#SOPASTRIKE

I couldn't figure out how to black out this website (also I don't have the time to learn right now), but I felt that I needed to post something in support of the protests going on today.

PLEASE take a moment if you haven't already to educate yourself about these bills. The way they're currently written would essentially end the Internet as we know (and love) it.

Here's a video that gives a fairly clear explanation of PIPA & SOPA:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Read about why Wikipedia went black today, check out Reddit.com, go to this site to see what you can do to help, and be sure to click on the top image (or just go here) and sign the petition for our Congress members!

I try really hard to make sure to give credit when I use something on this site - I link photos to the websites I got them from, I link information, I link quotes and videos. But, see all those sites I just linked to? If SOPA were in effect, my site could be "blacklisted" from the Internet if any of the sites linked above had a link on them that infringed copyrights! Please take action if you find that as outrageous as I do!

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

A few weekends ago, BF and I were bumming around the house and randomly decided to drive up to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

I know, so spontaneous!

It was already 4:30pm on a Saturday, so we hurriedly packed overnight bags, grabbed Emma's bed, and got on the road. We were on the road by 5pm, and on the way up we found & booked a dog friendly motel by the entrance of Sequoia National Park (Buckeye Tree Lodge Trip Advisor review) - and we had such a nice stay!

The conversation with the woman on the phone was rather hilarious.

Woman: So when will you be arriving?
Me: We're driving up from Los Angeles now, so it'll probably be between 9pm and 10pm.
Woman: Ok, well reception closes at 9pm, so I'll go ahead and leave your key on the cork board. And the owners live right on the property, so if a bear gets your key or something, just ring the bell.
Me: I'm sorry, what? "If a bear gets our key?"

Anyway, we had an very chill drive, ate dinner at a truck stop right after the Grapevine, arrived at the hotel around 10pm, and retrieved the key, bear free. It took Emma a while to settle down in the room - it usually does in a new place - but we passed out right away.

The next morning, we went outside to the amazing views of the river RIGHT behind our room. I want to go back to this place and stay there again, because there was so much to discover/explore, and the area behind the hotel was so peaceful! Each room had a patio that begged to be used for a leisurely cup of tea.

The river was steps away from the hotel and had tons of rocks to climb around on.

We checked out early, eager to get into the park and see some giant trees. Entrance to the parks is $20/car, but you can get a year long pass for $30. We definitely want to come back up again in the spring, so we got the yearly pass. It's good through the end of January 2013, and I'm so excited to use it again!

Right off the bat, we saw wildlife - mule deer to be specific.


The road took us up from around 2,000 feet to about 7,000 feet! Emma enjoyed the fresh mountain air.


Our first stop was General Sherman - the world's largest tree by volume. We saw some melted "snice" (snow/ice), and Emma had her first encounter with the cold stuff.

She was pretty indifferent to it, actually.


The hike to General Sherman was quick on the way down - maybe 10 minutes...

BF checking out the General Sherman tree - this tree is between 2,300-2,700 years old! SO crazy!

The hike down to the General Sherman tree.

But going back up kicked my ass - the air is thinner at 7,000 feet elevation, and I was SO out of breath! (It was kind of embarrassing, actually!)

We got back into the car and headed towards Grant Grove, where the General Grant tree - the second largest - is.

Snow (ice? snice?) on the side of the road!

Giant sequoias!

I didn't upload any photos of General Grant, because where it's located, it's tough to get a good shot of it. The "hike" up to it is only about 0.5 miles, and really easy. It's a great big tree - but you can't get close to it anymore because the ground around it is too delicate (or something). So we took a little trail off of the main trail and checked out some almost as large trees up the hill from General Grant.

For comparison - BF is 6'3" - this tree made him look tiny!

A fallen sequoia tree - you can walk all the way through it!

Unfortunately, after Grant Grove, we had to head back home since I had to work the next day. We're eager to go back though, because while dogs aren't allowed on the trails in the national parks, they are allowed on those in the national FORESTS - and about 30 minutes north of General Grant, there's supposed to be a very cool meadow of tree stumps that were cut down for logging where dogs are allowed.

Maybe we'll go in the spring, so there will be the potential for lots of flowers!

Also - there are two entrances - one for Sequoia National Park and one for Kings Canyon National Park. If you use the Kings Canyon entrance, you're closer to the areas you can bring your dog to - otherwise, you have to drive all the way through Sequoia National Park AND Kings Canyon National Park to get to them. The drive from General Sherman (Sequoia) to General Grant (Kings Canyon) took us about an hour because the roads are windy.

