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When we got up this morning it was overcast and rainy - thank god we did Cinque Terre yesterday! After b/fast we checked out of our hotel and were back in the car off for a big day of driving.. Our first destination was Pisa.
We werent too sure on where we were going but tried to follow the signs as best we could. To get out of the Cinque Terre area we had to go up over the mountains, which due to the weather were extremely foggy, in some areas we could only see 10mtrs or so in front of the car on these really narrow, windy roads, thankfully being a Sunday morning the roads were pretty quiet and we managed to get down the mountain in 1 piece!
We had to get onto the highway to get to Pisa but instead of paying a toll like we do in Australia - in order to get on the highway you pull up at booths and get a ticket like you would for a shopping centre carpark and then when you want to exit the highway like we did at Pisa you then pay (depending on how far you've travelled i guess). So it cost us 6 euro to go about 45mins on the highway..not cheap. It was raining the whole way but wasnt too heavy, we arrived in Pisa and were trying to find the Leaning tower however had no idea where it was and had no map of the area to follow so we just drove around for a bit looking for some sort of signage or to see the tower sticking up, haha. Turns out this method didnt work and after a bit of driving around we decided to give it a miss as the streets were so busy we had no hope of getting a park anywhere anyway. We managed to get back onto the highway again and headed through the hillside of tuscany and found a restaurant to have some lunch on one of the hills.
The restaurant was not at all what we expected, it looked like it was in a converted green house as the main building had glass all the way around. At one end of the room was a big open fire, spit roast oven type thing where they cooked the food right in front of you, it was also nice and warm to sit in front of! It was here that I had my favourite Brushetta so far... for anyone that knows we well.. this is my all time favourite food and the mission of my whole trip was to eat as much of it as i could...
We headed south to the town of San Gimignano, on the way we couldnt get over how green and lush everything was, and how amazing the villas were perched on the hills with vineyards sprawled out down the hills. It was such as shame the weather was yucky and we couldnt get too many photos but can only imagine how spectacular the area would look on a sunny day if it looked this good in the rain!
We drove through San Gimignano as couldnt stop as there was NO parking anywhere.. it was very busy! and we still had to make our way back up to Florence. We managed to find our way into Florence easy enough however finding our hotel was another story! In a failed attempt to read the directions we'd been given by the hotel we resorted to a bit of 'driving around looking for any signs that might help' and after a keen eye from the navigator in spotting a sign for our hotel, dad had to channel his inner Italian driver and cross about 4 lanes of traffic to make the turnoff to the street and we made it to our hotel!
It was about 4pm by the time we checked in so set out to wander around Florence for a bit, we got in a couple of hours before needing umbrellas and wandered around Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore which is a huge cathedral which started construction in 1296 and is really amazing with all the detail that went into it. Across from this was the Battistero di San Giovanni which was build in the first half of the 12th century and one of the oldest buildings in the city.
Its really unfortunately we could only manage 1 night in Florence, definately need mroe time to explore but guess that gives me an excuse to come back! Tomorrow we driving to Venice where we leave the hire car and spend our last 2 nights in Italy before heading to France.
- comments
The Royals Bonjeurno!Don't know 'bout the spelling but how the devil are you????This is great loved the pics particularly the one of Julian Smoothwell!!!and the commentary what an amazing village Cinque Terre is and the walking track along the cliff face.Spoke to Vicki this morning she's OK and on countdown till you get home.Can't wait for the next "read" travel safe both of you....R & E
Rae Harris Hi Kelly & John, Love reading your travel blog and seeing your photos. Amazing. Kelly , I think you should be a travel editor. You will definately have the travel bug after this journey. Great that you are seeing so much and having a fabulous time. Rae & Colin Harris
mum Hi Hon & Kellie, the photos are great. You must be sick of walking by now. Enjoy yourselves. Love you both xxxx
Carla I was already jealous of the trip in general..... the mention of the best bruchetta is killing me.
SJM San Gimignano.......Im sooo jelous!