Hannah

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July 15th

We were staying at a place 5 minutes outside of Lucca, a town an hour from Florence. (Sidenote: Florence in Italian is Firenze. Can't help but think about centaurs.) The whole day was spent in the pool  and in the evening we walked around Lucca. In other words, a day for relaxation.

It was my Dad's birthday (happy birthday!) and we decided to do something special. We drove to a place called Cinque Terre. It is five villages by the Mediterranean Ocean which you can walk in between. We only walked from the first village, Monterosso al Mare, to Vernazza, which is the second village. Not that it is very far, less than 4 km, but when it's 30°C and you have walked hundreds of stairs in the sun you get tired quickly.

One of the coolest things about this whole hike is that my parents walked the same hike but 30 years earlier. Apparently there were no tourists, no stairs or railings and definitely no fee to enter the park. How times have changed!

When we got to Vernazza we were so warm that we quickly jumped into the ocean to cool down. After lunch we took the train back to Monterosso al Mare and swam in the ocean there too. Even my mom swam in the ocean (and she's really wimpy when it comes to cold water, so you know it must be really warm. Mom, if you're reading this, no offense!).

July 18th

Still exhausted from our adventures the previous day we spent the day relaxing at the house and then had dinner (and ice cream) in Lucca again. I probably read a book or two. (During the week in Lucca I found a pile of books and decided to read as many as possible. I think I read eight or nine books.)

July 19th

We did a day trip to Florence where we walked around, looked at buildings, shopped and ate. We did not go to any museums because it was "too hot to stand in a line-up". I had the best pasta ever. The sauce was just tomatoes, olive oil and garlic. But it was so good. I can't even...

The reason I am putting these days together is because I don't think we actually did anything special or noteworthy. Swam in the pool and ate (delicious) food. But that is probably all.

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All in all it was a great trip and if you ever go to Italy my tips are: eat lots of food and ice cream, enjoy the sun, don't be too hard on the locals they're nice, drink lots of wine and most importantly enjoy yourself! (That's a great clichéd ending to this post) 

Hope you enjoyed reading about this trip! Next entry will be about my trip to Stockholm. Exciting, I know.

Ciao!

Today I will write about the trip me and my family had in Italy a while ago. A long time ago. Less than a month though. Here it goes! 

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July 10th

Our first destination was a small village where we stayed at a really cute place called Ca dei Maghi. Giovanna, the boss (I don't know her actual title but she was there all the time and seemed responsible for things), greeted us when we arrived from the airport at 9 o'clock. In the evening. She was so sweet, I think they had kept the kitchen open just because they knew that we were on the way. When we went to our room she asked one of the guys working there to help us carry our bags. She then hinted that he needed a wife. 

July 11th

No trip to Italy is complete without visiting a vineyard we decided to get to it our very first day. Fumane, the village we were staying in, is in the region of Valpolicella which is a region well known for its wine. It is especially famous for its Amarone, a strong wine made from partially dry grapes. Giovanna gave us the tip to visit a vineyard a couple kilometers away which we also did. It was run by a very nice lady called Valentina Cubi. Another wine from this region is the Recioto, which is a sweet wine. Valentina told us that Amarone actually was an accidental discovery from making the Recioto wine.

The wine cellar

The wines we tasted.

After a delicious lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere we decided to go to Verona. It was about 30 minutes from our hotel. We explored the city, discovered that the commune of Verona's flag looks like the Swedish flag, took pictures of buildings and other touristy things.

July 12th

The morning was spent at the pool (I think. There are no pictures and I can't remember exactly so we were probably at the pool. Or sleeping. Who knows) and we had a delicious lunch at yet another place in the middle of nowhere. We kept driving towards a village called Garda which is right by Lake Garda. It was steaming (oh yeah I forgot to mention, it was like 30'C every day) so it was really nice to cool down in the lake.

Sweaty in front of Lake Garda

The only other exciting thing that happened that day was the we tried a new (for us) drink which was called Aperol spritz. Or something. Although the poisonous orange colour makes the drink look sickly sweet it is actually quite bitter. 

Sister, mom, Giovanna and I. And the Aperol.

July 13th

I just realized. This was a Friday! Friday the 13th. Scary.

Anywaaaaaaay. We went back to Verona to do some shopping and after that we returned to the hotel to rest/swim in the pool. This means that I took a siesta and the rest of the family were in the pool. After a few hours of relaxation we headed back to Verona, again, because we were going to an opera.

About 45 minutes before the start of the performance. Stage and audience.

The opera was in the open air coliseum and we saw Carmen. It was pretty amazing. First of all the stage was so big that there were probably a hundred people on stage. They also had live horses and donkeys. There was a live orchestra and of course everyone was singing as well. Unfortunately we were sitting so far away that it was a bit difficult to hear everything very clearly. It was also difficult to figure out what was happening since don't know Italian and didn't know all the details to the story.

The picture is from the website and from 2010. But you can see there's tons of people and a horse as well. Unfortunately we missed the last act because at midnight we were all too tired to stick around for another hour. SPOILER ALERT: We all know she dies anyway.

July 14th

It was time for us to say goodbye to the Province of Verona and move onwards. We were headed to Tuscany. On the way we stopped for lunch in Parma. We ate some parma ham. It was the best we've ever had.

Antipasta

After that we finally arrived at our final destination. Lucca, Tuscany. You can read more about those adventures in Part II.

Ciao!