We saw this brown cow on the way home and he cracked me up - he did not care that the barbed wire was in his way of the delicious grass!

Overall - Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were very cool - I can't wait to go back! And at only about a 3.5-4 hour drive from LA, they're really reasonable for a quick weekend getaway.

A weekend wedding in Las Vegas

Back in October 2011, BF & I went to Las Vegas for one of my best friends' wedding.

It was a quick, but memorable, trip - BF had never been, and it had been over 7 years for me. Neither of us are huge fans of the desert. We don't really gamble, we don't drink all that much, and neither of us are keen on crowds. But SdlTC (gosh, even her initials are a mouthful!) was getting married there, so there we would be!

In the end, the wedding and surrounding events were awesome and fantastic, but our stay in Vegas wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

The trip started out mellow enough - when I had asked BF how he wanted to get there - car or plane - he'd said plane. So I booked flights to Vegas from LA on Delta, and then home on Spirit. (Yes, this is THAT trip, the one where Spirit Airlines screwed us over and left us stranded, securing my everlasting hatred.)

Anyway - the flight to Vegas was uneventful and quick, though the plane was so small that BF had to duck while we boarded and found our seats. We arrived in Vegas, played a quick round of slots just because they were in the airport, then cabbed it over to our hotel, the Platinum Hotel & Spa. (I originally wanted to stay somewhere on the strip so that BF could get a true Vegas experience, but SdlTC got a GREAT deal on a block of rooms!)

Again, things started out well - we got a free upgrade to a suite that was larger than our apartment, and we were actually bummed that we wouldn't be spending more time in the room. It had a full kitchen (including a dishwasher!), a nice living space, a huge bedroom, and a spacious bathroom with a shower and a jacuzzi tub.

The rehearsal dinner, girls' night out, and wedding were all incredibly fun and awesome. We had such a nice time seeing SdlTC and her fiance, Ricky Bobby, walk down the aisle, and hanging out with all their family and friends! I got to wear a gorgeous bridesmaid dress, and SdlTC was a stunning bride!

The awesome view from the club at the Palms that we hung out at the night before the wedding.

BF, me, SdlTC, and Ricky Bobby! What an awesome wedding!

But the rest of the trip was not so awesome. Once the wedding was over, it was like all of the magic was sucked out of the trip.

After the wedding was over, we took a cab back to the hotel and then decided to take a walk down the strip. We found a place to eat that was underwhelming - isn't Vegas known for its food??? - because we didn't know where to go and the buffet I had wanted to try was closed. Then we went to the Paris Hotel and gambled for a while, which was fun because I won about $10!

When we got back to the hotel, I decided I wanted to take advantage of the hotel's giant jacuzzi tub. What a terrible idea that ended up being. I started to fill the tub, and after about 5 minutes, it was about 1/2 way up to the spa jets. I knew that I needed to wait till the water was higher than the jets to turn them on, so I left them off as I started to soak. When the water finally was higher than the jets, I turned them on, and got the worst surprise ever. With the jets came disgusting black specks! I was instantly covered with them and screaming. Two showers later I was storming down to the lobby, but unfortunately for me, there was no manager on duty. They offered to change our room, but by that point, we only had about 8 hours left to sleep and our stuff was all over the damn place, so I said no.

By the time we went to check out the next morning, the whole Spirit Airline fiasco had happened, and I just wanted to get the hell out of Vegas. I bitched to the manager a little, but didn't push the issue as much as I could have. They comped us the drinks we'd had at the hotel our first night, but "couldn't comp the room because it was booked under the special block." Whatever that means.

It was late afternoon by the time we got our rental car and started home, and late by the time we got home. The drive back was fairly ok - we stopped a couple times and made the best out of it.

We stopped in old town Calico to stretch our legs and it was pretty neat.

In hindsight - I should have done a lot of things differently. I should have made the hotel call a maintenance person to make sure the junk in the tub wasn't toxic. I should have changed rooms. I should never have booked Spirit Airlines. In fact, we should have driven. (It wouldn't have taken us that much more time to get there, would have saved us the trouble of Spirit Airlines being a pain in the ass on the way home, and would have saved us some cash in cab fare.)

All in all, we had an ok weekend because of SdlTC's wedding, but we won't be going back to Vegas any time soon!

