tiny bites, big culture

Just saying a quick hello from Firenze (Florence)! We are in love with Italy and have been busy filling up on Florence art, wine, cheeses and culture.

Sitting at a cafe now, sipping caffelattes... Exhaustion is really starting to set in. We are bussing off to Greve, a small town in the Chianti wine region. Hoping to find some tasting rooms or bikes to rent to make our way around. Who knows, always an adventure!

Here's a quick peek at fabulous Firenze!

Little feet, an insane amount of steps

Venice to Cinque Terre: Midday departure found us on a train through the Italian countryside. We arrived in Riomaggiore (first of five cities) late Monday evening with the rain coming down and a huge hill to roll our suitcases up. At the top, we found Stefani waiting for us @ our locanda (small hotel). Stairs and some more stairs and a steep stair case brought us to our quaint room. Exhausted from the day's travels and suitcase carrying we walked to the mercato for some meats, cheese, bread and a bottle of the local vino rosso to bring up to the room. Eat & buono notte!

Tuesday was super rainy (yes, still) in Cinque Terre so the hiking trails were closed. We hopped on the local train to Monterosso. We took our teeny piedini about the wet streets and soaked (literally) in the town. Warmth was what we needed and the Enoteca was our answer! Chianti and green olive focaccia. Holy amazing!

After defrosting, we headed back to Riomaggiore for warm showers and the local cuisine - seafood. We felt more walking was necessary before dinner so instead, we took a left out of our hotel. Up, up, up we go to the most lovely view of the Ligurian Sea. And lucky for us it led right to Bar Vini. How did it know?? Our taste buds craved something new... so a glass of vermentino it was! Delightful.

Continuing on, it was time to indulge in Cinque Terre's stuffed mussels, swordfish linguine and seafood risotto...We had heard there was a reputation for this food: rightfully so!

After dinner fun brought us to Bar Centrale for a sipper schiaccetra - dessert wine (another local delight, thanks to Emily for the introduction). All the while, watching an Italian soccer game with the over the top friendly locals. Sleepy time.

Travel Day provided some fun. That means see as much as we can in a short time. Since we couldn't hike CT (due to rain, cuz our movin' feet would do it if allowed), we were determined to see as many of the 5 terre as possible. The morning train brought us to Vernazza. There we explored, enjoyed the view, bought a couple of souvenirs and ate some gelato - ricotta e fichi (fig) for Mack and bacio (chocolate hazelnut) for Belle. We hopped back on the train for Corniglia.

Hop, hop, hopped off that train. Literally a huge jump - hiked up about 400 stairs - enjoyed the view - chugged a limoncino like an Italian and ran down the stairs back to the train we needed to catch to Riomaggiore. Now a bit sweaty, checked out of our hotel and conveniently slipped back onto the train (without tickets, oopsy) to La Spezia where we had about 10 minutes to buy a ticket to Florence. Even the train transfer of 12 minutes in Pisa turned out to be maybe 3 minutes.

Broken backs, broken suitcases and some serious racing to the trains lead to a looooong moment of relaxation once we reached our Florence hotel (followed by a pizza and italian beer). Happy & excited to settle our piedini for 5 whole days, we've already begun to immerse ourselves in Florentine culture & food.

Ciao for now!

Belle & Mack

little city, big spending (oops!)

The last few days have been filled with waterfront views and moments of peace.

Monday morning we took a private water taxi from Venice to the island of Murano & dropped right into a private glassblowing demonstration. Murano is known for their hand-blown glass and we got a peek into how a "Master" glassblower creates his art. We kept wondering how we got so lucky to have this private tour, well... We figured it out quickly when we were walked into the factory's showroom. We each bought a little keepsake (it's a secret!) and walked around the town. Murano was small, full of gifts shops selling blown glass items and the cutest old men & women strolling about on Easter Monday. Loving seeing the men gathered together, rowing their gondolas, sharing morning caffes. The culture and traditions are rich here!

To be continued...must tell you all about Cinque Terre!

Little feet, big suitcases

" my feet hurt". It's been cold!! Haven't had a chance to be adorable in flats. Boots only!

Buona Pasqua! A few days ago, we started out our Easter morning with a traditional Italian breakfast: cappuccino, flakes, yogurt, cheese, ham and a bun. From there we walked and walked and walked to eventually find Piazza San Marco. Continued to walk (heehee) and walk and came across the cutest alley way. We partook in the Venetian norm of a midday aperitif and cicchetti (small tapa type foods). Every Venetian bacaro & corner "snack bar" advertise their Campari & Aperol "spritz." We've noticed Venetians walk into a bar, order & literally chug this pure liquor (mixed with a spritz of soda water), while it takes us Americans about an hour to drink. Don't worry, we're sure we'll get the hang of it soon.

After the rain stopped, so did our aperitif time. We ended up back at Piazza San Marco in line for the Piazzale Ducole. Here we learned a ridiculous amount of information about the Doge of Venice (still not sure what a doge is), self-electing governments and a huge fire of 1577. We DID see the world's largest canvas painting, Il Paradisio, and some amazing 15th & 16th century architecture. Gold specks everywhere, except the dingy prisons (not somewhere we'd want to be when Venice floods!) We popped out of the Doge's palace & realized the entrance for St. Mark's Basilica was right around the corner & free!!!! We eagerly hopped in line to find out the Basilica itself was closed due to Easter weekend.

The sun was out now, so we tried to " get lost" in the alleys and ended up right back near our hotel with a Spritz in hand (internal compasses??), sitting at the Grand Canal with the Ponte Rialto in sight. Yes... It really was that perfect.

Tired as heck & suddenly very cold, we found a nice pasta dinner and went to bed. Yesterday's journey is a whole other story. We'll spare you the details... Until we write up that post.

We are now in Riomaggiore & enjoying a pre-dinner spritz. Campari & soda. A seafood dinner is in the very near future.

Ciao for now!

Time to take our feet to dinner,
Belle & Mack

Tiny feet, wet adventures: Day 1 Venezia

After a very long 20 hour travel day, our toes have arrived in Venice... And they are wet! We are determined to see as much of the city as possible. Umbrellas, wet pants, unprepared shoes (hence the wet feet)... This place, in a word, is:
Mystical (belle)
Surreal (mack)

Some of the top 5 moments thus far:

1) New York to Madrid: Little Feet so swollen that we couldn't put our cankles back in our boots. Fits of laughter & pain.

2) Starting our Saturday sipping capps & watching the sunrise in Madrid's airport when our "Friday" had never even ended.

3) JT intermission over the Atlantic Ocean at some odd hour of the night, while the rest of the flight slept. Guess they weren't as excited as us?

4) We made it !!!!!! And Belle threw up.....

5) Ordering a "bottle of vino" that came in a 1 liter jug!

But nothing beats the first glimpse of Venezia. Magico!

Time to rest the feet,
Belle & Mack