Photo Diary: Genoa

We walked into this beautiful courtyard and were immediately attracted to the man-made lilly pond and its koi fish

Hey Hey, so I'm back with a quick photo diary of our day trip into Genoa, Italy. It was the day with the worst weather out of our entire stay in Italy so we decided to check out this city. Genoa wasn-t part of the original itinerary but sometimes a little change doesn't hurt. We took the early train from Levanto to Genoa which took about an hour and 15min, once we got there it started pouring and we had to take cover for about 20 min so we stopped at a bar and had a nice tall glass of Prosecco, a nice bubble Italian white wine. It was so good I should have brought some back with us! Once the rain stopped we went about the city and explored our little hearts out. And this is what we found....

I wonder what they used to make this pond orange... It was quite out if the ordinary which i thoroughly enjoyed!

Can't remember the amount of times we've asked strangers to take pictures of us, it's only fair that M return the favor.

Church

A portion of the old fortress

site seeing

site seeing

The streets of Genoa

The buildings of Genoa

As we walked in the center we came across this Antique shop and I was mesmerized by the display of their merchandise felt like a few centuries of garden decor thrown together yet oddly enough it made sense, as if it belonged together effortlessly.

The intricate detail of this sealing tells a story.

let's take a look inside!

The City view!


and Voila! Here is a bit of Genoa! Until next time :)

Photo Diary: Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore was the first of the five villages that we decided to visit, we took the train from Le Levanto where we were staying to this picturesque village. The building colors harmonize beautifully, you can hear the seagulls squawking and the Mediterranean sea crashing into the port. It was really breath taking. this village was a bit crowded with tourists, seams like everyone had the same itinerary in mind as we did.

There are old colorful fishing boats aligning the petite harbor which adds a bit more of a typical fishing village aura to this incredibly touristy town. It's a burst of color, which I happen to love, that just happens to work.

We decided to hope on a boat and head east. This is the view from our ferry to Portovenere. It's like a painting.

As we came around in the ferry we laid eyes on this beautiful rock-like structure, It's name is St. Peter's Church, with the gray and white stripes very typical to the region you can't help but want to photograph it from every corner

Getting in closer we start to see more of the village and the homes aligned straightly, making it a bit different from the villages of Cinque Terre most of which are built on a mountain.

This picture was taken coming in on the boat from Portovenere.

Monorola seems to be the most densely compact with the trademark buildings more so in the orange and yellow tones. It was getting a bit late and we were getting hungry, we decided to hold off and take the train( there is no port in Corniglia) to Corniglia since we heard it be one of the smaller more calm villages of all.

When we arrived in Corniglia we realized that there was a long way to the top. There were two paths proposed, we decided to take the most challenging way, and oh boy was it challenging! We climbed 33 flights with about 382 steps... I was sweaty and whiny all the way up at this point it seemed like my stomach was eating its self I was so hungry. We stopped at the closest restaurant we could find. Man was I glad to sit down drink a nice glass of wine and get some delicious Italian food in me! Once at the top we stumbled upon this cute little garden with the most spectacular view of the sea and chickens running around.

Waiting for my dish to arrive I enjoy a glass of wine and a stunning view of the mediterranean sea!

M ordered this mouth watering seafood pasta dish. He kept mentioning how good it was and how he though he made the best choice... I didn't mind I was very happy with my choice...

My choice this baked potatoes and anchovies dish with pomodoro sauce, it was excellent! M was drawn back by the anchovies, he's not a big fan and what do I mean by not a big fan... he's repulsed by the idea of eating anchovies, must have been a bad experience in his youth. I enjoyed every bit, and hesitantly offered M a bit, surprisingly even with his strong hate for anchovies he accepted my proposition and really liked it! I don't know how they did it but the fishy salty taste was not as strong as your typical canned anchovies. After getting stuffed we wanted to burn off some more calories as if we hadn't done that with the 382 stairs already; so we headed out to explore this little town.

walking around I fell in love with this village. It was one of the coziest towns in Cinque Terre. There were plenty of with typical products and colorful ceramics. One of the things That I enjoyed about this shop was how they used drift wood to decorate. It had me thinking, I could totally do something like this, you know a DIY when I get home! That's still in the works...

Flowers in the streets of Corniglia, that we eventually bought for our little garden in the balcony.

More shops with colorful souvenirs.

I have no idea what these are called but they were all over the place! I believe they are used to deliver supplies, food, necessities etc. into the village since there are no cars allowed. The streets were really long and narrow. This thing was surely a necessity in their daily life.

As we continued to walk around Corniglia we fell upon this beautiful view. We seemed to be consumed by the beautiful colors and the tranquility of the sea. We took it all in and realized how lucky we were to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Italian Riviera.



Stay tuned... There are a couple more villages to see. Until next time!

Le tour d'Italie: Pisa

Vacation, what a lovely word! Here in France the month of May is somewhat of a short month. There are holidays in which most French people make 'le Pont', which means the bridge. This usually consists of -Thursday (the holiday) and Friday (the day which they took off so that they can have a long weekend)- bridging the gap between Thursday and Friday; therefore 'le pont'... whew.. I hope I didn't complicate the idea with my explaination! During this time some french people decide to work on their homes, relax, or have a small weekend getaway to the closest region or country. We chose the latter.


Surfing the Internet and pinterest we had run into beautiful pictures of Italy which motivated us to move it to the top of the list of places to see. Most specifically, Cinque Terre, Italy. (Which I will talk more about in another post) We had 4 days to explore the area and realized that even though Cinque Terre was the main event we also wanted to take advantage of the other well known cities in the western part of the country. Here comes in Pisa, only 101 km and about an 1h 20m from the main destination we said; what the heck, why not!?


Fortunately, We don't live too far away from Italy we decide to make it a roadtrip! We packed up The car and drove 5.5 hours from Aix en Provence, France to Pisa making it our first stop on this four day cross countries road trip. We decided on Pisa as our first stop since it was the furthest destination we planned on from France. We wanted to start with the furthest and work our way back so that it's not too overwhelming for us in Sunday.


Going into Pisa I was a bit disappointed. Being that I had already been to Rome and Florence(my absolute favorite!) a few years ago, I was expecting to be swept away by a romantic city, but instead I was welcomed by a city with not much to see except the tour of Pisa and its cathedral. I'm usually the kind of wanderer that likes to explore the city and see multiple sights... ya know the active wanderer who wakes up at 8am and wants to be out by 9am because they don't want to miss a thing! Yea.... that's me as annoying as it may seem.


Even though we weren't amazed by Pisa I defintely recommend visiting this city for a few hours if you're on roadtrip mode or as a stop on your way to cinque Terre or Florence.


We can't complain too much, we enjoyed visiting the tower of Pisa, we even gave into doing the touristy things.... you know what I mean ;)

The River Arno

The plaza in the center of Pisa

A really pleasant walk in the park

The entrance to the park

Romantic balcony, we saw many local couples spending quality time here

The Cathedral next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The cathedral next to the Leaning tower of Pisa

The intricate details on this door is breath taking; the entrance to the cathedral

A nice view of how much the Tower of Pisa is actually leaning

Oh yes being a typical tourist, do you catch anything funny in this picture?

What can I say.... when in Pisa do as the tourists do :)

the tower is really breath taking! I'm glad I got the opportunity to see it in person

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! See you in our next adventure!

Bisous,

R