Oh, Canada! (Or, My Toronto Trip!)

Last October, I went to Toronto on somewhat of a whim. See, M's company was sending her there for work, and she asked if I wanted to go. I had always wanted to see Toronto (especially since they shoot a couple of my favorite TV shows there), and thought - why not??

So off to Toronto we went!

We were there for four nights, but she had to work for a bunch of the time we were there, so I spent some time wandering around downtown Toronto on my own.

We arrived on a Wednesday night, and the first thing we did when we got to town was look for food. It was late, so we were worried that nothing would be open (in Europe nothing was open late!), but our fears were quickly quelled. There were tons of bars and restaurants still open!

We settled on a place called the Loose Moose, because their name was so awesome, and we were not disappointed! We ordered a sandwich and poutine and beer, and it was a great start to our trip. We ended up going back to the Loose Moose two more nights - they had cheap beer, a cool environment, and friendly staff.

Thursday we ventured out for breakfast, then M went to work. I wandered around a bit, then took a long walk to the mall downtown. A co-worker had told me about a store called Jacob that I had to check out, and it was indeed pretty great! They were having a sale, so I shopped a bit, ate lunch, and then headed back to the hotel. After a nap and a shower, M was off work, so we cabbed it back up to the mall for dinner and cocktails.

Friday M started work really early, so I slept in a bit and went to the art fair (Art Toronto) that was next door to our hotel. Then I walked down to the waterfront, and, since I wasn't sure if M would have time the next day, went to the top of the CN Tower. It was so awesome! I went all the way to the top, facing some of my fear of heights, and the view was so worth it.

View of the city skyline from the waterfront.

View from the observation deck of the CN Tower, photo taken with my camera on "toy camera" setting.

The sunset from the top deck of the tower! We were crazy high, but the view was so awesome!

So excited to be so high up!

By the time I got back down, M was wrapping up work but it was super late, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the Loose Moose and went to bed.

Saturday morning, M didn't have to be at work until 11am, so we got up at the crack of dawn (or, 7am) and headed over to the Distillery District.

The Distillery district, at about 7:30am. We were so far North it didn't get fully light until after 8am.

Not much was open, unfortunately, except for Balzac's Coffee Roasters. It was one of the coolest coffee houses I've been to, and had this great loft area with really good local photography on the walls that just screamed to hang out in. We had a delicious breakfast, then walked around some more.

A "Canadian" latte (with maple syrup - so good) and a chocolate almond croissant from Balzac's Coffee Roasters!

Then we figured we had just enough time for M to see the top of the CN Tower, so we cabbed it back to the tower and up we went again!

That's Officer Moose to you.

After M went to work, I took a walk back down to the farmer's market we had passed in our cab ride back to the tower. I wandered around and sampled some delicious tasty treats, then walked back to the hotel. I did a quick workout in the gym, took another nap (can you tell I really needed a vacation??), and then when M got off work we went back to the Distillery District for more exploring and dinner.

There was a Maple Leafs game that night, so we joined in with the locals in rooting them on - we were hoping to go to the game, but even the cheap seats were super expensive! We were thinking of going late and trying to get discounted scalped tickets, but the timing just didn't work out. I hope next time we go we'll get to take in a game - they're really into their hockey up there! After dinner, it was too cold to walk around much, so we took a cab back to the Loose Moose for a last drink.

Sunday was super low key because it was just sleeping in a bit, then getting to the airport and flying home. The Toronto airport is super easy to get around, though it's quite big. Customs takes a while, so make sure you get there with plenty of time, but the airport is nice and clean!

Oh, quick rant, though - Air Canada kind of threw us through a loop on the way back - on the way there, our ticket included a checked back. On the way back, the policy had changed, so we had to pay $25 for our checked bag! Boo! I really think that sucks - it should be from the date you buy the ticket, not from the date you fly. There's nothing worse than showing up at the airport for a flight and having to pay money you weren't expecting at the end of your trip. Shame on you, new "alliance" that Air Canada is part of.

Toronto was awesome, all in all. The weather was surprisingly nice for late October, and I would really like to spend more time there. Next time, I'll rent a car and we'll try to get to Niagra Falls! I'm super bummed we didn't get to last time.

Anyone know of anything in Toronto I shouldn't miss on my next trip?

Europe 2011: The Hotels

Over the course of our 14 day, 13 night trip to Europe last summer, we stayed in six different hotels and one villa. That's a lot of hotels!

