Gelato

Us in front of the Ponte Vecchio

The food in the Cinque Terre is good, but not exactly healthy. For breakfast you can have nothing, or fried bread or buttery pastry. For lunch, you can have serious pasta at a restaurant and take a bunch of time, or you can choose greasy focaccia pizza at one of the 10 places that sells focaccia pizza. For dinner you have more pizza, or pasta at a serious restaurant. When you set you down here for dinner, they usually expect you to have a three course meal and stay for 2-3 hours. Tough on your waist line and attention span (since it takes both of us about 5 minutes to eat our meal. The grocery stores in the Cinque Terre were small and had mostly fruits and vegetables and meat. Tough to eat dinner without cooking. Anyway, don't worry, no one starved. Quite the opposite.
Our second night in Vernazza, a storm hit the town. It really was only light rain, but the sea became really unsettled. Here it is a big deal because the Mediterranean Sea is always so calm, but it really just looks like the Atlantic or the Pacific on a normal day. All of the boats came out of the water, and no one could go swim. We lounged around our room until about 9 the next morning. We checked out and had our suitcases, but we didn't want to go to Florence until later in the day, so we took the train to the next town and sat along the cliffs above the ocean with our luggage and read for a few hours. It was wonderful. We had a picnic there with the only kind of bread in town (that wasn't fried), our portable mustard in a tube, tomatoes and peppers. We also got some strawberries that were maybe the best I had ever tasted.
One of the coolest things about the Cinque Terre is that although the mountains are very steep, there is a ton of farming on terraces. Along with the heat and some squatting toilets, it makes Janna think she is vacationing in Mexico rather than Italy. But the farming is something to see. Lots of grape vines.
Well, we finally arrived in Florence. Our hotel is within sight of the Duomo. We still aren't sure how exactly how to pronounce it, so we usually just say it really fast. Our room is on the second floor. That should be one flight of stairs, right? Nope, you walk into floor zero. Take a flight of stairs to floor 1, then another flight of stairs to floor 2. Anyway, it is cute and nice. (and there is a tiny fridge)
Gelato is officially our obsession. It started off innocent enough. In Prague, it was everywhere, and it was only 20 Crowns (about $1) The scoops were small, so it wasn't too much dessert. In Croatia, it was about 5 Kuna, (again, $1) but the scoops suddenly got larger. In Hungary, it was usually less than a dollar, and still really good. Each region had its specialties, and it was like art. We started eating it several times a day. Then we arrived in Italy (The Mecca of Gelato) Unfortunately, here Gelato is about 2 Euro (About $3) for a tiny cone of joy. Venice and the Cinqe Terre both had decent gelato, but it is an experience in Florence (according to Rick Steves). Basically we have followed Rick's advice throughout all our trip and tried the places that he thought was best. It has gotten to the point that we have six gelato places we need to hit in Florence. We have planned our site seeing so that we can hit all of them at peak eating times. (Like after breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, after lunch, ect.) Today we went up by the Accademia where there is a famous statue. You might have heard of it. It is called “David” and it is by some dude name Michaelangelo. There are basically miniatures of it all over the city. So, it was almost napping time, and we could only fit in David or one of the “big six” gelatarias. Apricot and Chocolate(2 euros). Priceless.
So, if you are keeping track, Gelato in Italy is amazing. Toilets in Italy are disgusting. When you can find them, you must have small change to be able to use them. Don't expect them to make change from a 5. Also, toilet seats are a luxury, reserved for the best hotels. Count yourself lucky if you get to to the bathroom in a toilet that is just missing the seat. Many “toilets” here (they call them toilets, we actually wouldn't use those words to describe them.) here are just a private hole in the ground. No toilet paper, no soap. Restaurants and stores are usually OK. If there is an emergency, buy some water, and then as you are leaving, casually ask if they have a bathroom.
I think we have been a bit surprised about how much nicer things are in Eastern Europe. They are so clean, and modern and the people there are so friendly. There are many shops in Italy where there are signs in clothing stores that tell you not to touch the clothes. That makes it tricky to shop, eha?
Last night we had dinner in a nice little restaurant. Today we enjoyed our granola with peanut butter in our room. We walked to a hill that overlooks the city, and wandered through some piazzas and markets. Florence has brought out the shoppers in us. We bought a bunch of department store clothes for school. We have been really startled at how feminine all the men's clothing is here. It is a lot of pink and purple (dark and light) , short shorts, tight and fitted shirts. Most guys we know would not be caught dead in a hot pink striped, button down, tailored shirt.
Luckily that storm that hit broke the heat and humidity. It is hot here, but actually really pleasant and nice compared to Venice (Maybe 85). Neither one of us loved Venice, but it was probably partially due to the extreme heat and humidity there. Florence has a really nice down town with lots to see and lot of pedestrians. Cars are really scarce on the streets, and often you forget they are streets because people wander everywhere. It is not at all like US cities. Florence seems like a much smaller city than it really is. It has been a nice break before we get to Rome.