Roma.

When in Rome...
we pretty much tried to squeeze in as much of the italian experience in 2 weeks, and i'd have to say we did a pretty good job. and finally we were in rome, and seeing the roman ruins from the Colosseum to the Caesar Forum was simply amazing and just being in a big city that is just sooo different from any big city anywhere else in the world.

Vatican City.

Vatican City, from the vatican museum to St. Peter's Basilica...
a beauty beyond words.

Assisi.

Assisi. Home of St. Francis. Another beautiful city with even better views, unfortunately for us, it was raining the majority of the time we were here. despite the rain and cold weather we started our short trek to st. francis basilica, where the clouds decided to disperse if only for a few hours. 'shhhhh silenzie.'

the best foods: piccione (pigeon)

Orvieto.

This was my favorite town of the trip. I really liked how the town was very medieval and renaissance-like. the views of the countryside was outstanding. and the minimal amount of tourists here was also a major plus. it was just amazing and relaxing to experience such a town. it also happened that we were in town when they were having their annual pentecost celebration, specifically we were there for the festa della palombella. the town was full of locals as the paraded towards the duomo, so we joined in and got to see the 'wood pigeon' descend to the duomo followed by an explosion of fireworks. this is where i begin my truffle obsession.

the best foods: spaghetti al tartufo (pasta with black truffle), cinghiale (stewed wild boar)

Siena.

siena. the first hilltown stop of the trip. a beautiful town, with a bountiful amount of tourists. our room was in an old building with chateau doors. the room key was enormous. the husband played paparazzi here.


the best foods: cognilio (roasted bunny)

Firenze.

Florence. this was our planned shopping stop. it ended up being highly disappointing, but I did manage to purchase a few things. our hotel was also in prime location in the duomo square. and despite filling the two days with frantic shopping stops, we managed to squeeze in a visit to the academia to see David.

The best foods: trippa alla fiorentina (tripe florentine style), ribollita (tuscan bread soup)

Cinque Terra.

After 2 nights in Venice, we were off via overnight train to Cinque Terra.. This was my first real train ride of the trip, and it was in an overnight carriage. I had heard horror stories about sharing the bunk room with shady train thieves, but we were quite lucky sharing the room with 2 guys from Chicago. The room was a tight squeeze and the bunk bed things were far from comfortable, but I think I managed to squeeze in an hour or 2 of sleep. We arrived early morning in our home base town of Vernazza. In my opinion, the best town in Cinque Terra. The first thing you will notice when you arrive is the multitude of cats, they are everywhere and they are sleeping.
We had possibly one of the best rooms in town. Sure we were on the top floor, and after climbing the at least 6 flights of super steep stairs the idea of a nice room seemed dismal, but the room was awesome with a terrace and the best view of Vernazza.



the best food: Achuga Frite (fried fresh anchovies)


Cinque Terra is a serene area and popular with the hikers, because there are hiking trails between each of the 5 towns. We did the first and easiest one.. which was pretty much a walkway along the mountain side they called 'lovers lane'



We only made it to 3 out of the 5 towns... it was super hot.


as lovely as Vernazza was during the day... it was even better at night, when all the day trippers left.