ITALY!! :)

After Albania we spent a week in Italy. We had gone backpacking in Europe for two weeks together in 2007 and when we were planning on where we wanted to go, we wanted to hit some places we'd never been and go back to some places we wanted to spend more time in. We got a hard time from some that we were going to be gone for a whole month, and it really was a long time to be gone. But I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to go away with my husband, not for work (though I thank the federal govt. for sending us to lots of great places), for an entire month. It made our marriage stronger and I enjoyed every second of it.

Straight from Albania we went to Venice. We really enjoyed Albania, but there was so much traffic and pollution. It was so incredible to go to Venice straight away. Venice is like no other place, it is eerily quiet because there is no street traffic except for walkers. And the only transportation is by foot or boat. And we love the food and drink and culture of Italy so much, it was just relaxing to be there.


In St. Mark's Square, the cafes on all sides of the square that have been there for hundreds of years, have dueling orchestras. So we got a coffee and listened to fabulous music echoing around the ancient walls of the square.

One of the Venetian islands, Murano, is famous for it's hand-blown glass. This is a haybale (for you Mom:)) made out of little pieces of glass.
YUMMM GELATO! We got at least one gelato a day, how can you be sad when you have gelato every day?
We totally don't have $120 Euro to hire a gondola for an hour, but couldn't miss riding one. So we got on a traghetto ($2 Euro), which is basically a gondola that takes you across the Grand Canal. We met a gondolier that was an Italian that met his American wife while she was on holiday in Venice, they are now married, living in Venice and just had a baby. Now that's Amore!
Aaaahhh Venice...
Rialto Bridge

After Venice we trained to the Cinque Terra (Five Lands), which is just north of Florence on the Meditteranean. The Cinque Terra is made up of five towns on five different cliffs hanging over the Sea. Up until about 50 years ago, there was no road that connected the five towns. But now they are connected by a road, but more famously a trail that is cut into the cliffs on the sea. It is unequivocally the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my entire life. One of the days we were there we took a boat to the furthest town and hiked to each town. At every turn, we gasped because the views were amazing. And there were low spots on the trail all day that we just dropped our shorts (we had bathing suits on underneath...) and went for a swim in the Sea. It was perfect temperature, super deep, super clear (you could see to the bottom) and so salty you could float with almost no effort. It was the most romantic place we'd ever been to and a perfect way to celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss. :)
My hair was super poofy while we were there, pardon the frizz...
On the trail between towns
In between 2 of the towns, the trail was not for the faint of heart. Though it was doable for 2 late 20 year olds in moderate shape, there were parts that were super high and the only thing keeping you from cliff diving into the sea was a rail...
The trail from two of the towns is called Via Dell Amore (Lovers Walk), named for the relationships discovered and committed on this trail between towns. Finally people had a way of meeting and interacting with the townspeople from next door. So tradition started that at the place where you meet, you graffiti your love on the walls and symbolize your everlasting love with attaching a lock to plants, nets, whatever you can find.
Locks on the Via Dell Amore
One of our stops for a swim
Brian eating squid on the trail, a delicacy there on the coast of Italy, though I'm not a fish eater, even I ate some squid, though it was frita (fried)!
View of Vernazza on our way home on the hike. We stayed in Vernazza and if you look closely towards the water, the tower sticking up out of the cliff is right above where our hotel was, built into the cliff/city wall.
This is the view from our balcony off our room. It was literally cut out of the cliff and looking down, you can just see the moon reflecting off the crashing waves and water. So amazing.
Us looking out over Vernazza from the church and cemetary
Out for a swim in Vernazza, there was a beach and sunning rocks, we chose a rock and had a great view of all of the young families and old men in speedos. In truth though, it was still not nearly as crowded as other places we'd been. So it was still relaxing and peaceful.
Dinner our last night at sunset

After we sadly left the Cinque Terra, we headed to Florence for shopping. FYI the best shopping is in Florence, the markets are great and you can haggle with most everyone because the booths mostly carry the same merchandise!
Us in front of the Duomo in Florence