With only a few days in Florence, S. and I wanted to make the most of our time in Tuscany. We found an amazing ‘Tuscany in One Day’ tour through Viator and booked it Friday night. While the package wasn’t cheap, we both found it to be a good deal (£60/€70) for what was included.

The tour was 12 hours and began at 8:30A. We got up bright and early and headed out of our hotel around 7:45A to grab morning goodies and get there a bit early. After departing, our first stop was Siena, a little town (p. 50,000) about an hour or so from Florence famous for its horse races and the color with its namesake (Burnt Siena). The city was much smaller than Florence but incredibly charming. We learned (during our tour) that banking as we know it today effectively began in Italy (in Tuscany, actually) and that Siena is currently home to the oldest working bank in the world (founded in the 14^th c. or so):

I’m not sure where I thought banking started, but I definitely didn’t think it was Italy. Fun tid bit, indeed. After seeing the bank, we explored the city center, saw seven of the seventeen districts in Siena and got to see where the famous horse races take place during July and August. Despite it’s small size, Siena is split up into 17 districts that are represented by their own flag and animal. Each district has its own fountain, its own church, etc. and there are rivalries (sometimes intense) between the districts. The horse races that happen each year take place between ten of the districts; the winning district gets to hang their flag for everyone to see/admire. The rhino district (it has a much better name than that in Sienese) won last time:

Our last stop was the church in Siena. While nearly all of my travels have included gazing at cathedrals (since churches tend to be some of the most amzing examples of architecture), I have yet to become tired of seeing the façades of these cathedrals – so incredible. Admittedly, I get a bit tired of exploring the insides, but it was nice to check it out and hear our Italian tour guide tell us about the church’s history:

After our tour and some free time in Siena, we boarded our coach once again to head to an organic farm where we had lunch. S. and I were the only vegetarians in the group so they had to make up a special lunch for us (sadly, we couldn’t have the ‘wild boar sauce’…). We got a tour of the farm, including the wine cellar (they produce 200’000 bottles of wine a year!), and got to check out some incredible views of San Gimignano. Pretty breathtaking:

Fittingly, the lunch included wine tasting. Everything that was served up was organic and produced on the farm (except for the pecorino cheese which was brought in) and was absolutely delish! You know S. and I were way too excited for some organic action in our lives! After lunch, a glass of white, two glasses of red and a (strong) dessert wine (note: I had but a taste of the reds since I’m not a big red wine-drinker… I have yet to learn how to drink red wine like grown-ups), we re-boarded our coach to head to nearby San Gimignano, a medieval town that has been left untouched.

Now, San Gimignano (San Jim-EE-jee-ohn-oh), while small, was completely darling. The views were great and the streets of the city are dotted with cute wine and cheese shops and little restaurants and cafes. San Gimignano is perhaps most famous for their gelato (aside from their white wine and saffron). A gelateria in town has won ‘Best Gelato in the World’ on two separate occasions, so you know that we had to test it out (despite being disgustingly full from lunch). After exploring the town, we headed down to the gelateria as our last stop before heading back to the coach. In true San Gimignano fashion, the gelateria even has white wine and saffron-flavored gelato! Although I could have been more adventurous, the line was out the door so I made my order quick: mint (at least I moved away from lemon)! S., staying true to her chocolate-loving roots, got a scoop of plain chocolate (her defense was that if this was supposd to be the best gelato in the world, the chocolate should be the best she had ever tasted… I understood her thinking on that one). The gelato was good, but the best in the world? Not so sure… You’ll have to try for yourself.

After San Gimgnano, we headed to our last stop of the day: Pisa! S. and I had wanted to go to Pisa, but I didn’t think it was worth a day trip on its own (much like I didn’t think Siena was worth a day trip unto itself). This tour ended up being pure perfection since it brought in all of the Tuscan cities we were interested in with just the right amount of time in each. We arrived in Pisa after a scenic one and a half hour drive (where we passed by a sunflower patch):

There was little to do in Pisa. We took quintessential tourist pictures (unashamedly) and laid out in the grass in front of the leaning tower. Bonus: the leaning tower of Pisa is one of the wonders of the world – got to check one off of my list!

