Day 1: Arrive in Rome and train straight to Florence
Day 2: Horse back riding in Tuscany
Day 3: Train from Florence to Cinque Terre
Day 4: Hike the blue path in Cinque Terre
Day 5: Train to Rome and tour the colosseum
Day 6: Vatican, St. Peter’s, and Roman neighborhoods
Day 7: Fly home!
Day One
To start this trip, my husband and I flew into Rome with a roundtrip ticket. We decided to end our trip in Rome, so upon arrival at the FCO airport, the first step was to take a high-speed train to Florence. The train lasted around 2 hours, and by the evening we were in Florence.
Here is a link to a website I would recommend for booking train tickets.
Florence is a walkable city, and we were able to walk about 20 minutes to our Air bnb. We put our stuff down, and then explored the city at night. The city has a great atmosphere and lots of statues to see around the square. Outside of the Uffizi gallery was out favorite spot to view art in the plaza. For dinner, we stopped by All' Antico Vinaio, a famous sandwich shop.
We ordered La Favolosa and it was hands down the best sandwich we have ever had. The bread is made fresh and you can see all of the toppings in front of you as they assemble your sandwich, from cured meats such as mortadella, to unique toppings like cream of pistachio. You really can't go wrong with any choice. Our sandwich had salami, cream of pecorino, cream of artichokes, and roasted eggplants. After dinner, we headed back to our Air Bnb for the night.
Sandwich from All'Antico Vinaio
Where to stay in Florence:
Day 2
We began this day with a walk along the Arno river, past the Uffizi, down to Ponte Vecchio. There are lots of sculptures to see outside of the Uffizi gallery, and the river walk was peaceful in the morning.
The Arno river
We continued walking over to the Biblioteca Nazionale (the central library). This was the meeting spot for today's excursion. We booked an experience through Air bnb, which included a van pickup in Florence and a 30 minute drive out to Tuscany. Upon arrival, we rode horses in a small group for about 2 hours, ending at a castle on a hill. The castle was used to store Renaissance art during World War II, and after the war, it was turned into a winery after it was discovered that the soil and conditions up here are great for growing grapes and storing wine. We had an amazing wine and cheese tasting, which included white dessert wine. The views were incredible and the experience overall was well worth the time and money.
Horse boy
The port wine cellar
We got back from the tour at 1pm, and from there, we walked across the Arno to the other side of the river. We made our way to Pitti Palace, and explored the palace as well as the gardens. The artwork and statues were beautiful, and the views from the gardens were great! From there, we walked through the town to a wine window. We ordered a glass of their orange wine, which was cool to try!
Pitti Palace
The view from the gardens of Pitti Palace
Wine Window
From there, we walked back across the river to the city center. I grabbed gelato for us while Jake got a spot in line for Giotto’s tower climb. Tickets for the climb can be bought in advanced which I would recommend. The climb is steep, but well worth it. We listened to a Rick Steve’s audio tour on our way up which helped the climb go by quicker, and also gave us some interesting information about the tower and Florence. The view from the top was awesome, the sun had gone down so we got to see the city lit up as we walked all around the top of the tower.
Pistachio and Tiramisu gelato
The view from Giotto's tower at night
After the tower climb, we went to the Duomo museum. The museum has lots of renaissance art and sculptures as well as a few relics.
Duomo Museum
Once we got our fill of art, we walked towards our dinner destination, Trattoria la Burasca. This place had been recommended to us for Florentine steak. It opens for dinner at 7, and we had some time to kill, so we went to a food hall called Mercato Centrale. The food hall had everything Italian that you could want-handmade pasta, Florentine steak, arancini, calamari, pizza, cannoli, lampredotto sandwiches, and much more. We split an arancini for an appetizer, and then walked over to the Trattoria for dinner.
Arancini from Mercato Centrale
Trattoria La Burasca did not disappoint! We split a 1kg Florentine steak and it was incredible, perfectly seasoned and cooked medium rare. They show the cut of meat to you before they cook it, and then they work their magic.
Florentine Steak
After that delicious meal, we walked around the main square and then along the river before calling it a night.
