Tuscan Villa and Rome

After three days in Florence, Hubby and I took the train to Cortona for our friend's wedding. I spent 4 days by the pool with a bottle of prosecco in hand. It was glorious!

After the fab wedding, we headed to Rome. I have never been so hot before in my life. 40C degrees! We spent the days wandering around the tourist sites, but spent most of it hopping from one shady spot to another. Whatever we could see from the shade was good enough for us! :)

Bride, Groom, Groomsmen and their ladies 

Me and the Best man after his adorable speech 

Sparkles! 

Relaxing by the pool. Look at that view! 

Inside the Colosseum 

Outside the Colosseum

On the Spanish Steps 

Vatican City 

1 of the thousands of churches/basillicas in Rome 

Outside the Pantheon 

Inside the Pantheon 

Cinque Terre

Right...Back to Italy on this foggy Friday :) I've got three more Italy posts in me then I'm done. Hang in there if you're bored with Italy!

After spending time in the countryside outside of Florence, Hubby and I headed to the Cinque Terre. When we were on our honeymoon, we met a couple that insisted we go there. I didn't do any research so thought nothing of it, but because it was so HOT in Florence, we figured another day trip would be good for the marriage (ie, the complaining might stop from me?).

We did a bus tour (boo) to 4 out of the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre. I loved the village, the coast, the little restaurants and the gorgeous marinas. See for yourself!

Sunken Boats 

The sea! 

Gorgeous view - the hubby isn't bad either :) 

Hello!!! 

Along the Via dell’Amore

Leaving secret messages to friends who would be doing the same trip a week later 

The gorgeous little villages 

In Riomaggiore

Marina in Vernazza 

Dipping my toes into the sea 

Ferry to Monterosso al Mare 

Beaches of Monterosso al Mare 

Florence Day Trip 1

After spending one day in the hot city, we decided to take a day trip out to the countryside. (Also, we got to see pretty much all the major sites of Florence in a day -if you're planning a trip). We took a group tour (which I generally don't love) to San Gimignano, Siena and had a wine tasting in the Chianti region.

Some fun facts.

• San Gimignano is a UNESCO site and like Venice looked very fake (but cute). 

• Siena is a small little town in Tuscany and the site of the crazy horse race. You can see a bit of the madness here.  It was also featured in the opening sequence of James Bond- Quantum of Solace. The area is so small you can't imagine a gajillion people crammed in there in July. Imagine the sweat! It's vicious too. There are no rules and the horse that crosses the finish line (with or without a jockey) wins. It's a battle between the different districts (like Hunger Games?) in Siena.  

• Chianti region wine is labeled with a Red Rooster. Also did you know Balsamic vinegar is made from grapes and vinegar? I did not until we went to this vineyard that also made balsamic vinegar. 

In San Gimignano 

In San Gimignano 

View of the Tuscan countryside 

Pretty windows in Siena 

Where the horse race takes place 

Standing on the horse racing "track"

Cheesy pics! 

Trying oh so hard to be artsy. 

Red Rooster Vineyard 

Wine Tasting 

Florence

After our time in Venice, we took the train to Florence for a three day stay. The train was super easy so I highly recommend it if you're looking to travel in between cities. It only took 1.5 hours.


A couple things about Florence in June.

• It is FREAKING hot. Like complained-like-a baby-while-walking-around hot. We may or may not have gotten into one or two fights while Hubby dragged me around town.

• It is FULL of American tourists. I felt like I was back at home. We made friends with a lovely couple who were over on their honeymoon while we were waiting in line to enter a museum (see below). 

• You have to wait a very, very long time in queues for museums. Lucky for us, we're not cultured and didn't go inside the Duomo or the famous Uffzi museum. You can make reservations to skip the queue we later found out.

• You can avoid the long lines if you go near the time the museum closes. We did do one tiny bit of culture and visited the Accademia museum to see the statue of David.  (Totally impressive...it was huge!  The statue that is ...get your minds out of the gutter!) We queued for only about 15 minutes.

Packing our bags for our daily picnic (Prosecco at the ready!) 

Outside the Uffizi Museum. If you don't want to queue, there is a lovely outdoor area with sculptures.
We figured that was enough culture 

The Ponte Vecchio
This was the height of heat and crankiness hence the awkward face and pose. 

Resting. This Piazza was blocked off for a concert. We think maybe Madonna? 

Tiny and yellow. This car should belong to me! 

Ran into a random parade 

Outside the Duomo- Randomly, this picture looks photoshopped. 

First of many gelatos 

You couldn't take a picture of the actual David, but it was this size in scale. See what I mean about huge? :)
(This was outside the real David Museum- pretty good consolation prize) 

 Group shot! 

Our new buddies- bonding in the way we know best! 

Venice

Venice was our first stop in Italy. It's funny when you go to places and think it looks like it should be in Disneyland cause it's so fake and perfect looking - that was Venice.

We had a day there and I thought that was the perfect amount to explore the quaint city streets. We spent a lot of time just walking around and stopping in random places for our picnic lunch and prosecco.

Grocery shopping for our picnic 

Getting ready to see Venice!! 

Public drinking :) 

St. Mark's Basilica 

Pretty Venice.  I LOVED the flowers they had everywhere 

Gondola parking station 

Along the edge of Venice 

Not sure what this building is- Bad tourist 

Prosecco along the Pier 

Sunset by the Rialto