After our time in Pisa, we headed back to Florence with our tour bus and our oh-so-amazing tour guide, Becky. It was a long, long day of exploring but it was so worth it. The £60 seemed more than worth it for all of the sightseeing we got to do, the information that we got and the amazing lunch that we had! If you’re a big wine drinker, you could definitely get your money’s worth; I saw a girl swoop on a half a bottle of red wine left at the end of lunch and enjoy the entire thing! After seeing the best of Tuscany, S. and I are on our way out. It’s been real, Toscana! Now, off to Cote d’Azur where we’ll be staying in Nice!

Love from the train,

S. and I woke up in Florence with the day ahead of us and a mission: see everything that Florence has to offer in 10 hours or less. I’m sure most Florentines would laugh off such an endeavor, but we knew what we wanted to see and made a beeline as soon as we were up and ready.

Florence is most definitely a walking city. We were provided with a city map upon arrival at Casa Billi (our B&B/hostel) and mapped out our plan: hit up Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michaelangelo’s David, check out Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Santa Croce and then head down across Ponte Vecchio to explore some goodies (the Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens) south of the river before heading back through the Uffizi Gallery. There were a few modifications on our route, but we managed to see the most important things on our list.

After grabbing coffee & breakfast at a nearby eatery in the San Lorenzo area, we headed to the Galleria dell’Accademia where David is housed. I had looked online for pricing for our ‘must-sees’ so we could figure out how much sightseeing was going to cost us. The articles I read mentioned that the entry fee was around €6.50 (€3.50 with a student discount). When we arrived at the Galleria, there was already a pretty intense line. After we got in line we found out that we needed a ticket to stand in line since tickets were equipped with an entry time. We headed out and got our ticket from a nearby museum only to find out that tickets were far from €3.50. They were €14 each and there was no student discount available. Needless to say, I was sad and slightly perturbed but as I’m sure many of you will agree: a trip to Florence is not complete without seeing Michaelangelo’s most famous work. We huffed, complained for a split second, paid the €14 and headed over to the gallery to get in line. We entered around 12:30P and made it our mission to explore everything the museum had to offer to get the most bang for our buck. We noticed pretty quickly that David was definitely the main draw for the gallery; there weren’t that many rooms and while the artwork was great, it was limited. David, however, was worth it. Truly amazing. I think S. and I were both a bit surprised at how big he is (how tall, I should say). He’s absolutely massive and perfect. Like most people, I have seen pictures of David a million times; I knew what it looked like and thought I knew exactly what to expect but I was truly awed by the awesomeness of seeing it in person. It is absolute perfection. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but even if we were, pictures can’t really do it justice. If you’re in Florence, it’s definitely worth seeing (although I’m still reeling a bit from the €14 entry fee).

After seeing David, we hit up the Duomo, an amazingly elaborate and massive church in the middle of Florence. I had heard about it, but S. and I were both a little awe-struck when we saw it! Not only massive but ridiculously elaborate and ornate. We headed inside where S. got a ‘shawl’ to cover her shoulders before we could explore (much like the head scarves you have to wear at mosques):

After, we headed past San Croce, where we got to see the church and the square. We passed through Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery next and checked out the replica of David (happy that we got to see the real thing only hours earlier).

We headed out shortly after and decided to head to Ponte Vecchio, the site that S. was most excited to see. The bridge is pretty amazing and, being the only bridge that survived WWII, is oldest bridge in Florence (at one point it was the only bridge that people could use to cross the river). It was built in the 1300s and is home to a billion jewelers. Other vendors used to have stalls on the bridge (a long, long time ago) before the Medici family ordered the bridge to be dotted with jewelers so commoners wouldn’t peruse the area. (Gotta love those Medicis – so thoughtful.) I zipped past the jewelers (since I am clearly not in a place to be buying myself glitzy jewelry) and Stace and I grabbed gelato after crossing the bridge. We asked for smalls but apparently our idea of small and their idea of small are totally different. We ended up with massive bowls of gelato (€6 each!) and cooled off inside the air conditioned gelateria before heading back out into the scorching sun.

