We sadly needed to say “arrivederci” to Vernazza this day. We met our apartment’s owner as we left, and she was the cutest Italian older lady. She spoke limited English, but we were able to understand that she lived in Vernazza during the summer and in La Spezia in the winter.
Lucky broad.
Her attractive son helped us again with our bags to the train station and unlocked the local elevator so we didn’t need to carry luggage up the stairs.
Brendan had a short I-told-you-so moment when I tore a small seam on my rolling carry-on bag because I had one pair of shoes too many in its outer pocket. Whoops. It’s currently at the luggage hospital getting sewed back together. :(
Since Venice is a bit of a trip from the Cinque Terre region, we decided to break up the traveling by staying another night in Florence, about half-way between the two cities. We also were a little hesitant to attempt Venice’s notoriously confusing streets at night.
As Cinque Terre disappeared into the distance, we transferred through La Spezia and Pisa before arriving in Florence a little before two. We checked back into the Plaza Hotel Lucchesi and after freshening up, we hopped into a cab bound for the Piazzale Michelangelo, a popular viewpoint over the city.
Lucky broad.
Her attractive son helped us again with our bags to the train station and unlocked the local elevator so we didn’t need to carry luggage up the stairs.
Brendan had a short I-told-you-so moment when I tore a small seam on my rolling carry-on bag because I had one pair of shoes too many in its outer pocket. Whoops. It’s currently at the luggage hospital getting sewed back together. :(
Since Venice is a bit of a trip from the Cinque Terre region, we decided to break up the traveling by staying another night in Florence, about half-way between the two cities. We also were a little hesitant to attempt Venice’s notoriously confusing streets at night.
As Cinque Terre disappeared into the distance, we transferred through La Spezia and Pisa before arriving in Florence a little before two. We checked back into the Plaza Hotel Lucchesi and after freshening up, we hopped into a cab bound for the Piazzale Michelangelo, a popular viewpoint over the city.
The viewpoint wasn’t really far from the hotel, but it was up a HUGE hill. After our hiking days in the Cinque Terre, our quads were begging for a break.
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| View of Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo. Remember, you can click any of these photos to view a larger image! |
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| Our hotel was the white building in the middle with the line of balconies directly under the church's spire in the background! It was fun to see our hotel from the Piazzale, instead of the other way around. We stayed in the upper right balcony (first Florence visit) and the second-to-the-top upper right balcony (second trip). |
We walked downhill back to Florence's main shopping area to do a little damage. We returned to the hotel to discover preparations underway for a French film that was using the hotel as a set! I kept waiting for my big moment of being discovered but it sadly never came.
Brendan tried to cheer me up by dancing to country music in the hotel room while drinking some pre-dinner Heinekens.
We set out to find a restaraunt for dinner, and after visiting several different places without finding The One, we decided on a smaller and mostly empty ristorante. I was a little skeptical, but the service was fastastic and the lemon meatballs were delicious! It was also incredibly inexpensive by Italian standards-- even with a 1/2 bottle of wine, chicken liver patte antipasto and tiramisu desert (each), the bill was around 60E.
Not a bad way to end our time in the land of red rooftops.
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| Goodnight, Florence. Nighttime view from our hotel. |
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