Today was a welcomed relief after yesterday a.k.a. The Day of Exhaustion. We woke up bright and early, enjoyed coffee on our final day of the terrace, then headed outward on the windiest road I’ve been on in my life. Here’s a screenshot of Apple Maps to prove it!

We had a 2 1/2 hour drive to Florence ahead of us, but had to kill some time before we could check in with our AirBnB, so we made a pit stop at Lucca. Before today, I had never heard of it. But Amanda and I really loved it’s charm! Not to mention the fact that we stumbled into the only vegan restaurant in town (!), Nanda’s, and had a great lunch.

By early afternoon we were on our way to Florence. The driving has been smooth sailing so I’m definitely glad we went the way of the rental car rather than bus or train. Actually — the driving was smooth until we got into Florence! Trying to navigate signs in another language while also not totally getting the driving culture is already a challenge in itself, but add in the fact that we have to avoid driving in certain areas of the city (a common thing across Italy, picture shown) to avoid massive fines makes our driving anxiety a bit worse. 🙂

That said, we eventually made it to our AirBnB, enjoyed a night strolling around the city, enjoying some vegan food and getting some dessert. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants we wanted to go to are closed for summer holidays (?!), but we did find a decent place called Trattoria Ezo & Piero Firenze. We had some excellent pasta with seitan, roasted vegetables, white beans, and of course bread with olive oil. Then for dessert, we decided to go All-American and All-Ironic and go to “1950 American Diner” for some vegan apple pie. The pie sucked, but the atmosphere was hilarious, especially noticing where they went wrong with the American “nostalgia,” like the “no U-turn” sign pinned to the wall that’s hung on sideways!

We’re excited to explore more of Florence tomorrow!

Also, we found this street sign art to be hilarious.

Today was something! Had a little bit of everything and the night’s just finally over, 17 hours after it started.

We started out with coffee and breakfast on our terrace overlooking Corniglia. That’s the way every person should start the day should they be lucky enough to experience it. The Italian coast is gorgeous.

After breakfast we started our journey — and yes, it was definitely a journey.

We’re staying in Corniglia, town #3 of 5 towns along the coast that make up “Cinque Terre,” all connected by train. We had intended on hiking between all five, but the trail has been permanently closed between towns #1 and #3. So we decided to explore all five towns a different way.

In the morning, we walked to the train station (down about 30 flights of stairs on the side of a hill) and got on a train to the first town, Riomaggiore. It. Was. STUNNING. Around every corner was an explosion of uniqueness only the Tuscan coast could offer. Bright colors, quaint charm, and a constant state of awe. That’s Riomaggiore in a nutshell. We could’ve stayed here all day.

We had wanted to go to the only all-vegan place in Cinque Terre, but they didn’t open til pretty late so we snacked on some fresh fruit and nuts then hit the road. And by “hit the road” I mean hit the train tracks. Back on the train! This time all the way to town #5 to start our hike from there to our home base of Corniglia.

We explored the town for about an hour, then started our hike. And wow was it a hike! It was basically a stair stepper up the side of a mountain with a steep cliff jetting down to the Mediterranean Sea. Epic and beautiful and kinda scary all at the same time. They said the hike to town #4, Vernazza, would take two hours, but it only took us about an hour. But that was one hell of an hour.

When we arrived in Vernazza, we explored the town for a bit, including finding a good salad and sandwich at a place called The Lunch Box. Afterward, we checked out some people free-diving off cliffs then started Part II of epic hike time.

The hike from town #4 to town #3 was a tad bit easier. Again, they said it would take two hours, but it took us about 55 minutes. We wish you could experience this — the scenery was something you can barely imagine. As you look down to your right, you see nothing but green mountain then hundreds of feet down just the most beautiful blue, crystal clear water you could ever imagine for as far as the eye could see.

When we made it back to our home base, we decided to go for a swim. The walk there turned into a journey itself as we had to find hidden passages down a rickety homemade ladder leading to a beach. The beach was all big rocks though, jetting out into the incoming waves. In a stupid move rooted in being overly excited about swimming in the sea again, I hopped onto a rock, slipped, and landed on my arm. Damage was minimal though, just some scrapes. I got lucky. Amanda and I headed down the beach to a pebble beach, much more swimmable. We both got in the water and headed home to get ready for the last night of our epic time in Cinque Terre.

