangelo and of course saw the Sistine Chapel.

By noon, we wrapped up there, and me and a few of the people from the group went and got some lunch. I got some carbonara that was probably the yellowest I've ever seen. Then I took the guys to the Altare della Patriain to show them the view I had got the day before.

Lee, Drew, Me, G Boy, Cam, and Trisha

One of the guys, Cam, and I then ventured over and went into the Coliseum and Roman Forum. The Coliseum was cool but I was more fascinated by the Roman Forum. There were so many ruins and you could just imagine it once being a city.

For dinner, we all went to a local restaurant and finished off the night at a bar made of ice and an Irish pub...

For whatever reason, my expectation of Rome was that it would be a big city with a just few cool sights. I was completely wrong. Although it was definitely the most touristy city I've ever been in, there was an abundance of sights to see and almost everywhere you turned, there would be some part of Ancient Rome still standing. It's a history buff's Disneyland.

Next:
Sorrento
Assisi
Florence

Destination #44 - Cinque Terre, Italy

Getting from Venice to the Cinque Terre region took up most of the day so I won't go into the boring details of my train ride over.

The Cinque Terre region is made up of 5 towns close together: (in order from South to North) Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. You can get to each town by either taking a very short train ride or hike one of the many trails that's available. Since it was getting late, I only really had the opportunity to get some dinner in the closest town to my hostel, Riomaggiore. The hostel I was staying at was kind of ridiculous. It was just situated outside of Riomaggiore, in a town called Biassa, and they only had a certain amount of shuttles going to and from the hostel. The last one of the day was always 9pm, so I had to scarf down my food unless I wanted to hike it back.

Again, with the shuttles, they only had a few leaving in the morning into town and then the next one back wouldn't be until 6pm. Plus, you had to book which shuttle you wanted in advance. So I had to plan out my days pretty carefully if I wanted to make the shuttle back. In the morning the next day, the weather was questionable. The forecast said it would be rain and clouds all day and outside, it was overcast. I debated on what to wear for a bit and eventually settled on wearing jeans. I made a big mistake. The entire day ended up being perfect and I was dripping with sweat for most of it. I hiked from Monterosso to Corniglia on what was considered the easy trail. My expectation was that it was going to be more of a long walk than a hike but I was wrong. Basically between each city, you had to go up before you came back down and that meant a lot of stairs. To make matters worse, the easy trail between Corniglia and Manarola, and Manarola and Riomaggiore was closed so it was only the more difficult ones that you could do. Stupidly enough, I decided to hike the Corniglia to Manarola one as well. Jeans were a very bad choice. I felt like Frodo climbing Mount Doom to destroy the ring. It was all worth it though. The views were stunning and all 5 towns were beautiful to look at from a distance. By Manarola, my legs were jelly so I took the train back to Riomaggiore.

Monterosso

Vernazza

Corniglia

Manarola

Riomaggiore

All 5 towns are pretty similar I would say. There isn't actually a whole lot going on in them other than shops and restaurants. I made sure I got myself a piece of Focaccia along the way as well. So good.

The next day, I made another questionable decision. It was pouring buckets outside and I debated about just staying in for the day or going out. I was limited with flexibility since the shuttles were so infrequent so I had to make a choice. I thought I'll go out and do something I'll remember rather than be lazy. And remember it, I will. I decided to hike it from Levanto, a town north of Monterosso, to Monterosso. When I had got to Levanto, I waited until the rain let up to start the trail. I was only maybe 5 minutes into the hike and it started pouring again. I was immediately drenched and knew there was no going back from this so I pressed on. I was also in my athletic wear this time too so at least it would dry quickly after. This hike was long and the rain rarely eased up. I was one with nature one might say. But one might also say I'm just insane.

When I finally got into Monterosso, I went to take the train back to Riomaggiore and I sat there for a frustrating 2 and a half hours due to delays, because of the weather. I'm sure this is not the first time they've had this type of weather so I would've thought they would be a bit more prepared to handle these situations.

For dinner, I went out to a nearby pizzeria and got some pretty good pizza with pesto and mozzarella. I spent the rest of the night at the hostel with some French Canadians, who were some pretty fun people that taught me some new French words...

I loved Cinque Terre. I only wish the weather had been better the second day. If I lived here, I could eat all the Italian food I wanted, and probably still stay fit.

Next:
Rome
Sorrento
Assisi
Florence

Destination #43 - Venice, Italy

Milan was the exact same the morning I left, thunderstorms and torrential downpours. My hope was that Venice would be better weather, although the forecast was saying thunderstorms all week. Excellent.

I took a train over to Venice and arrived late afternoon. Luckily, the weather was holding up. When I had booked this part of the trip, I could not find a decently priced hostel on the main island. I think the cheapest room I could find, which was a 10 bed dorm, was £40 a night, which is outrageous. Plus, the reviews on these hostels were not very good. So instead I decided to pay the little bit extra to book a hotel room on the island of Lido. I'm glad I did. I needed a break from hostels.

After checking in, I ventured over to San Marco, the main square in Venice, where they have Saint Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Campanile, and Doge's Palace. Beautiful, but full of tourists.

I then pretty much just decided to get "lost" in the streets and it was the best idea. So many streets and so many canals - it was very picturesque. One of the famous bridges in Venice, the Rialto Bridge was under construction so that was shame.

For dinner, I got a massive pizza and a glass of wine at a restaurant that overlooked the water.

Day two actually turned out to be decent weather again, although there were storm clouds off to the side the entire day. I started the day by taking off to the nearby island of Burano. This was my favourite. All the houses are painted in bright colours and it just looked like something you'd see in cartoon. I highly recommend visiting this island if anyone ever goes to Venice.

Next stop was the island of Murano. A bit more touristy on this part. These guys are known for the famous glass making that they do here in Venice, so there were lots of glass art shops and factories. I would have bought something but we all know it would probably break in my bag at some point. After Murano, I quickly stopped by the next island over which was Venice's main cemetery. I swear I'm not weird. Just thought it'd be interesting to have a look. When I finished there, I wandered around the northern part of Venice until grabbing some fresh pasta for dinner. I made one final stop on the Eastern side of the island where it seemed to be just locals in this area.

I think my thought of Venice was that it was going to be too touristy. The main bit was, San Marco, but once you get out of that area, it's worth it and it's beautiful. I really liked Venice and would definitely return.

Next:
Cinque Terre
Rome
Sorrento
Assisi
Florence