I spent a lot of time on TripAdvisor prior to booking to research where we would stay as much as possible, and 6/7 of the places we stayed were great.

Since we were trying to keep to a pretty low budget, and our flights went about $500 over what we were expecting, we decided that we wanted to keep our total hotel budget under $1,000 per person, or around $150/room/night. With the exchange rate, this meant compromising on location or amenities in a few places.

Here's a run down of our hotels.

Donegal, Ireland: The Abbey Hotel (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $142.64/room/night
Location: Great! Right smack in the middle of Donegal, within walking distance of sights, bars, restaurants, and sights. It's also perfectly placed for exploring County Donegal, within easy driving distance of some gorgeous locations.
Rooms: The rooms are a little bit dated, but they fit the bill with all the amenities, and were clean.
Service: The staff at the hotel was friendly and polite. They even let us call Dublin airport from the front desk to follow up on a bag that was lost.
Would we go back: Definitely. It was reasonably priced, perfectly located, and had free parking.

The bedroom of The Abbey Hotel.

The view of the river behind the hotel - some of the rooms at the back of the hotel have this view!

Dublin, Ireland: Trinity Capital Hotel (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $122.14/room/night
Location: Good. Not quite at the center of town, but it's within easy walking distance of many sights in Dublin. It's also far enough away from the Temple Bar to not hear the noise, which is nice.
Rooms: The rooms are clean and modern. Some of the beds in the king rooms are two twins pushed together, which is slightly annoying, and many of the bathrooms are different - showers vs bath tubs, etc.
Service: The first time I stayed at this hotel (in 2009), the service was stellar. This time, it was just ok. Some of the front desk people bordered on rude, but for the most part, they were friendly.
Would we go back: Yes. It's a good hotel, but I might try another next time if the price is right.

Rome, Italy: Hotel Sant'Angelo (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $132.43/room/night for the first two nights, $96.74/room/night for the last night
Location: Decent. The location wasn't bad - it was close to Castel Sant'Angelo, and about a 20 minute walk from the Pantheon. It was on a quiet street, with a sandwich shop and a bar with tasty coffee and pastries around the corner.
Rooms: As I mentioned in my TripAdvisor review, whether or not you got a good room was kind of a crap shoot. Some of the rooms were acceptable, some were not. A higher percentage of them were not.
Service: Two of the night staff were good, as was one of the girls that worked in the mornings. But many of the other employees were young and inexperienced with good customer service. For example, one kid had a very difficult time checking us out - it took him about 30 minutes to calculate what I was supposed to pay. I'm not exaggerating, it took 30 minutes for me to pay our bill.
Would we go back: No. This was the one hotel of the trip we struck out on. We were actually miserable on our last night - got no sleep, and the low price of the hotel didn't make up for it.

The second room we got on our first stay (we saw a total of five rooms) was pretty nice.

The only bathroom we had that was without mold.

Siena, Italy: Hotel Chiusarelli (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $126.54/night
Location: Decent. A bit out of the way, but a quick 10 minute walk to the center of town.
Rooms: Awesome! Maybe it was just because we had been so disappointed with the rooms at the previous hotel, but these were great. Cool, clean, spacious, and the beds were comfy, too!
Service: All of the front desk people were very friendly and helpful.
Would we go back: Yes. It was a nice little hotel!

Our lovely room.

The second room!

Corsano, Italy: Fattoria di Corsano (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $200/night for four people
Location: Ok. It's terribly out of the way if you want to go to Siena, but if you want a place in the middle of a gorgeous Tuscan setting, it's great.
Rooms: We stayed in a two room villa that was just awesome. The rooms were cool and clean and everything was homey! The only problem we had was that the day of our friends' wedding we all four of us had to shower at the same time, and the hot water only lasted about a shower and a half.
Service: This place was pretty self-catering, but the family members who checked us in and out were super nice and friendly, as were the people at their sister villa, Tenuta di Corsano.
Would we go back: Definitely! We loved this place and can't wait to go back!

The outside of the villa - it was so lovely! It took us a few minutes to find it - it's the yellow one!

The living room of our apartment, the Berto.

San Gimignano, Italy: Hotel Leon Bianco (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $144.24/room/night
Location: Great. It was one piazza over from the city's main cathedral, and super close to a bunch of restaurants and a delicious gelato place!
Rooms: Good. They were clean, and the ac worked well, which was important! And the beds were some of the more comfortable ones we had.
Service: The front desk people were really nice, and even gave us free wi-fi.
Would we go back: Yes. I love the city, and it was a really good hotel for the money!