We changed and I took Amanda out for a little belated birthday celebration. We went to Monterosso, town #2, the only town we hadn’t yet made it to. It was pretty! By the time we got there, it was twilight so it was a little harder to see, but we liked the town. We got dinner at the most epic restaurant we’ve ever been to as far as views go. It was alongside a hill, all outdoor seating, directly across from a beautiful array of the famous Cinque Terre homes. Not to mention the sea right in front of us. Dinner was good, then we headed back to Corniglia, got some drinks, enjoyed the terrace, and called it a night. After 35,000 steps, around 14 miles walked, and up 240 flights of stairs, it’s time for sleep!

Tomorrow: Florence!

Day 2 in Italy started off a little late but we figured we deserved to sleep in a bit after skipping on sleep last night. Before venturing out for the day, we needed coffee (obviously). So, we ran into our first trial of the trip-how to make Italian coffee. After a few solid, un-caffeinated, attempts from me (Amanda), I gave up all hope so John came to the rescue and luckily, he figured out how to make Italian coffee.

After caffeinating, we wandered over to Vitamins 24 for some light grub-delicious juices, a beetroot burger, and a vegetable pie (yes, pie!) with some salad. We went back to the Airbnb, said goodbye to Carbonella the cat, and headed off to Saturnia.

The 2-hour drive to Saturnia was beautiful and easy until we got to the windy roads just before we reached the thermal baths. But we went through some really cute towns along the way.

The free thermal baths were BEAUTIFUL! Words and pictures don’t really do it justice but here are some pics anyways:

Once we were sufficiently pruney, we left for our 3.5-hour drive to Corniglia. Along the way we drove through amazingly cute towns and stopped in one to grab some sandwiches and pastries to go from Essenza. And, we got stopped by some sheep.

The last hour of the drive was pretty intense. I’m not really sure how to describe it but it was pitch black and just about every minute we had to take a 180-degree turn. But, we made it to our Airbnb! Our hostess was really accommodating and gave us tons of tips (mostly in Italian) so that we can make sure our hike tomorrow is amazing. We’re currently sitting on our seaside terrace eating gelato, writing this blog, and getting excited about tomorrow’s hike.

Day 1 of Italy trip 2019

Today was long. And technically, today started yesterday. John and I have both been awake now for 32 hours with only a short one-hour nap on the 9 hour flight. But, outside of our delusional sleep deprived state, we have no complaints. 🙂

The trip started off on a good foot when we successfully tracked down vegan pizza at & Pizza in the airport before take off. We had a nice, roomy flight with free vodka for two (but really just for Amanda), and a complimentary vegan meal on the flight that was actually quite delicious.

After getting our rental car we were off to experience driving in Italy for the first time and boy was it fun. We pulled over multiple times to quadruple check that we were on the correct roads and that we weren’t going to accidentally get a ticket for entering the ZTL.

We eventually made it safely to our first AirBnb where our host greeted us with her cat, turtle, chickens, and Italian coffee. After chatting with her for a bit, we headed out to Rome, taking a short metro ride to the city center. First up, the Colosseum.

It was HOT but we walked around for a few hours to check out some of the popular tourist attractions including the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. And we may or may not have taken coins out of the fountain to make a wish.

There were only a few things that saved us from the heat-the running water fountains that we happened upon throughout the city, and the huge cup of fresh watermelon we bought that brought us a special pigeon friend, Roman. We fed him a few watermelon seeds and he quickly decided that it would be best if he sat on us to encourage us to give him more treats. Friendliest pigeon ever.

We also saw these things:

After seeing some beautiful sites, we headed to a spot called Romeow Cat Bistrot where we enjoyed some fresh juice in the company of some friendly felines. Then, we grabbed some dinner at 100% Bio. They had a super fun assortment of vegan dishes and you could have as much or little of each as you wanted And, of course we needed some gelato to finish off the night so we went to Gelateria Brivido where they had an amazing selection of vegan gelato. John had a peanut butter flavor and a Nutella flavor topped with whipped topping and I had a chocolate flavor and a coffee flavor.

And finally, it was time to head home. We figured out the public bus situation somehow and came home for the night-on the most crowded bus in the whole world. Now it’s off to sleep to rest up for another day ahead in Italy.