All roads lead to Rome...and Florence

TWe couldn't pass by a second chance at Italian pizza, pasta, and gelato. Italia a second time is as wonderful as the first :)

We started in Rome, staying with Angiola again. She has an awesome bed and breakfast! We hit the classic sights again as well as discovered some new treasures.

Hanging out by Castel St Angelo listening to street music and watching the sun go down

We also stumbled upon some rare finds. A food lovers dream. 

Eataly.

Fresh produce, meats, cheese, pasta, anything! There are also restaurants, pastry stands...the possibilities were endless. 

We bought some pasta to bring home! One is chili garlic and the other is curry infused...mmmmmm 

Gnocchi with Parmesan crema

Only the best dessert in all the world. Pistachio almond white chocolate heaven. Didn't catch the name in Italian...

We also found a big outdoor market that was more of a farmers market with some cheap local eats.  I highly recommend it!

The food we liked here was a meatball sandwich...although the "meatballs" were much better I think that anything you'd find at Subway. No offense Subway fans. Italians also know the value of good bread. 

We added in a nice historical sight by visiting the non-Catholic cemetery in Rome. Home if Keats' grave

From Rome we stopped at Orvieto, an Umbrian hill town. Gorgeous. 

Took the funicular up to the top!

And what a view!

The streets were timeless. The town also had caves underneath and the one we explored had a "presepe" inside, or a nativity. Common in all Italian Catholic churches during christmas time.

We spent the day exploring this adorable town and then moved on to Florence! 

No seats so we were banned to the hallway. Ha!

In Florence we stayed with the Evertsens! An awesome American family that we stayed with last time. 

We just wanted to explore Florence more, take in more Tuscan goodness.

Ponte Vecchio

At our favorite indoor market, Mercato Centrale. 

$330,000 truffle... 

And our new foodie find in Firenze:

Trattoria Mario!

The one and only! Apparently you definitely want a reservation here...it was slammed. But somehow Harmon and I got a seat! We also shared a table with two Italian ladies, but that's common at Mario's. Squeeze as many people in as possible! It's a small space too, but the food is traditional and delicious! 

I got ravioli and Harmon got a steak that might have still been moo-ing. It's Florentine style... And yet so delicious! 

We also spent New Years with the Evertsens. We were able to watch the fireworks from a park on a hill overlooking Florence. Fireworks were lit off from the piazzas in the city, not to mention the surrounding area. Everywhere we looked there were fireworks. We even got to send away floating lanterns! Mine and Harmon's didn't make it past the dog park. Harmon hopes this isn't indicative of 2016 for us...

The goof. Life's too short to stop being silly.

Waterways of Venice

After visiting Cinque Terre we took a train to Florence, and from there we got to take a high speed train to Venice, the trains travel at over 120mph, some even up to 200mph. We enjoyed getting to Venice quickly, but the train was busy and we didn't even get to sit by each other, so this far we have not been too big of fans of the more expensive high speed trains.

Brooke found a last minute campsite for us online. She did a great job of tracking down an excellent deal! This small cabin cost about €23 and it was all ours. If only every city had such accommodations. The campsite was camping realto an we encourage anyone wanting to go to Venice to stay there. There is a bus stop right outside the campground and a great grocery store a few hundred yards away.

Our first look at the waterways if Venice. It is a beautiful city that causes one to think how the town was built on to, with streets seeming to pop up anywhere, and go everywhere. 

Another shot taken down a Venice waterway. It is a place that we love and we found lots to do as we wandered the streets.

Here are some of the famous Gondoliers of Venice. Brooke and I opted out of the ride as it cost around €100 euro. That is just about equal to two full days budgets, that would be gone in about 30 minutes. Still it was fun to see them and their expertise in controlling the small boats. I was very impressed with the way they were able to park them with ease in big rows of other gondolas.

Another "street" shot of Venice. Sorry there are a few of them, but hey it's Venice, it is what the town is known for.

This is the famous Realto foot bridge in Venice we walked across it, but found it hard to get a good picture. As a side not right at the edge this bridge was the Hard Rock Cafe Venice T-shirt shop. We didn't  buy one as that is really of no interest to us.

Here we are in the hustle and bustle of the town square. There were people everywhere, feeding pigeons, snapping pictures, and selling Venice souvenirs. It was fun to be amidst the vibrant square and feel the city's energy.

