Italy - Pisa & Rome

Pisa was a one trick pony. Lots of history but not much to see. We were glad we only had one night there because I don't know what you would do for two!

Rome on the other hand... way too much to see and do! We arrived yesterday around 2:30pm, found our B&B and then took the 10 minute walk to the Colosseum. It was spectacular and amazing that it's still standing after many major earthquakes, floods, looting and a couple thousand years.

 Just as we were being shooed to the exit the sun was setting and the light was perfect so we snuck in as many photos as we could.

After wandering for a few hours we found a place for dinner. This pasta was fabulous but everytime I've ordered seafood on this trip it's come to the table with eyeballs. It kind of kills the ambience when I have to cut the head off my fish before digging in. Or perhaps the fact that I was wearing the same hoody I've worn everyday for the past 30 days already killed the ambience? Hard to say. Actually, once the legs and eyes were removed, it was very nice to sit outside and watch the people and motorcycles go by. It's fairly hard to completely kill the ambience when you're in Rome.

Jason had his favorite - lasagna. He said it was lacking in presentation but not flavor. For dessert, we stopped for gelato.

Every second shop in Rome has gelato. It's pretty hot here (don't know the day time temperature but around +18 in the evening) so it's a welcomed treat.

Today our first stop was the Trevi Fountain where we threw our coins in to ensure another visit to Rome.

After that we checked out the Paletino and the Roman Forum ruins. Jason wanted to know who has the job of mowing this lawn and if it really pisses them off hitting rocks all the time.

This was followed by a gelato because it was HOT out! We walked for quite some time in search of a bike store only to find it was closed on Sundays. We had pizza for lunch and saved the leftovers for dinner. This was complimented by beer (Peroni) and pringles. We are feeling slightly exhausted at this point of the trip and thoughts of home and Honey are starting to creep back in. Tomorrow is our last full day in Rome and we have no plans at this point. I predict a whole lot of walking + gelato.

Italy

The Cinque Terre National Park:

This is where we have been the past few days. On our first day we purchased a Cinque Terre pass which got us unlimited train travel between Levanto & La Spezia and access to the park and all the trails. In the morning we said goodbye to our little bed and breakfast in Levanto...

 ... and headed straight for the last town which is Riomaggiore. Since we had no where to stay, we hiked with our backpacks from Riomaggiore to Corniglia. It started out cloudy and mild but by the end of it we were soaked in sweat. Here we are, only mildly sweaty, in front of the picturesque Riomaggiore:

We ended up finding a room above this restaurant in Cornigllia to spend our 3 nights in:

Also, a tasty tidbit, to get to this particular town you have to walk up 382 stairs from the train station. Our host was a nice guy who gave us a cheap room, free limoncello and home cooking compliments of his mom. The town itself was very quiet and it seemed like everything shut down at 8pm. It was a real taste of what it's like living in small town Italy. Here's what Jason would drive if we did live in small town Italy:

 The second day we hiked from Cornigllia to Vernazza which took about an hour and a half. The sun was out in full force and Jason got his classic "red neck" sunburn.

 We stopped for 16 euro sunscreen, gelato and foccacia pizza which is a specialty of the region.

Due to intense sweat saturation of our clothing, we took a train to Monterosso and sat on the beach. Jason was on his 6th scoop of gelato for the day at this point I think. He worked it off by climbing this rock:

The next day we spent wandering around in La Spezia. Nothing major to report here but it was a nice break from hiking mountainous trails.

We are in Pisa now and listening to a band playing in the Piazza right outside our hostel. Heading off to Rome in the morning on our very last train ride!

Ciao