Italy (Part 2)

Family Reflections:

Waylon has Firenze/Florence on his list of places to study abroad and learn Italian! We're down to visit.
Best pizza/pinsa ever!
Waylon has also declared himself our family pasta maker. Sweet!
Florence has such a wonderful balance of art, nature, small town, big town, beautiful vibe. We wish we had a bit more time here.
Definitely climb the Tower of Pisa...a lot of fun.
La Spezia surprised us with its size and amazing food (not just seafood either, but we had the best Chinese food ever and found a bakery that I will not admit how many times we went to). We'd all go back in a heartbeat!
All of us had different favorite towns in Cinque Terre, but we agree that we loved hiking and exploring them all. We were happy to be there in the later season with cooler weather and fewer tourists.

Florence

Keeping it pretty PG, but the David really is beautiful to admire. The details Michelangelo sculpted with the veins and muscles...breathtaking.

Amari loved this sculpture above from the hall of sculptures, also in the Galleria dell'Accademia.

The Leonardo Interactive Museum was a hit with young and old. We love how the inventions come-to-life, and you get to play with them all!

I mean, you see these inventions in action and realize how many of them are still used today.

Leonardo (yes, we're on a first name basis) might be my number one person to have dinner with if I could. What a mind!

Brunelleschi's Dome (largest masonry dome ever) and Cathedral...really awesome to climb and such a feat, even by today's standards.

Giotto's Bell Tower, part of this complex, but we recommend climbing the dome. Pretty sweet though!

Going up! And once you're up in the top dome, you're literally climbing in between two masonry domes.

The frescoes on the inner dome are pretty crazy and damning...like literally on the hell level.

Angelic?

Up top...a tad windy, but gorgeous and worth the climb!

Really love how short all the buildings are, so the Tuscan hills and historic towers and domes dominate the landscape.

Really loved all the BRIDGES around Firenze, and since the River Alba is so shallow, only rowers are out on the water.

The famous Ponte Vecchio (bridge).

Piazzale Michelangelo

Don't know why, but I just love this photo of us walking the streets of Firenze!

Sunset bronze David at Piazzale Michelangelo...swoon!

Pasta making at a nearby villa...yup, delicious! And the free flowing drinks never hurt. 😂

I've always loved these paintings by Sandro Boticelli (La Primavera above and The Birth of Venus below). Not sure the kids loved them as much, but they appreciated them.

The Uffizi Gallery

The Tribuna of the Uffizi, one of, if not the most important room here. The four elements are represented in this octagonal walled room (the ceiling is made of mother of pearl).

Pisa

Our fun tribute to Pisa poses!

Climbing the Tower...it was closed for a decade when I was there to straighten it. Doing this was one of Waylon's bucket list items.

We didn't feel it as much climbing up, but coming down you can really feel the lean!

This is the "lean" machine they installed inside the tower. It's quite a drastic angle when you look up from the bottom. An engineering achivement to say the least.

La Spezia/Cinque Terre

Tons of boats at La Spezia Harbour! From little skippers to sailboats to fishing trallers to yachts (we saw about 20 massive yachts, but it's in a no photo zone). Needless to say, both kids picked the yacht they'd like to live on one day.

La Spezia is way bigger than I expected, but the charm and fab food did not disappoint. I thought it'd just be our gateway city to Cinque Terre, but we all actually really liked it...as long as you stay just a bit up in the hills for our pace of life. It's the off season, which brought us beautiful sunny days mixed with some rainy ones. Perfect for our wants!

And we're off to hike and enjoy Cinque Terre! The two easy paths between the first two towns were closed for restoration, so we started in the third town, Corniglia, on the intermediate hikes en route to Vernazza.

Corniglia (the middle town)

The hikes were about two hours between each town, with lots of ups and downs, trails, rock steps, canals, bridges...super fun terrain!

Every direction you look, especially out to sea, was just breathtaking! So hard not to take photos around every bend.

Vernazza (the 4th town from La Spezia)

Onward to the last town, Monterosso, the most difficult segment.

Walking through many terraced vineyards and olive groves.

Looking back at the first four towns.

Monterosso (the last town from La Spezia)

Monterosso is the "beach town" of Cinque Terre. We explored the pebbly beach and stopped for a much deserved late lunch.

Riomaggiore (the first town from La Spezia) has such a fun harbor into the town view with the shock of colors. We loved how the vibrancy pops against the cliffs.