Florence, Italy: Globus Hotel (TripAdvisor review)

Cost: $169/room/night
Location: Decent. It's right in the "student" area of Florence. There are nicer areas, but since we weren't there very long and were planning day trips, we decided that being close to the train station was important. It was also very close to the Lorenzo market, which had great souvenir shopping.
Rooms: Good, but small. The hotel was small, but it was clean and comfortable.
Service: The front desk people were very nice - holding our bags for us when we got in a little early, and when we checked out before our train left.
Would we go back: Yes, on a short trip. On a longer trip, I'd rather stay in a different part of Florence, but this was a great hotel for our purposes.

In the end, we came in around $860/person for the 13 nights. I think that's pretty good, considering it was high season! Looking back, we wouldn't have minded staying somewhere a little more expensive in Rome to avoid the hassle of Hotel Sant'Angelo. But hindsight is 20/20, so we were ok with the choices we ended up making.

Europe 2011: Florence

As I've mentioned before, Florence holds a special place in my heart. So you can imagine that I was a little bit disappointed that our time there didn't quite go as planned.

Our first challenge: We were exhausted. We had been rush rush rushing for 10 days by the time we got to Florence, and we just hit the wall when we got there.

Our second challenge: The weather was still ridiculously hot and humid!

We still managed to see what we wanted to in Florence, and I wouldn't have skipped it for the world. But I didn't get to show off the city in the way I had wanted to.

If you'll remember, I had a rough outline sketched out for our time in Florence. It included the Uffizi and a mega walking tour of all of my favorite spots. Shorty & M did end up going to the Uffizi, and we did get to see quite a bit - including the Duomo, the "fake David" in Piazza della Signoria, the Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, and my old neighborhood and apartment.

Florence's Duomo - the photos never really do it justice!

Oh my gosh - there's me! In SHORTS no less!

The "fake David" statue in Piazza della Signoria - the real one originally stood there, but was moved to The Accademia museum in 1873.

View of "my bridge," Ponte Santa Trinita - it's the one I crossed every day for school - from the Ponte Vecchio.

While the girls were at the Uffizi gallery our first afternoon, BF and I took a much needed nap, then wandered around a little bit. We met up with the girls at the hotel, and I took us to dinner at Eby's.

Eby's is one of my favorite spots in Florence to eat. Sweet Candy and I stumbled upon it while walking from one bar to another late one night, and were immediately impressed with Eby's drinks, burritos, and crepes. He makes his own tortillas and guacamole, and after much begging, taught the guacamole recipe to Sweet Candy.

Eby himself taking a break outside of his place.

We didn't end up going to two of my favorite places in Florence - Boboli Gardens (at Pitti Palace) and Piazza Michelangelo. We didn't go to Space Electronica, and my favorite bakery of all time had (recently) gone out of business by the time we got there. And we didn't get a chance to go to the top of the bell tower for amazing views.

However, there were a couple of things I had kind of forgotten about that we did get a chance to see & do - the central market and the San Lorenzo street market. We also went by the bronze boar and rubbed his nose (ensuring a return to Florence).

Our second day in Florence was the day we went on our super long day trip to Pisa & Riomaggiore, so by the time we got back to Florence, we were just wanting to relax. We did a loop of souvenir shopping in the San Lorenzo market, and I bought my favorite purchase of the trip - a gray leather purse. If you're after leather, Florence is the place to look. I had wanted to buy something nice for myself on the trip, and this purse was the perfect item!

After dinner, we did a night stroll of some of the sights, then it was off to bed!

The Ponte Vecchio by night - I really love wandering around cities at night - there are so few people and everything looks so peaceful!

Also on our last night, we discovered that the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit of inventions was in Florence! I saw this exhibit when I was in Venice in 2004 - it was in this random church, entrance was free, and it was really cool and interactive.

We decided to take a later train to Rome the following day so that we could check it out. It's still very cool and interactive, but now it costs a few Euro to enter. It's completely worth a visit, in fact was one of the best things we did in Florence.

A replica of Da Vinci's flying machine. The best part about the museum is that many of the exhibits are interactive!

After the Da Vinci museum, we did a final pass through the San Lorenzo market and picked up the rest of our souvenirs. It was a good thing, too, because everything in that market was about 50% less than the same items cost when we got back to Rome!

