Europe Day Thirty Four - Cinque De Terre Travel Day

We woke up on our last day in Florence not wanting to leave but at least we had a few hours before the train left so we decided to go and see the real David statue instead of the replica. We walked the streets in the rain and the cold and promptly got lost. We asked a few people for directions but not many of them spoke English so we kept moving and from the little bits of directions we picked up along the way we walked for what seemed like an hour before we found the museum. Once we finally got to the front gate we saw the entry way blocked off with a sign that said that the museum was closed on Mondays so we took shelter from the rain in a nearby church.

We sat in the warmth for a few minutes before continuing forward to get something to eat. We found a nice place to get some hot chocolate and gnocchi before hitting the road to the train station. We did make a quick stop at an Italian belt stand because with all the walking we were doing the pants we had brought with us didn't fit us and were falling down. So we got some synthetic belts made of fake leather before heading over to the train station.

 We all said goodbye to Dad who was going on a business trip to DC in the States and had to catch a train to Milan. We were leaving Florence to relax in Cinque de Terre for five days until he got back. Dad boarded his train within a few minutes after we boarded ours. The train ride wasn't that long but we had an hour delay because we missed our connection by a few minutes (trains aren't always on time in Italy like they are in Switzerland.) So instead of moaning and depressed like Eeyore the donkey we decided to go down to the grocery store to get some food for dinner.

 Within the hour we were back at the train station with what felt like twenty pounds of groceries. We got on the train and within 5 minutes we were there. Now I know you guys might be thinking "How lazy are you people?" but the train is the best way through the mountain unless you want to hike a mountain for an hour and a half with groceries and backpacks so just put it in perspective. Once we got off the train we started the climb to our apartment. So we climbed with our backpacks and the groceries (which for some reason I was carrying with Mom) up and up and up and up.

(Our apartment was to the left of the church - yes, way up there!)

Cinque de Terre is a National Park on the west coast of Italy with 5 small villages in it all joined by train tracks or hiking trails. Four of the villages are at the bottom of the cliffs by the water and one (ours!) is up on the cliffs.

So we walked into the apartment tired, and out of breath just to find that it was super tiny. We plopped our bags down on the floor and checked out the apartment. It was cute and clean but had one bedroom stuffed with a queen bed and a small pull out couch, a living room with just enough room for another pullout couch, but the worst of all was the kitchen which had a tiny two person table, a stove and sink and a mini fridge that if the door was open would take up half the kitchen. And right next to the stove there was a door to the apartment's super tiny bathroom. On paper the apartment was the size of a medium sized living room. So we made ourselves at home and relaxed for what seemed like the first time on the trip. Mom and I cooked some simple pasta with tomato sauce and fried onions for dinner and then we all took turns eating dinner at the two person table. Once we all had dinner it wasn't long before we went to bed for the night.

Total trains: 3

Total miles walked: 5.1 miles

Europe Day Thirty Three - Florence

In the morning we woke up and got ready to leave Venice, the city of water. We walked to the train station and said our final goodbyes to the Grand Canal before boarding our train to Florence. The train ride was nice but none of us had been ready to leave Venice just yet. We arrived in Florence after a four hour train ride and started to walk to our hotel to drop of our bags. The walk was nice and it was like we had gone back in time with all the old buildings and squares. As we walked we passed the Il Duomo Di Firenze church.When we got to the hotel we couldn't check in yet so we dropped our bags in their storage room and headed out to the streets of Florence once again. We headed over to Il Doumo also known as the Florence Cathedral.

We walked in to the cathedral and it was huge, the walls were beautiful and there was a huge painting on the inside of the dome. After we took in the site we left the church and headed to the square. The square had a ton of statues in it including one very odd one called Urs Fischer that was very bad.

 There was also one with Hercules with Medusa's head in his hands with a bloody sword.

Neptune's fountain was also there but it was being fixed. There was a replica of Michelangelo's David there where the original stood for 300 years before being moved to a museum. After awhile we headed back to the hotel to get our key. We got our key and had to walk a few blocks down to find the apartment building. The apartment was nice and we relaxed for a bit before heading to the Uffizi Museum that was just down the street. We had to wait in a really big line, but it as worth it to see the art that was inside. When we finally got in we walked up the stairs into the giant halls of the museum. It was built as a hollow rectangle with a courtyard in the middle and long hallways for the sides. There was a ton of paintings inside and it was a bit hard to take it all in.

We walked around for a bit before Sage started to get bored so we headed for the exit. Once we found our way out and got back to the hotel we realized that we had nothing for dinner. After a bit of researching we decided to go to a restaurant with good reviews a few minutes down the street. We walked all the way down to the restaurant but they weren't yet open and didn't have anything for Zaddek and Sage to eat. So, we ended up going to a nice outdoor restaurant with candles and lights strung around and got some pasta, gnocchi, and cheese pizza. After we finished our delicious meal we headed back to the hotel room and went to bed for the night.

Total trains: 1

Total miles walked: 5.3 miles

Europe Day Thirty Two - Burano and Murano

In the morning we got our day-bags ready and headed out the door. We found our way back to St.Mark's square and to the docks. At the docks we bought taxi boat tickets to the islands of Burano, home of the famous colorful houses and Murano, home of the famous glass sculptures. But in order to get there you had to take three separate taxi boats that were stuffed to the rim with people. Our first stop was Murano.

 At Murano we went to a glass blowing tutorial. The way it works is that the glass welder melts the sand into a molten like state and it glows orange. He then uses a metal pipe and takes out some melted glass and rolls it across a table into a ball. Once the glass has hardened just enough that it doesn't drip he blows into metal pipe and almost like a balloon blows it into the shape of a vase. He then carefully flattens the bottom against the table. He sets that one down to cool and takes another glob of glass and starts to stretch it with metal prongs into a beautiful glass horse. Everybody in the group claps and tips the nice glass worker before heading over to the glass store. In the store there was a ton of sculptures but the most beautiful of them were the glass horses. Kaden and I both picked out a glass horse for only five dollars each. Kaden's was gold and mine was clear with one streak of blue from mane to tail. After thanking them again for the free tour we headed to the main street to find lunch and look at glass shops and sculptures.

As we walked the street we saw every type of glass animal possible. There were polar bears, lions, tree frogs, monkeys, pandas, and even lobsters. They had almost any type of animal you could imagine. Once we hit the end of the street we got some flatbread pizza and sat down next the biggest glass sculpture of them all.

Then we walked  back down the street and got on a taxi boat to Burano. After the long ride we stepped out and felt like we were in a different world. All the buildings were different rainbow colors and colorful windows, doors, boats, and canals. We walked the streets and Sage, Mom, Dad, and Zaddek bought scarfs for the cold nights ahead.

We took a ton of photos and had a cup of hot chocolate (really thick and creamy) before heading to the taxi boats in the dark. We rode back cramped again in a stupid taxi boat to Venice. At one of the last stops we grabbed some pasta for dinner before jumping back on the boat.

Once we got to our stop we walked back to the room exhausted from the long day.

Total water taxis: 5

Total miles walked: 6.1 miles