Florence to Cinque Terre

Sorry for the delayed update. We left Florence last week excited to
take our first of many dips in the Mediterranean and forgot to write
up a blog before we left.

Florence was as great as Richelle remembers it. We spent our last day
discovering the ufizzi amazed by the building as well as the art it
contains! We seem to always pick the right day to hit the museums.
there was yet another thunderstorm while we made our way through the
museum. We also climbed to the top of the duomo for an amazing view
of Florence! It was allyns favorite part of Florence besides il latini!

We then hopped on a train and headed for the coast! Our first day was
a little rocky, Allyn had food poisoining and we were hunkered down in
the hotel room because of an ALL day long thunderstorm..... It was
nuts! Luckily for us allyn felt better and the weather finally
cooperted on our second day and we went on our first hike! We hiked
from vernazza to montessero. It was amazing! After about an hour and a
half hike along the coastline we spent the rest of the afternoon lying
on the beach and taking quick dips in the water. A strenuous hike back
and our first day of hiking was completed with pesto minestrone and
walnut ravioli.

After another night of thunder and lightning, our third day had
perfect skies. We woke early, grabbed a chocolate pastry from the
bakery, and headed south along the coastal trail. Our plan was to
hike all the way to the first city (rio maggiore). After a couple
good hours of beautiful hiking we arrived, grabbed some drinks, and
headed for the very rocky beach. We took a dip just because we
thought that we should and decided that laying on the rocks wasn't for
us. We headed back stopping at Corniglia and Manarola to do a quick
walk through and then headed to our favorite (and our home) vernazza.
We got lucky to find one of our favorite rocks free and spent the rest
of the afternoon baking in the sun.

Update on gelato. We added: strawberry with yogurt, blueberry,
caramel.

We are at the train station on our way to rome! We can't believe we
have only ten days left of our trip. Although we are getting more and
more ready to come home, it will be hard to leave this beautiful place.

We miss you all,
Ciao regazzi!
Allyn and richelle

Sent from my iPod