Travel tip: Rome is CRAZY expensive! Unless there is something very specific you want (like a "SPOR" magnet or something), buy your souvenirs in another city. If you couldn't tell, my favorite spot is the San Lorenzo market in Florence. I've gotten everything from t-shirts and magnets to purses and kitchen knives there!

Shopping done, BF and I grabbed a cafe latte at the bar down from our hotel, then we were on our way to the train station to zip back to Rome.

I love that lattes in Italy come in tall glasses like this one.

We decided to take the fast train (half the time, but twice the money) to get back to Rome, and then did a final loop of Rome on the "hop on, hop off" bus.

Fields of sunflowers from the train.

And that concludes our epic trip! It was an amazing experience, and I was so happy to spend every second of it with BF, M & Shorty! Watching SAY and Dr G get married was also pretty awesome.

Favorite moments of the trip? The cliffs in Ireland, driving on the beach in Ireland, the entire chunk of days (including the wedding) in Siena, Corsano and San Gimignano, the Da Vinci museum, and the night time walks we took in Rome & Florence.

Not sure if we'll do another trip like this one - it was a huge undertaking, and wasn't very relaxing - but I don't regret a second of it (or a dollar spent)!

Europe 2011: San Gimignano, Pisa & Cinque Terre

After the stunning Tuscan wedding, there were only a few short days left of our trip, but boy were we determined to make the best of them!

The first stop was San Gimignano, which I was SO excited to share with SAY, M and Shorty. See, I'd been talking about this town since I'd first been in 2003 (on the trip where I met BF), and we were all really looking forward to it, and to having a night in a small little town where SAY and Dr G could decompress after the craziness that is planning and executing a destination wedding in Italy!


We found our hotel and went exploring. San Gimignano has one main "strip" and then tons of tiny side streets with shops and restaurants and piazzas. After a leisurely lunch (because leisure was the name of the game in San Gimignano) and some gelato, we decided to go up the tallest tower, Torre Grossa.




After more gelato, we decided it was nap time - it was still really hot and humid, though slightly less so because there was a breeze on the hill. After our naps, we met for dinner in one of the main piazzas of town. We ate overlooking the piazza and people watching, and then after even more gelato, took another nighttime stroll around the streets.


Travel tip: Staying overnight in one of the smaller towns that people usually do as day trips can be a really fun way to experience the "real" Italy. San Gimignano is a very touristy town, and was really lovely in the evening when the tourists left and all of its residents came out!

The following morning, we were off to Florence for a few nights. Florence will get a post of its own... but while we were there we did a long and rushed day trip to Pisa and the southern-most town of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore.

For me, the leaning tower of Pisa is one of those sights that you should see once in your lifetime. BF and Shorty had never been, so we made the requisite trip from Florence. It's a 45 minute train ride, then a 20 minute walk through Pisa, and then there you are.

This post woman's little car cracked us up!

It looked really cloudy and dark, but it was actually SUPER hot and humid. So humid, in fact, that we were sticky and cranky by the time we got there, and ended up taking a cab back to the train station. Where we ate lunch at McDonald's, because we were just craving those fries... don't judge!

After lunch it was onto another train to La Spezia, where we hopped aboard the final train to Riomaggiore.

Let me just say it now: Cinque Terre is stunning.

It was absolutely beautiful there. We explored a little bit, finding the marina and the steep hills of the town, and even following a path to the "beach," or, a tiny cove covered in rocks instead of sand.



We had planned on walking up the "Lover's Walk" to Manarola, the second of the five towns, but then we got to the beginning of the walk and realized it now costs €5 to do the walk!

We only had an hour before our train was scheduled to leave, and we were hot and tired, and had already spent a ton of money on the trip, so we ultimately decided to not do the walk. In hindsight, I regret not doing it. On my next trip to Italy, I plan on scheduling at least one night in Cinque Terre, which will make the fee more than worth it.

Instead of doing the walk, we made our way back to the train station, ate some ice cream, and hopped on the first train we could find back to La Spezia.

Travel tip: When traveling by train in Italy, it's important to validate your tickets at one of the yellow boxes at the stations before getting on the train.

We forgot to do this when we left Riomaggiore and almost had to pay a €200 fine! Fortunately we talked our way out of it and just paid a €15 one instead.

It had been an incredibly long day when we finally got back to Florence - while Pisa and Riomaggiore were worth the trip, I think next time I would do them separately.

Up next: The final chapter - Florence!