ITALY

Cinque Terre, Italy

Description: Translated as “Five Lands”, the Cinque Terre is comprised of 5 different villages along the Mediterranean coastal region of Liguria, Italy. The total population of the five villages is estimated to be only about 4,000 full-time residents. The entire Cinque Terre area and National Park was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site for exceptional cultural and ecological assets. Listed from South to North, since most tourist travel takes this route by train.

• Riomaggiore

• Manarola (where we booked our stay)

• Vernazza

• Corniglia

• Monterosso al Mare

Images of the villages are some of the most well-known and photographed in all of Italy and the Mediterranean for that matter. Driving to Cinque Terre is possible, but due to the terrain there is extremely limited parking. Arrival and travel by train is the easiest and most popular option. Aside from multi-colored homes built on the cliffs above the beautiful turquoise waters of the Mediterranean, the Cinque Terra is known for its anchovies, pesto and local wines. There is also a Lemon Festival held each Spring.

For walkers or hikers, the Cinque Terre National Park has many scenic hikes, some that connect the villages themselves, but there are strict rules about footwear and other safety precautions.

Descriptive Word: EXHAUSTED – Though each town has their own personality and descriptive word, exhausted encompasses them all. Once a rugged land with strong, fighting people who had to work the steep hills just to survive, these five small fishing villages are exhausted. Though the land has been replanted with new crops and fishing continues to nourish the people, the earth has grown tired beneath the feet of the locals. While the waves of the Ligurian Sea crash against the rocks, the waves of tourists crash against the boundaries of the hilled villages. Posing, requesting, buying, and leaving, the land and the locals sigh in the evening. Exhausted by the day, they nod to each other as the tides recede and their community contracts. By morning their smiles return for the next waves to crash upon the rocks.

Summary of Thoughts: We visited the Cinque Terre in May when the weather had its own personality and the water was not quite warm enough for swimming, but a few youngsters tried. A day of brilliant sun allowed us to hike the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza. A day of rain kept us close to the apartment watching waves crash against the rocks of Manarola. We ventured through each of the delightful towns eating fried fish and pesto pasta. Walking around the towns before 10:00 and after 18:00 were the best because the tourist glam was turned off. The downside to visiting during these hours was the limitation in restaurants. Our accommodation in Manarola had the best view and can be seen in any photograph of the town, but sadly it was not clean, and it smelled so bad we had to leave all the windows open. Overall, the Cinque Terre was a gorgeous natural setting with fantastic people, but to help them we will likely visit other Ligurian towns in the future.

Number of Days we visited: 5

Analyzed Costs: How much did we spend? Though we made our reservations more than six months in advance, we visited the Cinque Terre towns at the beginning of the high season. Grocery shopping was limited due to the size and location of the markets. Therefore, we ate most of our meals in restaurants. The Cinque Terre card was our entertainment purchase which allowed us unlimited train rides between towns and use of the hiking trails. The biggest budget killer for us was caused by the national train strike. We planned to leave Cinque Terre on Friday at 10:30 for Parma, but a national train strike shut down the railway system at 9:00 and we had to find a hotel, meals, and new train tickets in Genoa, a town on the way to Parma. We completed our journey to Parma the next day.

Historical Description: Firenze- The capital city of the Tuscany region of Italy. The population is just over 362,000 and nearly a million within the entire metropolitan province. Considered by most academics to be the birthplace of the Renaissance.

A UNESCO World Heritage site for its cultural, artistic and historical sites and monuments, it is most famous for the domed cathedral of the Santa Maria del Fiore or “Duomo” and the Baptistery, the Michelangelo’s marble statues to include ‘David’, the Uffizi Gallery, the Galleria dell’Accademia, Ammannati’s Neptune’s Fountain, the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and too many others to name. Sculptors, musicians, painters and artists of every type have been influenced by someone from their craft with origins to his amazing city.

Serviced by an international airport, one of Italy’s largest railway hubs with regional and national high-speed trains and busses and trams for intercity travel. It was easily walkable in most portions as it is mostly flat, with good access to most areas for those with mobility disabilities.

Descriptive Word: Cloaked – Florence is famous for so many reasons, but the true nature of the people and the original building blocks of the city were hard for us to find. Covered with tourists, English was used more than the native Italian language, and everyone was rushing from one popular site to the next as fast as they could go. How many of them really SAW Florence? When we looked very carefully, we barely saw the real people and their lives. Too much of it was cloaked by the amusement park and shopping atmosphere created to keep tourists happily spending money.

Summary of Thoughts: Seven days was a wonderful amount of time to visit Florence. We were able to spend quality time learning the history of artists and architecture. Our favorite site was Galleria dell’Accademia. We shopped and ate the Mercato Centrale to support local vendors, then we laughed and drank too much wine during a cooking class. Our favorite almost-free activity was walking to the Oltracello neighborhood for a picnic dinner as we watched the sunset over the city. We were surprised one night on our walk to the apartment when we were aggressively approached by a stranger for no apparent reason, but we felt safe on other walks throughout the city.

Number of Days we visited: 7 (May 2025)

Analyzed Costs: How much did we spend? Florence was our first big city and tickets to the museums were not cheap. We carefully chose which ones to see even though we would have like to see many more sites and museums. The accommodations were high and had a tourist tax on top of the booked price. The Florentine Steak dinner was a large splurge to the budget that could be counted as both a meal and two hours of entertainment.

Florence, Italy

Historical Description: The territory was first settled by the Etruscans, an ancient people, and possibly even earlier by the Ligurians dating from approximately the third century BC. Later it became more of an actual town under the Romans in 180BC. Today, Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, a central region of Italy.

The city is famous for its  Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, which retains the oval shape of the previous Roman amphitheater that once stood there in the 1st or 2nd century BC. Additionally, one of the most well-known attractions is the Guinigi tower @ 150ft tall. It was built in the late1300’s, and is famous for the seven huge trees, now over 600 years old that grow on top of it. Visitors may climb the 230 steps, or 28 flights of stairs to the top, and visit the garden.

With a population of about 89,000, it is known as a “City of Art” due to her intact Renaissance era walls. But to us, Lucca was beautiful in her art, nature, history, and people.

Summary of Thoughts: Visiting Lucca in the spring was a delight. We fell in love with the inside and outside of this walled city. We appreciated how much the community came together for festivals, concerts in the church, music or dancing in the piazzas. There were markets and seasonal celebrations that made us feel like we belonged.

Number of Days we visited: 30 (April - May 2025)

Analyzed Costs: How much did we spend?  This was our first city in Italy, and we felt the cost of the accommodations was the average going rate. We rented a car for 3 days and traveled through Tuscany which increased our expenses as did our Thermal Baths experience.  We also had one very special four-course meal for a birthday celebration.