Can’t wait to go back

This will be my last post featuring my photos from Italy – engagement shoots are picking up which means weddings are just around the corner.

When I last left off, we’d just arrived in Rimini after having to sit through a morning-long strike in Venice, and arriving with only enough time to get to our hotel and get out for dinner. We got up on our last full day in Italy, had a feast of a breakfast, and set out to spend some time on the mostly uncrowded beach. Despite being kinda down that our trip was coming to a close, it was a nice way to unwind – not feeling like we had to take in any sights or attractions. Other than the sea itself of course.

Of course, Leah couldn’t resist being able to say that she’d dipped her feet in the Mediterranean sea and the Adriatic in one trip

It was a gorgeous, hot day and we spent quite a while just strolling along the beach. But the time eventually came that we had to say goodbye to Rimini and head back to Rome. It was a long train ride, and again, we got to Rome in the early evening – enough time to get to our last stay and head out for dinner one last time. I wasn’t leaving Rome though, without one last look at the Colosseum.

The next morning, we got to the airport and were on our way home. Thank God for movies on demand on the airplane – neither of us slept much on the way back. By the time we got to Philadelphia, we were ready for a good night’s sleep – except that our plane ended up being delayed by a couple of hours! We killed time as best we could, and had the pleasure of chatting with someone from the Ottawa Senators (no, not a player). Our plane finally came and when we landed in Ottawa, it turns out an acceptance letter for Grad school had come for Leah while we were away! Being awake for nearly 24 hours straight made her more dumbfounded than excited initially, but it sunk in after I read the letter to her a few more times

So that’s it. I can hardly believe it’s been more than a year since we’ve been there. The book I put together of all the photos is over 400 pages long, but I still find a way to look through it all from time to time. Italy was my first foray into Europe – and it certainly won’t be my last. Despite all the other places in Europe I’d like to go, I think I’d be sad not to come to Italy again.

So thanks for reading along, and taking a trip down memory lane with me. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed telling (and showing) it. Oh, and if there’s anyone out there reading this, getting married in Italy and in need of a good photographer… let’s talk.

mike

like we had so many other days, we got up, got our stuff together, had breakfast and set out for the train station – next stop: Rimini. We finally get to the train station and it turns out the train operators are on strike! But just for the morning…? I suppose that’s the silver lining, but seriously? A strike just for the morning?

What else could we do but drop our bags off and kill time around the city? Not a terrible thing to be stranded in Venice, really. But all we could really think about was our beach time whittling away. Of course we weren’t the only ones stranded.So around we wandered – eventually settling on killing the rest of the time in a cafe close to the train station, the morning a little bit wasted. The strike, along with the long train ride meant we wouldn’t be getting into Rimini until early evening. When we finally got there, we were pretty exhausted but the view of the beach and breeze coming off the Adriatic was glorious. Maybe we didn’t have the sand in our toes, but our balcony was the next best thing.

We set out to find dinner at a place recommended by our lonely planet guide, only to find that it wasn’t there. Where we ended up was probably just as good (if not better) though – and the plaza was jumping. It just so happened that they were putting on some kind of show celebrating arts and culture around the world and were putting on song and dance from different countries.

We stuck around to watch for a little while, and eventually made our way back to the hotel. Tomorrow would be our last full day in Italy

mike

exactly one year ago today, we were on a plane, heading back to Ottawa. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we were there – and kind of sad really, though I can’t really say precisely why. But I digress…

on our second day in Venice, we decided to head straight for St. Mark’s square to go up the bell tower to see Venice from above. Of course we stopped in a few places to take in a bit of the city while it was still waking up.…and even if this store were open, the belt that cost twice as much as our accommodations told us we wouldn’t have gone in anyway. Yeah – a belt. No – not exaggerating We finally got to St. Mark’s and got in line to go up the tower. No stairs this time, just an elevator and one breathtaking view.

We were up there for a bit, taking the view in. We noticed the gigantic bells in the same room and looked – curiously – at the time. 5 minutes to the hour. They wouldn’t ring them while all these people are up here would they? nahhhh…

boy was I wrong…

We went back down (a little harder of hearing), and spent some time in the piazza, dodging pigeons and also paid a visit to the Basilica. We spent most of the rest of the day exploring some of the other cathedrals and museums around Venice.

We went back to our place for some of the afternoon to take a much needed nap – all the walking and lugging around backpacks was taking its toll – just as we knew it would. We woke up to the sound of someone singing outside our open window (ahhh Italy…), and spent some time deciding where to go for dinner.

We ended up in a quiet restaurant close to where we were staying. I think the end of our trip was starting to sink in, so we took our time with the wine and the dessert. It was pleasant to not have so many people around for one of our last meals in Italy. A Parisian couple were the only others in the room with us, and they were too involved with eachother (and the decor) to be of any bother to us.

