ITALIA

My mom and I started our trip off in Milan for a day, then traveled to Portovenere/Cinque Terre and lastly Florence. The trip was incredible, and it was great to spend so much lovely quality time with my mum!

A shopping place in Milan

The people-eating Italian pigeons

When my mom and I arrived in Milan we were both very sleep deprived and consequently somewhat loopy, which unfortunately made us easy targets for pushy street vendors. After being tricked into buying African prayer bracelets, we set off to the square in front of the Duomo when all of a sudden a man thrusts bird seed into my mother's hand and holds it up to the sky, a signal that catches the attention of a well-behaved little pigeon, who comes and eats it out of her hand. Well, I think this is fantastic and am taking a picture when I suddenly find my own hand full of bird seed and a zillion pigeons ready to attack. After landing on my head (look closely) one of the dirty-winged thugs broke my arm and took my money.

A slight exaggeration, but I still maintain that they were dirty.

My mother the bird trainer

The busy streets of Milan

Milan Duomo

The fourth pillar from the left has a sweet little cherub face. Many of the other spires adopted angry men motifs.

A view from the top

We arrived around 5PM on the first day at Portovenere and walked down to the end of the inlet, where there was a stone castle over looking the water. The lighting illuminated the cliffs in such a beautiful way.

Here we found a statue of mother nature and decided to take some goofy pictures

Getting fresh with Mother Nature

Pretty sunset over the castle

This was the start of our hike between the five towns of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia Vernaza and Monterosso

We wandered down to the ocean during our walk. There were several sections during the hike where you could walk down to stretches of shore line, some had huge rocks like these, others with gray pebbles. I had never been to a pebble beach, and I discovered I love the sound the water makes when it recedes over the pebbles. It is somehow akin to the sound of the wind makes when blowing through the trees.

This is the Hotel Grand Portovenere, the place where we stayed when we visited Cinque Terre. The hotel overlooked the water and a slue of little colorful houses that lined the bay.

A few little boats docked outside of our hotel

The view from the hotel's veranda... absolutely lovely!

Portovenere

Portovenere at dusk

The front view of Vernazza

My mom and I on our way back from eating some really tasty Italian food

This stone castle was also part of Portovenere. The texture and layers of the limestone cliffs were just incredible.

All the buildings were so colorful! I love how they hung their laundry on clothing lines outside their windows.

The fourth village, Vernazza

After hiking about 7 miles we decided to surpass the last few miles to Monterosso and grab a couple of beers instead.

This was the view leaving the third village, Corniglia. We hiked quite a ways to Vernazza.

Vernazza

The view of Vernazza coming in from the hike was particularly breath-taking.

Walking into the center of Vernazza

The water was a clear, beautiful aquamarine color

Riomaggiore

We spent our last day in Cinque Terre at the fifth town, Monterosso, where we spent the day basking in the sun on the beautiful beach!

On our way back from the gorgeous beach

COLD.

My mom didn't go in

Chasing away some pigeons while waiting for the train to Florence

I wanted to make sure I did not end up with any more of those things on my head.

David's twin brother

Some kind of Italian riot...can't say I know what they were all worked up about

Getting ready to board the train to Florence

My mother is ready to ward off any thieves that come her way.

Obviously very intimidating

The Old Bridge

An example of my daily Italian diet
Mmmm Gelato

One of the markets

This little piggy went to market

Shoppers are supposed to put a coin in his mouth and rub his nose for good luck
and assurance that they will return to Florence

My mom interacting with the art work

My mom and I decided to take a professional Italian cooking course while in Florence at a place called "In Tavola," something we discovered through our hotel, Pensione Alessandra. The food was deliscious, but our group was the icing on the cake! What a fun bunch!

Our group taking one of our many wine breaks
We are obviously getting a lot of work done.

From left to right: my mom, me, Daniel from Montreal, Fletcher and Marriane from Rhode Island and Sandra, stationed in Hawaii.

Rice-filled tomatoes with sauce and garnish

My group quickly discovered I am a very tactile person.
"Lauren, I think that's enough squashing of the tomatoes."
"Okay, that is probably enough mincing for one day."
"Oh look, you cut your tomatoe into a star."

The Chef and I

Tiramisu

Deliscious!

A view of the city on our way to the top of the Duomo

Duomo ceiling

The Duomo overshadowing the city

The Duomo
Taken from the balcony of the Uffizi Art Museum, home of great Italian paintings and works by Giotto, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo

This is the view from the plane, flying back to London from Florence. Ciao Bella!

The Florence Duomo at night

We had port and a few biscuits at a nearby cafe.

We found a good ten minutes of amusement taking pictures using the cigarette tray as a tripod until my mother was distracted by a street vendor selling "whirly gig" toys , an item that was somehow more appealing after the port.

Morning view from the top of the Duomo

Such a beautiful, lively city and great trip!