Ciao, Italia! {Week 1}

As I write this I can't believe our Italy trip was the end of June! We took that last two weeks of June and escaped to northern Italy. During our first week we explored Lucca, Pisa, the Cinque Terre, Tuscany and Florence. Being six months pregnant at the time, we knew full well it would be our last big trip before baby #2 comes and even I am amazed at how much we managed to squeeze in during those two weeks!

We drove down through Switzerland on the way to Italy and I'm telling you these pictures don't even do the colors of those mountain lakes justice -- they were incredibly blue!

Lunch break in the car before heading up the St. Gotthard Pass.

We opted to go over the mountain instead of through the tunnel and were not disappointed by the views. First we passed the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) which, legend has it, was built by the Devil himself.

I still can't get over how green the grass was and how blue the sky looked that day. Ellie was largely unimpressed and more than happy to watch a movie instead.

Ciao, Italia!

We spent the night on Lake Como to break up the drive and were eager to get out and stretch our legs.

After a few hours' drive the next morning we stopped to walk around Lucca, a walled Italian city not far from our cabin near Pisa.

Piazza Anfiteatro.

Guinigi Tower (yes, there are trees growing on top!).

Our cabin in Pisa was on an military-run base and, while it was very basic, was an unbeatable price and did the trick for our first week in Italy. We all slept very well each night and everything we had hoped to see was within driving distance or an easy ride by train. Our first full day we spent on the Cinque Terre, five villages that sit on the coast of the Italian Riviera. One big draw is the ability to hike between each of the villages. We had planned to do the easiest of the four paths but due to recent rock slides, were unable to. However, there is a great train system that connects all of the villages that we could hop on and hop off whenever we needed.

I also broke the rules by having a (very) modest glass of wine, calamari and melon with prosciutto during our day trip to the Cinque Terre and it was all delicious! After lunch, we took Ellie to one of the rock beaches which she loved, but also wanted to bring all the rocks back with us... we settled for a handful. :) I felt bad for Brian because we only visited three of the five villages (we talked about getting to at least four) but once I'm spent for the day, there's not much that can be done.

These two -- "trip planning" in the cabin.

The next day we drove to Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower!

The Pisa Cathedral and Baptistry.

Typical tourist pictures.

I call this one, "Oops!"

Ellie wasn't in the mood.

That's better!

We trained into Florence the following day, which only took about 45 minutes from the Pisa train station. Brian and I found Florence to be a little overwhelming with lots of people, everywhere. I know that's to be expected in such a culturally significant place but it was still overwhelming nonetheless. We did a lot of fly-by sight-seeing.

The Duomo.

Palazzo Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio.

Gelato. It's Italy so that was a given, right?

The Arno River.

There were lots of great sights to see but, for a six-month pregnant lady, this one was hard to beat.

I had scoped out our lunch options the day before and found this sandwich shop that sells their (HUGE) sandwiches at one price. You pick out the meat, spreads, cheese, and anything else, all of which is hugged by a huge hunk of fresh focaccia. We split a proscuitto sandwich with veggies and an artichoke spread among the three of us and were all satisfied. I wish I could have taken advantage of the two Euro glasses of self-serve wine they were offering.

While a lot of our sights were "drive-by," I did make sure to get tickets for one cultural thing -- how could we go to Florence and not see this guy?

I bought advance tickets to see David and after waiting about 15 minutes, we walked into the Galleria dell'Academia and bee-lined it to see Michelangelo's masterpiece sculpture. It was as magnificent in person as I expected. The detail, precision and humanity displayed in marble blew me away.

And then in a completely juvenile moment, I couldn't resist taking a picture of his backside. Ellie found this hilarious.

She even tolerated a short walk through another exhibit area before we left. After our visit to the David, we stopped for more gelato (naturally) where Brian and I tried a cremolata -- granita (Italian ice) topped with gelato. Words can't describe how delicious it was and just what we needed before our walk back to the train station. In all, I think we only spent about five hours in Florence and it's definitely somewhere Brian and I would like to visit again (next time we'll get the Firenze card which gives access to all of Florence's museums and landmarks).

That evening we took a picnic to the "American Beach," a quick drive from our cabin. Everyone had pretty much cleared out for the evening so we had the beach all to ourselves!

A beach belly pic at 26 weeks.

Saturday, we took a drive into Tuscany to visit San Gimignano, a medieval walled town.

More gelato was consumed.

Pigeons were tormented chased.

We drove a little ways and stopped randomly at a winery that sells directly to the public. We waited a few minutes after ringing the bell but sure enough the owner came out to meet us and opened her tasting room. She was so sweet and spoke broken English. With our broken Italian we were able to communicate enough to taste some wines and olive oil that she produces herself. We picked out a few bottles of wine to take home us and she graciously let me take a picture of the fantastic view from the back of her winery looking over to San Gimignano.

Bella vista!

More Tuscan views.

We spent our last day in the area recharging, doing laundry and enjoying some more beach time before leaving a day early in order to extend the stay at our next stop -- Venice!