Tomorrow we’d be heading to Rimini, a resort town on the coast of the Adriatic where we planned on skipping the sights, and instead spend some time decompressing on the beach.

What do they say about the best laid plans?

mike

Despite having Venice as our next destination, leaving cinque terre was not something we wanted to do in any hurry. Naturally I took a few more photos from our balcony, hoping one last time to capture the feeling of being there.Now imagine our surprise (and disappointment) when, halfway to Venice, we realized that we’d somehow skipped a night of accommodations! Not only did that mean we could’ve stayed in cinque terre for one more night – we didn’t have a place to stay once we got to Venice!

Once we got there, we called the place we’d be staying at the next night to see if we could get in early – no luck – but she referred us to one other place she knew of, so Leah called right away. Figures – the woman on the other end of the phone only spoke italian! Full marks go to Leah though for sticking it out and figuring out where the place was, and that they did have a room free for a decent price (right before we ran out of change to feed the pay phone – thank you pocket translation book!). We finally got to the place but there was no one there, just a phone number and a map to the restaurant where they could be found.  sigh… long story short – most of our first day in Venice was spent waiting around with our bags for someone to come check us in. It turned out to be an amazing room, but all we really had time to do was walk around a bit and grab dinner, so I’m compressing two days of the trip into this one post.The next morning, we checked out and checked in to the place we were supposed to be staying in and headed out to explore. First stop: ponte Vecchio.and the many many jewelry shops lining the bridge, most featuring hand-made murano glass.

The gondolas – does anyone go to Venice without riding them? yeah – us. At 100 euros for less than an hour, we felt like we could skip it. What we didn’t spend on the ride, we spent on jewelry and gifts. Good trade off I’d say – Leah would agree.

We settled on seeing Venice from the grand canal by waterbus rather than gondola. We headed to St. Mark’s square where the pigeons are apparently as much of an attraction as anything that was built there.

We walked back and explored Venice quite thoroughly I have to say. We walked by a lot of the designer shops there and concluded that just about everything in Venice is expensive. We had dinner in a plaza lined with restaurants and walked around some more. Venice at night is quite a bustling place, and the view over the grand canal is so nice with all the lights reflecting off of the water.

mike

So – we’d visited the first two of the five villages of cinque terre and today we were setting out for the next two. The trails in between each village get progressively more difficult – knowing that, we set out on the last of the paved part and set out toward Corniglia. A look back at Manarola:and a look ahead to Corniglia. If you look off into the distance, notice how the village is on top of the cliff…

and so we walked, for about 35 minutes and got to the base of a staircase of sorts, and a sign. We had a choice: walk for 15 minutes, or take the free bus. “15 minutes?” we thought “how bad can it be?”382 steps later… Somehow we did it in 10 minutes, but it felt much much longer.  We took a short breather once we finally got to the top and took some time to explore Corniglia. We stopped for some sandwiches and spent some time at a lookout point, just admiring the view of the Mediterranean Sea. It was around 1pm and getting hot in a hurry when we decided to tackle the next part of the trail and head to Vernazza.Again, we knew this trail was going to be more difficult, but when we finally got to Vernazza, the path to Corniglia was like a walk in the park! Note the absence of a guard rail.It’s hard to appreciate just how steep a dropoff there is there. The views of the sea would make it worth it, and you never feel like you have to hang on for dear life, except maybe when you have to negotiate the path with people coming from the opposite direction. About an hour into the trail, there was something of a rest stop – a small cafe overlooking the sea. We stopped in for a snack and a much-needed drink. It was getting really hot and the breeze coming off the Sea and through this window was a welcome reprieve. And then we continued on – we twisted and turned, wove and wound, went up and down stairs and followed trails that were barely there, and another half hour later: Vernazza – finally within reach (and one of my favourite photos of the entire trip).We took our time here. Vernazza is a beautiful beautiful place. We explored around of course, but one of the things Leah was most looking forward to was getting a chance to take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea. So she did, and we got some ice cream and wrote our names in the sand, and spent some time sitting enjoying the sun and the breeze.Once the clouds started to roll in, we spent some more time looking around, paying a visit to the watchtower at the very tip of the village. We’d decided we weren’t going to tackle the last of the paths to the fifth village (apparently, the most difficult and least rewarding), but it was too early for dinner so we stopped in at a restaurant overlooking the sea for a cold drink.

We decided to take the ferry back, to be able to see where we’d been, and to see just how far we’d traveled by foot. Well worth the small cost – especially since it had started raining a bit. This is the view of Manarola from the ferry. And yes, it’s every bit as idyllic as it looks.

and back on solid ground.

