The Price to Pee!

If you have traveled internationally, this does not come as a surprise to you, but in many of the places on our trip we had to shell out some significant cash in order to pee! The most we spent was one euro – that, my dear readers is $1.50 on a good day – usually it was $1.60 (depending on the value of the dollar that day)! That is a pretty hefty price to pay for a mundane, yet necessary and certainly repetitive activity every day! Granted, one euro was not the norm; the lowest cost was around 20 euro cents which in the 1.5-1.6 conversion was 30 American cents… Typically it was 50 euro cents, which is at least 75 American cents… Now I don’t know about your perspective, but that is pretty pricey in my book. If I had the foresight and realized the overall impact of these costs, I would have kept track so that I could know the total dollar amount of what it cost to pee in Europe! Maybe someone has already written a book on this subject….

Venice

We had perfect weather for our day in Venice, as is clearly shown in the following pictures. We spent about equal time walking around (and up and down the stairs that go over the canals) and on the water. Here are some of the sites seen from the large and small waterways of Venice.

Burano is one of the most colorful and charming islands surrounding Venice. Given my love for bright colors, I so enjoyed walking around this cute island. And it was less crowded than Venice!

Igor Stravinsky's grave... For those who care, Serge Diagelev is buried nearby. Venice's cemetary is an island of its own...

Basilica di San Marco/St. Mark's - a spectacular sight

Leaving Venice at the end of a wonderful day....

Cinque Terra

At the end of our trip, we all took turns trying to identify our favorite place/experience of the trip. As you can imagine, that was pretty difficult, but for me our day in the Cinque Terra stood out for its breath-taking, unusual beauty. The name, Cinque Terra refers to the five, self-contained villages, all of which hover (some seemingly precariously) on the rocky cliffs overlooking the Ligurian Sea. The order of the villages from southeast to northwest (from La Spezia) is Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. These villages can be approached either by train or foot...we took the train, but Michael and Julianne hiked between several of the villages and as a result had some spectacular views.

We decided to stop at Corniglia first because the walk up the hill, via road or steps was supposedly the most challenging (the train is below; if you want to see the city you walk - or take a bumpy bus ride; because we were at the beginning of our day we challenged ourselves with the walk up the road). After looking around the city, we took the bus back down and proceeded to Vernazza, where we spent quite a bit of time enjoying this very quaint village, then took the train to Monterosso. We then took the train back to Riomaggiore in time to catch the train to Manarola, which was a wonderful ending to an incredible day. After dinner and another walk to the coast, we took the train back to La Spezia and returned to our farmhouse in Vinci. As you can tell from the pictures, we had incredible weather which added to the enjoyment of the day. Enjoy the photos below - in the order of our visit.

Corniglia

Instead of walking up the steep steps to get to Corniglia, we walked on the road, which twisted back and forth. it was hot, tiring, but definitely worth it. We took the little bus back down to catch the train when we left the village...

A view from the top looking at the beautiful sea.

Another spectacular view from the top - note the gardens on the right side.

Looking back to the previous village...

Another view of Corniglia

Vernazza

This was my second most favorite village of the five - I loved the narrow, colorful streets, beautiful rocks, gorgeous mountainside and so much more. And we sat down, relaxed and had some amazing gelato and people-watched, all while enjoying a gorgeous afternoon!

The main street...

How cool is this! A unique glimpse of the Ligurian Sea!

I love the laundry hanging out on this beautiful day!

The varied colors of these rocks really captivated me.

We were eating gelato when these two cute kids and their moms came into our view. I couldn't resist!

I love how the train disappears into the mountain!

Vernazza from the hiking path high above the city (thank you Michael & Julianne for taking that hike!)

Monterosso

Monterosso is the largest of the five villages and at the northwest edge of Cinque Terra. It is somewhat resort-like with a nice sandy beach and even some palm trees!

Riomaggiore

We spent the least amount of time in Riomaggiore only because we had to catch the train in order to get to Manarola, as it was starting to get late. These pictures were taken at the train station.

Manarola

I think the village of Manarola was my favorite of the five...It was the last one we saw and it still took my breath away! It rained while we were eating a late dinner so you see some variance in these pictures.

The view of Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo

The Duomo (see below) is the tall domed building in this picture.

Florence's Duomo

The Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) is one of Florence's most famous sites. Ornately decorated and really large, one can only get a small sense of this amazing building.

The Baptistry

David, where are you?

We saw Michelangelo's David - the real one - in the Galleria dell'Accademia - all 17 feet of him! It was amazing! But we couldn't take any pictures. Below are two copies - the green one stands atop the hill overlooking the city (Piazzale Michelangelo) and the other one is where the original once stood in the Piazza della Signoria.

Pisa, Italy

There it is!

Hey...that tower looks crooked!

This is a view of the old city of Pisa from a distance.

Vinci, Italy

When we first arrived in Italy, we made our way to Vinci - the birthplace of Leonardo - hence Leonardo da Vinci. We stayed in a farmhouse just outside this small town, in a program that they call AgriTourism. We had a lovely place: spacious and comfortable with a beautiful view seen in this first photo.

Here is our scenic "driveway" and the rear of our minivan.

Several views of Leonardo da Vinci's birthplace with a glimpse of the beautiful countryside.