After snapping a few pictures, we wandered down to the Pitti Palace but after finding out that everything in Florence (everything!!) requires an entry fee, we left after grabbing a few quintessential photos. Now, I must admit, I am spoiled. I have become exceptionally spoiled living in London where the best art galleries and museums are free! When I have to pay 5 – 20 euros entry for a museum, I tend to choke a bit. The majority of the time I pass it up because I get to see some of the world’s greats at the National Gallery, the British Museum, etc. If I were more of an art buff I may have paid the fees for Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace. Maybe next time!

All in all, my review of Florence: it’s nice. Perhaps my friends hyped it up too much, perhaps the weather was just ungodly during our visit or perhaps there were too many tourists. Whatever the reason, I don’t have a much better review than just, simply nice. After Greece, though, nice will do just fine.

See all of our Tuscany pictures here.

xoxo,

xoxo,

S. and I are the train now after saying goodbye to Napoli and zipping through the Italian countryside to Tuscany by way of Roma. With our Eurail passes in hand, we paid €10 each for a ‘reservation’ fee and jumped on the train just in time for an 11:50A ride to Firenze. The views are nice; green and lush. There are trees as far as the eye can see and a few country-style houses scattered throughout for effect.

I like the train. I like the train much better than I like flying, despite the sometimes-long rides. This journey from Naples to Florence will take us about 3 hours, with a stop in Rome but no changes (thank God – we don’t want to haul luggage again). A flight would be shorter, of course, but then we’d have to get to the airport early and deal with the hassles of airport security and getting a transfer to the city center. With the train, we arrive about a half a kilometer from our St. Lorenzo area hotel. I’m excited about Florence; the art, the sightseeing, the wine-tasting. Also, I’m even more excited about Florence after the amazingness of the Amalfi Coast. Being in Agerola for three days reinforced by love of Italia. I fell in love when L. and I were in Rome in November and I was hoping that all of Italy would be as wonderful. The Amalfi Coast was equally amazing although entirely different. The views were astounding and the areas were quaint.

When S. and I booked our hotel in advance, we were unfamiliar with the towns of the Amalfi Coast but for the information that we got through Expedia. Agerola is situated much higher than Amalfi, Ravello, Positano, Maiori and Conca dei Marini and the views are pretty great in certain areas. Also, while it was warm, the weather was a bit cooler due to the high elevation. The only downside was the town’s small size; there are but a few restaurants and the town is comprised of primarily the 70+ pensioner crowd. That was fine by us since the cost of our B&B was far less than it would have been in Amalfi. Plus, the family that owned our place was amazing. They were beyond friendly and helped us out through the entire trip. Also, while the bus ride down to Amalfi is long and windy (not for people that get car sick), the views are pretty incredible (although, admittedly, making that journey twice a day sucks).

Amalfi is cute with pretty amazing views although it’s rather touristy. It is Amalfi after all and when people head to the Amalfi Coast, it would seem logical to stay in the city that the coast is named after. While the city was charming and loaded with quintessential tourist shops (selling all things lemon), the prices were for food and basics were much higher in Amalfi than in Agerola and the city wasn’t as beautiful as Positano. Granted,  when we arrived in Positano after our long, sweaty hike, the city seemed like an oasis in a desert: water, gelato and ocean to calm our souls. Relief aside, I found the city absolutely gorgeous. With our love of the Amalfi Coast setting in almost immediately, S. and I talked about nabbing a villa for a couple of weeks during the summer (next year or the year after) and bringing the fam away for a couple of weeks in paradise. After exploring the towns, we both felt that Positano would be the perfect location for our imaginary villa; the town in itself is beautiful, there are beaches to lay out and cool off, cute restaurants, cafes and gelaterias plus there are ferries that take you to Amalfi in about 30 minutes, granting easy access to the neighboring coastal cities.