Once we got back, we spent some time walking around Manarola a bit – poking around some of the small shops but we were both pretty exhausted. We headed back to our room for a short nap, and got up just in time to watch the sunset from our balcony. Of all the things we got to see in Italy, this is one of the things I miss the most.Dinner time. Being right on the mediterranean, I was on a mission to find some fresh seafood. We finished off the night at a small restaurant owned by the people who also happen to own the room we were staying in. I ordered up fresh crab linguine, followed by squid on a skewer with salad, topped off with a bottle of local white wine.  mmmm…

If there is a heaven, it’s probably in cinque terre. It was a long day, but we took our time leaving the restaurant and getting back up to our room – hoping to prolong the experience. Of course we were looking forward to the rest of the trip, but leaving such an amazing place is always disappointing. All the more so considering what we discovered on the way to Venice…

mike

We left Florence early in the morning and hopped on a train to Pisa. We only stayed for a few hours, and that would be all we would need. We dropped our bags off and walked through the city to the Piazza dei Miracoli to see the leaning tower. It was a bit strange, the city was fairly quiet and the streets relatively empty compared to Rome and Florence. The Piazza was bustling with people however.We stopped for lunch at a restaurant neaby and hopped back on the train to Cinque Terre. We got to Manarola, the second of the five lands – and had a bit of trouble finding where we were supposed to stay. We didnt get too alarmed, but our bags sure were getting heavy already. We finally got it figured out and got someone to walk us up to our room. The villages that make up Cinque Terre are all built into the side of the coast. That means the cities are more vertical than horizontal and so the uphill climb to our room (with our big backpacks on), seemed to take forever. When we finally got up to our cozy little room, the sweat was literally pouring off of us. We dropped our bags, opened up the doors to the balcony…and suddenly, the long hike up was totally totally worth it. We cleaned ourselves up, got changed and headed out to explore the city a bit. Everything seemed to move in slow motion here, there was no rushing around, no hustle and bustle. awesome. Being right on the Mediterranean, the restaurants in Cinque Terre all had lots of fresh seafood on the menu. We headed back to the first village, Riomaggiore to get dinner, but not before watching the sunset from the Via dell’Amore – the first (and easiest) part of the trails connecting each of the five villages.There are three ways to get between each of the five villages – train, ferry, or the trails. The trails between each of the villages takes about five hours to hike from end to end, each trail getting progressively more difficult to hike as you reach each city. The first part, the Via dell’Amore was relatively flat and paved. We’d spend the next day exploring the other villages of Cinque Terre, but we wouldn’t be getting on the train or the ferry…

mike

We got up early on our third and final day in Florence. We decided to hit the museums today and our first stop was the Uffizi, home of, among other things, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. On our way there, we crossed a deserted Ponte Vecchio.Despite getting up early, the line was ridiculously long. In the picture below, the entrance is near the far end of the photo, and we started on the opposite side…We’d been in line for about an hour — and looking at least that much to look forward to — when a guy randomly picked us out of the line and offered us two tickets which would let us skip the line and head right in. How much? Not a penny – he said he’d bought them for a couple of friends who couldn’t make it or something… we were pretty skeptical – naturally. There was no way we were gonna get out of line only to find the tickets were fake and then have to go right to the back. Leah went to go check them out with a security guard at the entrance and they turned out to be legit! We couldn’t believe it – what luck!

So we went ahead and got in – unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but we spent a good part of the morning there. We went out afterward to stroll around and search for lunch. Our next stop would be the Galleria dell’Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David. Another long wait in line, made worse by the scorching hot sun that had come out by then. We took turns standing in line and standing in the shade. Eventually, I let Leah stand in the shade and simply resorted to tucking a map into my hat to keep my face out of the sun. Getting into the (air-conditioned!) gallery and seeing David in all its glory made the wait worth it. No photos allowed in here either unfortunately…

After that, we head to the Boboli Gardens – a sprawling park situtated behind the Pitti Palace. We took our time here. The heat was really getting to us, and we meandered through the gardens up to a lookout point, and just sat for a while and enjoyed the view.

without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures of us:After wandering through the maze of the of the other half of the gardens, we explored the city some more, eventually settling down on one of the bridges to catch the sunset over the river.After that, we went out for a fantastic dinner at a restaurant called La Maremma (sp?). If you’re ever in Florence, you simply cannot leave without eating there first. The night was warm and pleasant so we took our time getting back home, visiting some of the markets and picking up a couple of souvenirs. I knew I’d be sorry to leave Florence. It’s still my favourite city in Italy – maybe anywhere – but nothing would prepare me for where we were going next…

mike

ps — I thought it’d be a bit disingenuous to post this without mentioning the earthquake in L’Aquila. Last I checked, the death toll was nearing 250, with many more injured, and many many more left homeless. My heart truly goes out to the people over there, and to everyone who has family or friends there.

8 lbs + 13 oz + 19 inches = 1 bundle of joy. Welcome baby Caleb!

Naturally, I got to the hospital camera in hand – but the photos are being password-protected for now – haven’t got mom and dad’s permission to show these publicly yet – but here’s one of his tiny hand

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password: