Good morning and happy Monday! We’re finally all the way home – I know this cuz we’ve been to Walmart for groceries AND….we got the Man home!
This is the last installment of my Trip Blog Posts. I hope you’re not sick side-ways of them! But – you know where I’m headed – stupid number of pictures, yada yada – get a cuppa something blah blah…
The arrival of Venice in our porthole signaled the end of the cruise portion of our adventure so it was with mixed emotions that I saw it when I got up last Monday morning. Even our towel hephalump was sad…
Capt Tom had told us we’d be hitting the canals around 5am so…I made sure I was dressed enough to go out on deck to get some pics.
Worth it!!
The sun coming up was beautiful.
And then I got all artsy and stuff! 😎
The beauty of the architecture of Venice became clear right away! That’s likely just an old merchant building. In marble!
As we got further into the canals – things got even prettier. On the starboard side, we could see the Venice of the postcards – canals, bridges, ancient buildings….
And on the port side – there was more green space – and residential areas.
We docked and disembarked – with only a minimum of undignified kicking and screaming “NOOOO – DON’T MAKE US LEAVE!” – and hiked to the train station to drop our bags off so we could make a quick trip to St. Mark’s Cathedral. Which was…STUNNING!
A fun water-taxi ride back to the train station added some true Venetian flavor to this trip!
The canals are….CRAZY crowded! Amy and I decided just to look out the side of the little boat!
We had time for one last gelato and then it was onto the high speed train that would take us to Florence – where we’d change to a second train to La Spezia – and then to one last train that would take us into Vernazza where we would spend the rest of our trip!
That’s 134mph! And – this was a SLOWER moment!
The scenery on the way to Cinque Terra was beautiful – especially near Carrara (home of the famous marble!).
Vernazza has a stunning lagoon as sort of its centerpiece!
And the view of it from our home-for-the-week was worth the 99 steps to get there!
We used the train a lot during the week to visit the towns that make up Cinque Terra. My favorite was Levanto – it was the least touristy and it has a beautiful coastline!
It’s also a little more…”real” feeling – thanks to the aforementioned less-touristy piece!
We saw this beautiful mosaic – it was one of several sidewalk mosaics that we saw in our travels during the week – but it was the most detailed!
My next fave town was probably….Monterossa! Another gorgeous coastline…
With a really interesting sculpture out on one end of the beach!
Monterossa sports a really cool fortress on the point!
Our next visit was Riomaggiore!
Rio is a smaller town where we had a most excellent Tiramisu after our lunch!
And – there was a very cool tunnel with amazing mosaics! I grabbed photos of just TWO of them!
Corniglia is situated at the tip-top of a hill – and the train station is….NOT. In fact – there are 1200 steps up the side of the mountain to the town center! See the switchbacks? Them’s STAIRS! 😳
The stairway was closed – and the shuttle was…full on every trip. So – we trudged to the top and then rewarded ourselves with…I know. You’re surprised…
But we also found a lovely spot that we agreed would work as a home!
I loved the quaint twists and turns in this little town!
And this little guy was enjoying the shade while waiting for his parents to come out!
Manarolo is where we had a lovely dinner one evening with some friends of Lance’s – who happened to be visiting at the same time. This town has lots of hills but is beautiful!
We had a lovely sunset while we waited for the train back to Vernazza.
Our last night arrived and we made one last climb back to our BnB. The moon was….gorgeous!
We took the train down to the Rome airport and said farewell to Amy and Lance. Then the next morning we climbed into the next-to-last plane for the start of the trip home. This was a 10 hour leg and…I felt every bit of it. Even in business!!
As we coasted out – we left Italy behind…
…and a short while later, flew over Marseilles, France.
About 8 hours – and several movies! – later – we approached the coast and these very cool clouds were below us.
I think the clouds were a pretty ending to an amazing trip, don’t you?!
Once again – this has been a LOT of pictures and I’m grateful if you’ve made it this far! Thanks for indulging me as I pretend to be a travel blogger for a minute. We’ll be back to our “regular” fare tomorrow for the Amy’s Inkin’ Krew Blog Hop!
TTFN
M
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Finn Fan Fix 
The Man is HOME!!
He was almost as happy to see US as we were to see HIM! Sound on and Full Screen for the full-meal-deal of “the greeting”!
This is Brittany.
Brittany loves Finn and gave him lots of love and snuggles while he was there!
DAAAAD!!
Camp is fun but…HAPPY to be headed home!
He’s baaaaack!!
TTFN
M