Day 2 in Florence - Coastal Tours and Leaning Tower

 I booked us a tour of Cinque Terre which included a stop in Pisa on the way back to Florence. That sounds great. We have to meet the guide at 7 am. 

It will be OK. The bus ride takes 2 hours so you can sleep the whole way. 

We woke up on time and got to our meeting spot. The hotel had no food or  drinks so thankfully there was a street vendor near the meet up spot. Brienna and I grabbed some snacks.

We got on the bus and headed out.

We had to get off the bus and walk to the train station. Buses are forbidden at Cinque Terre. That took about 10 minutes. We followed the yellow flag our guide was carrying.

We got on the train headed for our first stop in the Cinque Terre - Manarola. The Cinque Terre is a stretch of coast of Easter  Ligurian Riviera located in the province of La Spezia. There are five villages or “terre” as was said in ancient times.

When you exit the train you go through a tunnel to get to the village.

Once out of the tunnel and up a staircase there you are in the village.

Just incredible.

You can walk along the sidewalk going higher and higher.

Matthew took a break and Brienna and I kept onwards.

And even Brienna had enough, so down we went to meet up with Matthew.

After that we rewarded ourselves with gelato from a shop called Sterre!

I had cafe and chocolate, B had cafe and vanilla, M had vanilla and something he could not remember 😜

Next was shopping of course and Brienna found a new friend.

Back to the train station to go to our next and last stop in Cinque Terre - Monterossa. 

Don’t ask - that last picture was at his request. 

When we arrived at Monterossa, it was lunch time at Il Brigantino.

Matthew and Brienna had some lunchtime vino 😳

I had to cut Matthew off at the 2nd glass!

We had an amazing seafood salad for appetizers, followed by pesto pasta al dente, and finished it off with more gelato!

After lunch we went to the beach and this time I went in all the way. I know I know you are all thinking I did not wait 30 minutes after eating. 🤨

And my swim was over and back in….

We walked through the town next. 

This rock structure you will see again from a higher view.

Matthew took a break in the square and Brienna and I continued upward!

There is that rock structure!

Time to say goodby to Cinque Terre. Back to the bus and a 1 hour drive to Pisa. We parked and walked into the square. 

Now we made it. We had to walk along an outer wall before going through to get it the inner area.

Ok, here are the pics inside the walls - amazing! Much more

than the tower, Pisa has a large cathedral, baptismal building (which was closed) and a museum. 

And of course they did this!

We went over to the cathedral first (you must get tickets to gain entrance).

Where is Matthew?

Is he saying a prayer to St Servatius? 😂🤣😂 (Patron saint of foot ailments - look it up because that is a thing!) He said he was enjoying the intricacy of the ceiling.

Next we went to the museum.

And up close.

And they talked me into it….

Let’s get outta here.

We went back to Florence and Matthew decided to stay at the hotel while Brienna and I went out for an evening stroll and dinner.

We walked to Ponte Vecchio.

We then went for an absolute delight of a dinner at La Spada.

 

We were thirsty so had this interesting lemon drink. Very tasty.

We had caprese for appetizer. 

For dinner, I had pasta with the most amazing steak I have ever had - they were technically two orders fyi. Brienna had ravioli with a truffle sauce. 

We left and then went purse shopping - Brienna had to have one. Let’s go already….

We found one she liked and that was a wrap for the night.

She was so tired she did not even want to model the purse.

And I had to make Brienna a makeshift bed in the bathroom because the room was too loud and she wanted a good night’s sleep. Poor thing. 

Tomorrow Rome!

I forgot to mention I did get Matthew some dinner.