One of the many statues of David in Florence
Day 3
Today we leave Florence and head to Cinque Terre! We started with a sunrise walk to Piazzale Michelangelo. To get there, we walked through the town and crossed the Arno river.
Morning walk through town
Piazzale Michelangelo
A statue of David in the Piazzale
From here, we walked to the train station and caught an 11am train to Pisa. We intentionally left a two hour gap in Pisa so that we could see the tower and get lunch before heading to Cinque Terre. It was about a mile walk from the train station to the tower.
The leaning Tower of Pisa
Margherita pizza in Pisa
We trained from Pisa to La Spezia, and then got on another train from La Spezia to Corniglia. Cinque Terre means five towns, so there are five options for places to stay when you visit. Corniglia is right in the middle, and it requires climbing 400 steps to get to it, or taking a shuttle bus. Our Airbnb got upgraded to a sea view room which was a huge plus. We walked down closer to the water and saw an awesome sunset.
The view from our room
Sunset in Corniglia
Pesto pasta, spaghetti, and tuna/mozz/tomato salad
Day 4
Hiking day! We got lucky with the timing of this hike, because from November to March, the trail is free and you don’t have to purchase the hiking card. If you go outside of the free dates, you can buy your ticket online or in person at various booths on the trail. Tickets are 7.50 euro/person and they’re good for a full day. We started on The Blue Path from Corniglia towards Monterosso. There are signs in Corniglia to point hikers to the path. The hike is beautiful, with vineyards, olive groves, and sea views along the way. As we started to get farther into the hike, it was really cool to look back and see the colorful buildings stacked on top of each other.
Our first stop was Vernazza, the next of the 5 towns on our list. At this town, you can walk down to the water as you explore. We got a seafood cone, which Cinque Terre is known for, both with the fresh seafood and the lemons that are grown in the area for you to squeeze on your fried seafood. This might have been one of the happiest moments in Jake's life! We joked that he looked like a bridesmaid holding flowers.
Jake proudly holding a cone of calamari in Vernazza
After enjoying our snack, we continued on to Monterosso, the next town and the farthest north of the five. The hike continued to have amazing views as we walked along and eventually arrived in Monterosso. This town is more beachy, and honestly was kind of underwhelming. Coming from Corniglia and Vernazza with the cute colorful buildings and charming towns, Monterosso felt more touristy with not much to do. We both agreed that while it is still a nice little Italian town, it ranks 1/5 on the list of Cinque Terre towns.
From here, we took a train to Riomaggiore, the southernmost town. We loved this one, we got to watch the waves crash in right in the middle of town, and there were lots of colorful buildings and shops to walk through. We walked on both sides of the inlet, and then found a little shop where they didn't speak any English, but we were able to point and get some octopus salad, focaccia, and a lemon soda. I was hesitant at first, but octopus salad was actually really good, especially when paired with the focaccia.
Riomaggiore
Snack time: octopus salad, focaccia, and a lemon soda
After enjoying our time in Riomaggiore, we took a very short train to Manarola, the final town for us to explore. Manarola was another adorable town and it was a great place to see the sunset over the horizon.
The streets of Manarola
Sunset in Manarola
More views from Manarola
After walking around Manarola and watching the sunset, we decided to find dinner. We found a cafe on the water, and split an order of bruschetta and a panini with eggplant spread and prosciutto.
Day 5
McDonald's entrance
Stick of parm!
The lunch spread
After lunch, it was time to walk over to the Coliseum for our tour. It was a walking tour in a group through the Coliseum and Roman forum. Our guide was great and I would definitely recommend doing a guided tour, because you get so much more information and fun stories that enhance the experience. For example, they used to do a gladiator fight where one person had full armor and no weapon, while the other was dressed like a fish**get more details on that.
The Roman Forum is across the street from the Coliseum, and that was out next stop with the group. No glass is allowed, so sadly we had to give up a bottle of wine that our air bnb host had given us in Cinque Terre, so make sure to leave your wine at home when visiting the forum! Our guide walked us through the ruins, and told us stories of the various buildings, most of which were dedicated to the gods.