All in all, as we leave Agerola, I find myself content with our stay there. Where in Malta, I didn’t really want to leave and in Athens I couldn’t wait to move on, Amalfi was perfect. We had just enough time to experience the things that we wanted to see. While we could have stayed longer and explored other nearby cities (Pompeii, Vesuvio, Sorrento, etc.), I feel ready to move on to Florence to practice my Italiano and meet new people. I have also rediscovered my love of Italy: it’s amazing country; my favorite, in fact, with its diverse cities and regional personalities. After expiercing the history of Rome and the grit of Naples (juxtaposed with the beauty of the Amalfi Coast), I’m ready to move on to the artsy and foodie side of Italy.

Viva Italia!

Xoxo,

S. and I woke up bright and early and headed downstairs to grab breakfast at our B&B. Armed with our water, backpacks and hiking gear, we were ready to head to Bomerano and start ‘Sentiero Degli Dei’, the walk of the gods. The 5 km hike is supposed to be one of the world’s most beautiful, heading from the area of Bomerano in Agerola to Positano with views of the Amalfi Coast along the route.

Salvatore drove us to Bomerano at around 930A and we began our hike shortly after. After experiencing the Amalfitan heat on Tuesday, we knew that we wanted to try to get our hike done before the mid-day heat struck in Italy. For me to try and describe the walk would do it little justice. Similarly, the pictures that I took, while beautiful, can’t really capture how amazing the hike really was. It was intense at parts (lots of rocky hills to climb and 1700 stairs to climb down at the end to reach the city of Positano), but the hike can definitely be drawn out and leisurely, to an extent. It was a bit rough when the heat struck but the views of Positano from our hike were absolutely incredible. For the majority of the hike, S. and I were alone in the massive natural park area.

While we came across ten or so other hikers during our journey, it really felt (for the most part) that it was just us and the world. No one else was there and no one else had experienced this before. Even the pathways, while marked for emergencies (signs with numbers are scattered throughout the hike in case you need to call 118 for help) seemed as though very few other human beings had stumbled upon this area.

That is clearly not the case since the hike is well-known and well traversed, yet it was something that made me feel like I had just experienced a piece of the world that most people were unaware of. Unlike the hikes of Yosemite (e.g. the popular Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls hikes) where teems of people descend upon the mountains in the summer, this was totally barren. For those of you that have hiked Yosemite (if you haven’t, I highly recommend it), I don’t know that the hikes can necessarily be compared. They’re both incredible – almost spiritual – and gorgeous but they’re different. If you enjoy Yosemite though, it would be hard to imagine not enjoying this hike.

While the morning mist that hung over the mountains was problematic for picture-taking, it actually made for a really cool setting for the hike. The hike is covered with green: flowers, trees, bushes; and with animals: lizards, butterflies, bees as big as your thumb and snakes (eek)! While we didn’t come across any snakes during our hike, a little black snake slithered across the road while we were driving to the hike’s starting point which effectively freaked us out for the next three hours. Every time animals rustled in the nearby bushes, we cringed and ran like five-year-old girls. I should have brought my mace. (Can you mace a snake?)

S. and I actually ended up having a blast as neophyte National Geographic wildlife photographers. Every time a pretty butterfly stood still, we tried to capture it. Each time a lizard sat perfectly perched on a sunny rock, we zoomed our lenses in to snap a shot. Although they’re not NG quality (I’m still learning), some were pretty rad:

After three hours of running, climbing, jumping, picture-taking, and descending down the nearly two thousand stairs, we reached the town of Positano. Beautiful, quaint Positano. After staying in Agerola, visiting Amalfi, and seeing Bomerano and Positano, I could definitely argue a case for Positano being the prettiest part of the coast. Beaches, scenery, cute restaurants and shops; it’s definitely the place that I would stay in the future when I return to the Costiera Amalfitana (a return that I have decided is inevitable).

After grabbing some much-deserved lunch and gelato, S. and I took a ferry back to Amalfi and jumped on the bus for a long ride back up the mountain to Agerola. Our night proved to be low-key and quiet with another late-night dinner at our go-to spot, Da Gigino’s, where we split a pizza and enjoyed some red wine (on the house).

