12 Jours en Italie / 12 Days in Italy / 12 dias en Italia

Those are the 3 languages I spoke on this trip, and in order of amounts. I suppose you could say I had a French immersion course in Italy. I went with Gersende, Sylvain and Fanny later met up with us in Rome, but we also met up with their friends in Florence and Rome. The places we hit up were: Florence, Pisa, Livorno, Piombino, Elba Island, Porto Santo Stefano, Rome, and Greve in Chianti. Needless to say, it was the best.

Florence
We left Paris at 730 in the morning and took what should have taken 12 hours, 17 hours ride down to Florence. We got majorly lost and the Italian road signs well, were completely useless. So we pulled into Florence around midnight, and then got lost again trying to find our hostel. Again street signs don't help. We stayed in Florence for two nights. We saw a bunch of stuff around the city.

The highlight was probably walking up Duomo. We walked up hundreds of stairs and reached a balcony/ledge right underneath the huge painting on the inside of the dome. The painting is of the gates of heaven and the entrance to hell. We walked on the balcony I don't know how high we were but it was scary high. And the Devil was right in front of us so it was like we were about to enter hell. And being so high up... it really felt like it.

We however didn't end up going to hell, but reached a really nice view of the city.

Pisa
The next stop was a quick one through the town of Pisa. You all know what this city is. Thanks to some really soft soil, Pisa has become famous for it's leaning tower. We went to the tower and took some wacky pictures. It was a beautiful day. After the tower we walked through the tiny streets and found a nice place to eat. It was the perfect weather and a great lunch. I took a picture to remind me how nice an afternoon it was; unfortunately though, my picture couldn't capture the smells, sounds, and breeze that I felt during lunch. I'll just have to try and remember that one in my head...

Livorno
After Pisa, we got terribly lost in Livorno. We couldn't find our hostel which was only 2 kilometers away. We were lost for 3 hours, and everyone told us, it's only 2 km away. However, we finally found the hostel and it was hands down the BEST hostel of all time. It was an old villa turned into a hostel. This is what it looks like.

We risked getting lost again by driving into town again that night, and ate dinner by the river. There was some kind of festival going on and many booths were open selling food and little trinkets.

That night I slept on the top bunk and I awoke to this.

And I only had to pay 16€ for this awesome wake-up ocean view!
Piombino
We left the next morning to Piombino, a town on the coast. It just so happened that it was the 60th anniversary of a war, and there was a huge air show with planes smoking the sky with Italian colors. There was a cool castle on the cliffs of Piombino... which made for some really nice scenery.

We took a day trip to Elba Island. Too bad I don't have many pictures... it was a pretty fast trip and we just spent it on the beach and exploring the island a little. Elba Island to Italy is like Catalina island to SoCal. Very pretty, natury, ocean, and night life.

Porto Santo Stefano
After spending two nights in Piombino, we headed down towards Rome, but we took a stop in Porto Santo Stefano. High class tourism here folks. We drove up Panoramica Drive and took some nice pictures.

Rome
We met up with Fanny (who joined our car), Isa and Marco, and G's other friends in Rome. I kind of split off from the group in Rome and did some shopping and sightseeing on my own. I'd seen a bunch of stuff already, but it was really nice to be back. See my nostalgia post for more insight. The highlight of Rome for me, was being led by Marco a half hour's drive away into the suburbs into some mountains and having a local dinner with a view of some old bridges and a view of the suburb. We ate bread, spicy sausages, artichoke hearts, and lots of meat...

Greve in Chianti
After spending a couple of nights in Rome, we drove off into Greve in Chianti, in the heart of Tuscany. We stayed at a B&B for 3 nights, sat by the pool, and RELAXED. (Although that's all I'd been doing in the past 11 days). Each day we drove on a one way street into a different small town, some of which only had one restaurant. One town we went into a local wine store and tasted 3 different kinds of wine by a little old but very loud man, who told us many stories as a wine store owner. It was small, intimate and authentic. All in all, Greve in Chianti, and Tuscany, was the most romantic, isolated and surprisingly really high class tourism I'd ever been to. Honeymoon potential, it has. Anyway I bought some grappa and olive oil here. Real yummy stuff, I can't wait to eat some.