A temple in the Roman Forum
After our tour, it was time to grab our bags from the train station and walk to our air bnb. We got a chance to rest for a bit, and then we went back out in the evening to take a metro to the Vatican area for a cooking class. The cooking class took place in a restaurant after hours. It was just Jake, myself, one other lady, and the chef. He guided us through making the dough by hand, rolling it out, and cutting the pasta into fettuccini noodles. After we had finished the pasta, we started working on making tiramisu. He showed us how to make by with separating the egg yolks from the whites, and incorporating each in a different way to bring the tiramisu together. Our chef cooked the pasta and Jake and I had dinner with our new friend from the class. We had wine, pasta, tiramisu, and limoncello to finish the meal.
Pics from our class
Day 6, 50k steps!
Today started with a metro ride to Vatican City for our 9am ticket entry. We did this self guided and we would recommend it, unless you really want to go in depth with the history of the Vatican. We walked through the many rooms, the gardens, and saw lots of art and sculptures. There were also tapestries with maps on them in one of the halls. The Sistine chapel was the final stop for this outing, and we sat to look up at the art for a bit, and then made our way to St. Peter’s. St. Peter’s was amazing, the architecture and artwork were stunning. It was easy to visit, we just waited in a crowd for a few minutes until it opened, and then getting through security and into the building was a breeze. I would recommend getting there at opening.
The Vatican
Vatican gardens
The view from a window inside the Vatican
St. Peter's
After St. Peter's, we left Vatican City and walked to Trasteverse, which is a quaint neighborhood in Rome right along the river. We stopped at Trapizzino, a little shop that sells these triangle pizza pockets. We ordered one meatball and one with chicken in a white wine and garlic sauce. We took them to-go and ate down by the river.s
Streets of Trasteverse
Meatball pizza pocket from Trapizzino
Continuing on, we walked along the river and crossed it to get to our next destination, Testachio market. This market is a hall for a variety of vendors. Testaccio is another Roman neighborhood that we wanted to see, so this food hall was a perfect stopping point. We split a cacio a Pepe supplí and it was delicious-there were so many things to try that it was hard to make a decision, which is always a good problem to have.
Cacio a pepe Supplí from Testaccio Market
After snack time was over, we kept exploring the streets of Rome, and climbed up several stairs to arrive at a viewpoint. There was a nice park with classic Italian looking trees, as well as a man playing music for everyone. The view was amazing, you could see so much of Rome; the building as well as the surrounding nature. This is supposed to be a great sunset spot, although at the rate we were moving, we were a bit early for sunset.
The Pantheon
It started approaching dinner time at this point, so we decided to walk back to Trasteverse just because we liked it so much. We got Roman style pizza from La Renella. We tried two different types, one with zucchini blossoms and anchovies and another with just tomatoes and sauce, drizzled in olive oil. They were both amazing, and even though I don’t like anchovies, the pizza had just the right amount where it enhanced the flavor instead of being overwhelming. We had another picnic by the river, and enjoyed people watching and debriefing our favorite parts of the day.
Once were ready for round two of Roman pizza, so we found another spot in Trasteverse for a veggie and feta slice, as well as one with some cured ham. We ate inside, and then got two bottles of Peroni for the road and drank them while we walked along the river at night. Peroni is a light Italian beer and is a must try while in Italy if you like beer. I wanted to see the coliseum at night, so we walked over to see it, finding a few different areas to view it from. Once it was time to walk back to our air bnb, we grabbed one final cone of gelato and then called it a night.
Round 2 of Roman Pizza
Peroni stroll by the river
The Coliseum at night
One last gelato of the trip
When in Rome, I decided I wanted to see the Coliseum another time before catching our train to the airport, so Jake and I packed up and walked over to it. We got a picture, marveled at it one last time, and then walked over to the train station. It’s an easy ride to the airport, and then it was time for our journey home.
A final look at the Coliseum
After a great week in Italy, we flew back to DC. This picture gives a hint for the destination of our next trip ;)
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