With our last bit of time in Amalfi, we’re getting ready to say arrivederci to Naples and buon giornio to Firenze!

Want to see all of the pictures from the walk of the gods? Click here and get pumped!

Catch up with you from Tuscany,

Arrivederci,

S. and I just got back from a day of exploring Amalfi and I can firmly say that it was just as amazing as I had imagined. I set my alarm last night for 9:30A but woke up long before my alarm. We’re staying in Agerola, which is set an incredibly high elevation with a cool mist that encapsulates the town. The cloudy mist was visibly dissipating throughout the town as we journeyed toward the SITA bus stop to catch our 11A ride to the town of Amalfi.

Amalfi isn’t that far from Agerola, but the bus ride took nearly an hour for us to get in to town. The roads wind drastically down the hillside, weaving in and out. How the bus drivers do it, I’ll never know; the roads are big enough for a single car, yet buses meander their way around like pros, honk-honking their way down the hillside so oncoming traffic is prepped.

I was actually excited for the long ride. While the views are pretty from Agerola and from Amalfi, the ride down provides for striking views of the cliff sides and the idyllic houses scattered about. I had seen pictures of the hillside, like I’m sure many of you have, but nothing really prepared me for the awesomeness of our surroundings. The morning mist that laid over the mountains made everything all the more surreal.

We arrived in Amalfi around noon and began to explore the town. We took a short walk near the pier to check out the mini beaches and the views from the ground before we snagged some mid-day gelato (as per usual, limoncello for me and chocolate for S.) Delish.

After our mid-day snack, we stumbled upon the actual town of Amalfi. The streets were strewn with jewelers, markets, all things lemon (the fruit for which Amalfi is famed), gelateries, restaurants, cafes; a tourist’s heaven. We grabbed a few postcards and a couple of gifts and hit up the local post office to mail things out. S. also nabbed some souvenirs for the fam to take back at the end of our adventures. One thing is for certain: Amalfi is famous for it’s lemons for a reason. As we walked down the streets, we noticed that all of the souvenirs displayed the bright yellow fruit ever so proudly. I had heard that Amalfi’s lemons were larger than our typical grocery store lemons, but I wasn’t sure how big they were. They’re big. Incredibly so. Some of the lemons we saw were bigger than the biggest grapefruits I have seen in local grocery stores!

After shopping and admiring the town, we headed back to the bus stop at around 430P and jumped on the 5P bus back to Agerola. The bus ride was seemingly longer this time with the mid-day heat and the masses of people (and annoying children), but we made it (and treated ourselves to a mid-day gelato upon our return).

Salvatore, the son of the owner of our B&B (Nido degli Dei) talked with us during our breakfast and invited us out to dinner in Bomerano for the evening. We headed to a little Italian place and enjoyed dinner with him and his friend, Roberto, and got to see how Italians really do dinner. A few things of mention on how Americans and Italians differ in their eating habits: a) they eat dinner late, much like the Spaniards. We didn’t head out until about 830P and didn’t start eating dinner until 10P; b) dinner is a production. It’s a multi-course meal with loads of vino that’s a slow-moving, enjoyable process vs. the fast food nation that we see in the US. We didn’t end up getting home until around midnight but it was an interesting/authentic adventure!

Up for tomorrow – Sentiero Degli Dei: ‘The walk of the gods’ that will take S. and us about 5km from Bomerano to Positano. Stay tuned!

Love from Agerola,

It’s nighttime now and the sun has gone down in Agerola, where S. and I are staying for our three days in the Amalfi area. While we’re not far from the town of Amalfi, the drive takes nearly an hour due to the twisty, windy roads that lead down to the waterfront. The roads are intense. We arrived in Napoli at around 2:45P and (somehow) managed to get down to Agerola after a number of bus changes and miserable attempts at speaking Italian.