Brooke and I ended our stay in Venice (and Italy for that matter) by eating at one more authentic Italian Restaurant . I got a sausage and honey mushroom pizza coated with bubbly asiago cheese. It was by far our best Pizza of the trip. Brooke ordered the Chet's specialty: homemade "tortelloni" not tortellini. It was stuffed with spinach, asparagus, prosciutto and bacon, all coated with an amazing creamy homemade sauce. We voted and  the results showed this was our overall favorite meal in Italy. Italy was wondrous, the food was great, and we had more gelato in the past 10 days then we have had in our life previous! We will be back.

Cinque Terre, the not-so-unknown treasure

Following adventures in Tuscany and Umbria, we are on to Cinque Terre! Not without a quick stop in Pisa!!

Pisa is a lovely city! Well ok we don't actually know that, seeing as how we ran from the train station to the tower and back....

A road trip isn't complete without our new favorite foreign snack:

Red pepper lime chips. Heavenly chips.

Cinque Terre. Five cities built into cliffs and mountainsides of the Northern Italian coastline were really unknown to the greater world for hundreds of years, discovered and invaded within the last 30 years or so. There is a train that connects all 5 towns, with roads reaching the outskirts of some , but only coming into the center of one.

But it was so beautiful, with coastal paths between each cute city!!! Three paths were closed down, and Harmon and I added to our adventure by hiking one of them!! 

RIOMAGGIORE

Caught in a huuuuge thunder storm down at the sea. Of course we chose a poor moment to explore, and forgot our rain jackets that day! Cats, dogs, bears, whales, and megalodons came raining down on us. 

MANAROLA

Delicious lime granita found here... 

CORNIGLIA

Hiked into this town. Harmon and I agree that this is our favorite town environment. Quaint stores filled with local Italians. Small, narrow streets with flowers blooming all around. Terraced gardens and agricultural developments all surrounding the town. Also has delicious gelato that was Rick Steve's approved! We also tried pesto pizza here... Interesting.

VERNAZZA

Castle overlooking this city. Pirate bar. What more do you need?

MONTEROSSO

Beautiful, long beach with a great night life! Not that we really partake of such things.

Further stories include:

Harmon and I on our first night in Cinque Terre, spending time on the beach and wandering around the streets, cemetery, and castle ruins in Monterosso

Cinque Terre is famous for its pesto! So we decided to have it with basically every meal. Favorite: pesto bruschetta

We had pesto pasta twice!

Harmon got a friend at dinner. 

The Italian Hill Town Assisi!

With another day in Florence we decided to head out for a day trip to the nearby town Assisi. Assisi is a beautiful town set in a hillside, south of Tuscany. It is home to Saint Francis, and with that ornate churches are found in its vicinity. One of our personal favorite features was a castle nestled at the highest point in town. Below is a picture of one of the cathedrals, found outside and in, are many references to Saint Frances.

Getting to the town and seeing the castle for the first time. We had to walk a little ways to get there, but a bus does get you pretty close. 

We stop as often as possible at local grocery stores, and load up on a few things to carry us throughout the day. We  often will get chocolate or ice cream from the local region. One of our all time favorite food supplies is fruit! As you can see in this picture we decided to take a watermelon break half way up to the castle! We did have two of the cool spoon/fork/knife combo utensils, but Harmon broke one during this very Watermelon break,so now we share.

This is atop the castle, along the wall to the watch tower.  The castle is very well preserved and has a lot of rooms you can walk through as well as a very long, and narrow, spiral staircase. 

This is a picture taken from underneath the wall to te watch tower. You can walk through the wall to get to the watch tower. All along the walls are holes that are just wide enough to launch arrows from a crossbow at oncoming foes. The walkway was very narrow as we walked through the hallway, Harmon's shoulders would just barey miss the walls. We couldn't imagine what it must be like sprinting down the hallway while wearing full armor. 

Here is a view from te watch tower back towards the castle.

This is the opposite view from the watch tower away from the castle. The surrounding area is beautiful farms, rolling green hillsides and a beautiful small town with cobblestone streets and narrow walkways.

Here is the best view of all of Italy, that's because it is of my beautiful wife, of course. I could never ask for a better travel partner! I am so happy she is my wife and I love her so much. She keeps me smiling all the time!  I know it is hard not to just gander on the beauty of my wife, but this picture also shows the small  cute streets of Assisi. 

We loved Assisi and we even noticed a few small spaces for sale. Ahhh, if only it was easier to get to Italy. One thing we discovered on this trip was how much we liked having a central place to stay and taking day trips to other close by areas.