Day 4: Pisa, Italy

Day 4 we spent in Pisa, Italy

I think that choosing to have us stay in Pisa was one of my biggest mistakes of the trip. Let me tell you, I learned a lot on this trip. How I would do things over, change things or never do things again. And this was one. Pisa is beautiful, its situated on a river (as most italian cities are, in my knowledge, at least) and the leaning tower of Pisa was fun to look at and so were the Duomo and other building in the same Piazza and it was fun to walk around, but Pisa is small and there is nearly nothing to do besides the leaning tower, and that takes all of 15 minutes to see and do, unless you want to pay the 15 euros to go to the top.

Anyways, we were tired by this day of little sleep and lots of changing locations and realized that this was our first real hostel we were staying at and that they were strict about the check-in not being before 2pm. Grr. I knew ahead of time that this was true but I hadn't thought much about it since we had been on our trip becasue our previous two accomodations had let us drop our stuff immedietly. Well, we ended up arriving in Pisa at 9am and had to carry our stuff around until 2pm when we could finally drop it off. Needless to say, we survived...but barely. This was the day I realized I am not a fan of "back-packing" when it means you literally need to carry your stuff with you all day long. It was exhausting!
We did however take the time to enjoy some local "surprise" pizza and hang out on the lawn infront of the leaning tower, take your typical pictures, eat some famously good gelatto and take a nap in a piazza.

It was another great day was decent weather, but for those of you who are planning a trip to Italy anytime soon, take my advice and plan Pisa as a day trip from Florence, don't stay there! Unless of coarse you really want to, then, in my defense, don't say I didn't warn you.

SO without further adieu....

Piazza where our hostel was

Alison's massive backpack luggage that
she had to carry around all day

after we had devoured the "surprise" pizza we ordered

yes, i did it!

Alison, on the other hand, refused to do it!
Here she is giving me the "you're not going to make
me do that stupid pose" face

here are a group of people doing all the silly poses, it was quite entertaining,
kind of like sitting on a bench near the eiffel tower and watching people

Navigational Godess had definitely earned her title by now

Anyways, Pisa's evening was spent showering and resting and watching movies in our hostel. Not very entertaining, I know, but it started to rain and after having to carry our heavy backpacks around all day, by the time we got home and rested for a bit we were beyond exhausted and decided to call it a day. I am glad we went to Pisa but I am not so sure I would make plans to go again, not anytime soon, at least!

Ciao.

Cinque Terre

Day 3: Cinque Terre

Technically we arrived in Cinque Terre on day 2 but we arrived rather late so there wasn't much to do or to be seen at that time of night. I soon realized at this location that there REALLY is a reason they call it "off season"...there was no one there and few restaurants and bars open. But it didn't make it any less beautiful and fun to walk around.

A sign (literally and figuratively) from Jesus... we arrived to our village after dark where there were no restaurants or business' open and had no map of where our hotel was (my fault, oops!) This sign says the name of the street (which happened to the street with our hotel)

A text I received from my dad while on my trip, ha! 

Our first views the next morning walking to the train station

This was the only hiking trail open this time of year. Bummer, but it was still fun!

We sat on this bridge and had a snack, bruschetta, my favorite thing to eat on this trip.

I can only imagine how beautiful this place is on a sunny day if its this beautiful
on a crappy weather day.

This is on the middle village, the only village not on the water. You had to walk up a very windy,
steep hill or up a load of stairs to get to the town. We walked past dozens of lemon trees and olive trees. 

This is the furthest north village, also the most touristic and the most deserted, in my opinion. 

An elderly man in the last town we visited who only spoke Italian but really
wanted us to take our pictures with him. He was too cute. 

For those who don't know, Cinque Terre is a cluster of 5 fishing islands on the coast of Italy about 1 hour from Pisa or 2 hours from Florence. It has become a major tourist destination in the summer and I had the views are breathtaking so of coarse I wanted to stop here on our tour of Italy. What I hadnt planned for was a deserted island. Since its mostly a touristic destination these days and most people aren't going to go to the beach duirng the winter, most businesses, restaurants and bars were closed. During the day they were open but we arrived on a Sunday night which didn't help our cause. We had a great time exploring the villages and taking pictures before it start raining and got too cold. I definitely recommend this place if you ever are in Italy and want a low-key experience. Although I am not so sure it will be as low-key if you go during the summer, but the views are worth it. We visited all but 1 island and that is because I accidentally had us get on the wrong train which took us to the completely wrong train station and the sun set way too early. This was how I spent my Valentines! Not too shabby!

Early the next morning we were to head off to start Day 4: Pisa!

Ciao

Day 2: Rome

Again

We decided in the planning process that Rome would be the least of our interests on our trip so we chose to spend the least amount of time there. We had only planned for two 1/2 days which didn't leave for a lot of leisure time. Looking back, I am glad we were only there for a short amount of time because Rome was my least favorite of all the places we went this week.

The famous street for all the high-priced-name-brand stores. 

Spanish steps in the daylight

Alison and I infront of the Spanish Steps

I had to resist the urge to buy a painting.

Trevi fountain

I made my wishes and threw my coins

This was quoted as the most popular piazza in Rome...there was no one there but Alison and I (I guess thats why they call it "off season")

Pantheon

Navigational Godess at work

recommended restaurant and it was delcious!

On the streets of Rome, a group dressed like Michael Jackson and his backup dancers  

further on down the street: people dressed as native American indians playing a pipe thing to the tune of "my heart will go on" from the Titanic soundtrack...interesting

Colosseum

Colosseum

Alison and I

 Day 2 was another good day! The sun was shining and we saw a lot of great historical sites. By the afternoon our time in Rome had come to an end and we were rushing to catch our train to the next place.  We rush to catch our train and make it with 5 minutes to spare, thats the story of my life! :-)

Next destination: La Spezia centrale for Cinque Terre

Ciao!