I had heard that Naples was a questionable area and all of the tales rang very true during our hour waiting for the SITA bus. The roads were dirty, the people (that we interacted with) were borderline creepy and for one of the first times since my move to Europe, I felt uncomfortable being a girl in a city. Soon, however, we met K., another English-speaking traveler from Australia, and joined forces in to make our way to the town of Agerola (she was staying there, too, though in a different B&B).

After jumping on the SITA bus to Amalfi via Agerola, we arrived an hour later at San Lazarro in the quaint (‘tranquilo’ is how our new friend Sebastiano described it) town of our B&B, Nido degli Dei. The roads weaved in and out, higher and higher while the views of the Amalfi Coast grew below us. The drive is not for the faint-hearted; the roads are narrow and the bus drivers are quite skilled at horn-honking to ensure that cars coming the opposite direction are aware of their presence. The views were exactly as I had imagined them, though I’m not sure that there’s a word that sufficiently describes it. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Dramatic. Breathtaking. Perfection.

It’s places like this that reignite my desire to travel and reinvigorate my soul. I know that seems rather dramatic (I realize this even while typing it), but it’s the truth. We have yet to head into Amalfi and the neighboring towns of Positano and Ravello but even the area that we’re in now is glorious. The views are spectacular, the area is relaxing and the weather is perfect. S. and I had dinner at a tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town where the food was incredibly inexpensive but 100% delicious (€5 for an entire veg pizza)! It was a perfect place to re-energize after a long day off travel.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Amalfi to explore and check out the town and the next day we’re doing the walk of the gods. I’ve been here for about five hours and am already obsessed! This is definitely my kind of place – pure, unadulterated beauty in an otherwise chaotic world. I can’t wait to see what the next three days hold!

Love from Agerola,

See all of the pictures of the Amalfi Coast here.

While S. and I had planned on winging a lot of our trip, we’ve discovered that planning just comes naturally. We haven’t booked the trip in its entirety, mind you, just the first few stops. We had initially decided to take a ferry from Patras in Greece to Brindisi in Italy, followed by a train from Brindisi to the Amalfi Coast. How long could a ferry take, right? 5 hours, maybe? 7 hours max? Well, apparently my geography or my mathematical calculations are off (or both!) because the ferry ride is more like an Adriatic cruise at fifteen hours! And that’s only to Brindisi! From there, we would still need to take a train.

I’m all about adventures — the more experiences the better, I say, but this? This is not an adventure. Fifteen hours on a boat was just a waste of time. Three hours is pretty. Five hours is doable. Seven hours is maximum. Fifteen hours is beyond the scope of my imagination. Additionally, the premium for a bed on the 15 hour paradise that is a ferry boat (through HML or Minoan Ferries) is over $100 per person. It only took us five seconds of talking to decide that a flight would be better, provided the costs were reasonable. Quite honestly, I was expecting a discount airline to cost around 150 pounds for the trip since it’s only a month away. Luckily, I found a flight through Expedia with Alitalia for $160! For a two hour flight directly into Naples, the extra $50 was well worth the 15+ hours that we’ve saved.

So now, though it wasn’t our initial intention, we have the first three section of our trip worked out. The Amalfi Coast was an area that we both agreed on from the get-go and it makes a perfect starting point for our Italian adventures. After doing some research (I realized that I don’t know much about what there is to do in the area), I ran across something that I couldn’t resist: Senteiro Degli Dei, the walk of the gods. The hike starts in Bomerano and winds through the coast, ending up in glamorous Positano. The views are astounding and it has been ranked as one of the best hikes in the world! I hadn’t even heard about this until I did some in-depth research, but I am thrilled that I ran across it! It seems that the hike isn’t necessarily fit for kids and fitnessphobes, but for anyone with a decent level of fitness and mobility, it’s the perfect way to see the coast the way it should be seen and I would wager that it’s safer than renting a car and driving. Click here for a map of the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento Peninsula.

Interested in the walk of the gods? I was, too, so I consulted some fellow bloggers. Check out their experiences here and here.

Lots of love and happy travels,

Thinking of going to Italy? Here’s some Roman inspiration:

Lots of love,