mer and chris

We got a pretty late start to the day and decided that since we were in Milan we must do what the locals do and hit some of the shops we don’t have in the US. We wanted some quick and easy food and decided to suck it up and eat at one of the tourist traps by the Duomo since we didn’t see much on the way from our hotel. As expected, the food was fairly average, even the pizza.

There are about a billion stores and boutiques in this area so we proceeded to spend the rest of the day perusing them. We realized that Italians love shoes more than Americans and white leather ones are very much “in.” Most clothes in Italy actually fit skinny people much better than in the US. That also makes sense since most Italians we saw were skinny. (Every Italian girl I saw on this entire trip was skinny. How can this be possible? They eat loads of cheese and pasta and gelato, yet they can wear size 2 skinny jeans? I’m baffled. – Mer) Scarves and handbags are huge there, even for men. Both men and women love white pants and white belts. Everything is fitted, there is very little in the way of “relaxed fit.” Unfortunately, several cool stores we saw were closed since it was Sunday.

(We ended up spending a bit of time in Zara, a store we have in Dallas but to a much smaller scale. We saw three Zara’s within a 5 block radius and all were as big as department stores. Oh, and cheap. It has officially replaced H&M as my favorite “I wish we had this” store. And since Chris mentioned Italian fashion, I have to say that people watching was one of my favorite things to do on this trip. I love their sense of fashion…especially in Florence. However, there was one trend we spotted dozens of times, mostly in Milan, that I totally don’t get. They are thin baggy pants that taper around the calf and droop at the crotch. Essentially, they look like MC Hammer or pirate pants. They are completely unflattering. I can’t wait to see girls in the US start wearing those awful things. – Mer)

By late in the day Mer was craving gelato (actually, she craved it all day, every day) and the same great place in Florence (Grom) existed in Milan. After getting gelato we took the Metro back to the hotel so we wouldn’t have to figure it out in the morning with all of our bags. (Yes, I craved gelato most days, but it’s not my fault Everywhere you go you see people with ice cream cones – who can resist that kind of temptation? Anyway, Grom’s signature flavor is crema di grom, which I tried in Milan. And wow, it was awesome. It came with whipped cream on top, as if gelato isn’t sinful enough. – Mer)

We googled some places to eat by the hotel but all of our results came back as hotel restaurants. If we were going to do that we might as well just eat at our hotel. It was a fairly popular place in town and they had an interesting tasting menu so we headed down to do that. We got downstairs and the bar area was actually going strong with music and people on a Sunday night. We realized they were in the middle of a happy hour. Oh snap! We found out that if you buy one full price drink you get to eat free… and it went until 10pm. We love this Italian trend. We ordered a few glasses of wine for me and a cocktail for Mer (with fresh slices of ginger in it – yum!) and took advantage of the buffet multiple times. They kept bringing out new things and most of it was quite tasty. The place filled up quite nicely as the night went on.

They even played good music. We heard Arcade Fire, the Avalanches, Hot Chip and a really good track by Indeep from an Italian disco comp that was kind of popular last year. Not too shabby for a hotel bar. All in all it was a great cap to our trip.

Our time in Cinque Terre had come to an end and we certainly didn’t want to leave but we did get to do everything we wanted to and really enjoyed it. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. While waiting at the train station to head to Monterrosso we had one last piece of focaccia with pesto. The train was running late so had a really tight connection to get to Milan. We almost didn’t make it and literally came running out of the ticket office to jump on the train. We arrived in Milan at mid afternoon and checked into our final hotel, Sheraton Diana Majestic.

They upgraded us to a nice big room and were very helpful by giving us a map and layout of the metro and some areas to go check out that we didn’t know about. We set out on foot to hammer out everything we wanted to so that we’d have our last day in Milan free to do whatever.

We made it over to the Duomo and it’s even more amazing in person than in pictures. It’s gothic and looms over the city quite impressively. Milan is an interesting city and far different than Florence. In Florence everything is soaked in tradition and art while in Milan art and tradition go head to head with shopping and modern fashion. All of the old and historic buildings sit right alongside tons of stores and boutiques. The main square in the city, of which the Duomo is the central focus, is surrounded by hundreds of stores from Prada and Coach to Zara and H&M.

Inside the Duomo it is dark and huge; it’s really the outside and top that makes it one of coolest things we’ve seen on our entire trip. Every single one of the seemingly hundreds of little statues and pieces of sculpture on the Duomo are unique. You can walk up to the top of the Duomo in Milan and see the city. The view of Milan is nothing like the view of Florence. Milan is dotted with tall buildings and cranes, a sign of a city coming to terms with it’s modern future. The roof of the Duomo in Milan is much larger, though, and there is so much to see about the building itself. It something you just have to see and can’t be described.

After leaving this area we walked down to an area with canals that is supposed to have good restaurants and nightclubs. Along the way we saw smaller boutiques and areas where the local hipsters and punk rock kids were hanging out. They were all hanging around outside drinking beer and nobody was hassling them. After 17 days, this sight is still hard to get used to. We got to the canal and it was clearly the place to be on a Saturday night. Everyone was down there and it seemed most were locals. We walked down one side of the canal and up the other and were overwhelmed with eating choices so we finally just picked one at random. It turned out to be pretty good as we tried the Milanese version of risotto made with saffron and parmesan. We also had some excellent gnocchi with veal and then some sea bass wrapped in zucchini with a light tomato sauce. It was very good.

This would be the time to make note of an interesting eating option in Italy that we never really noticed until Milan. All of the younger people do happy hour. It’s huge there and it’s not happy hour the way Americans do it. It’s not just drink discounts and chips and queso. Nope. These guys are eating buffets full of good food and it lasts until 10 or 11 pm at night everywhere. Prosciutto and melon, cheeses, pizzas, pastas, etc. From what we could figure out you usually paid full price for your drink then you ate for free. We theorized this is what places do to get people to drink since so many people can just hang out and drink on the street on their own. It was clearly the popular thing to do but we didn’t know how it worked so we stuck to a traditional sit down meal.

We made the long way back and saw people selling beer out of buckets on the street and it seems to be a general free-for-all as far as what people do there.

We had another full day in Cinque Terre so we decided to hike to the other three towns. We had some really great pesto focaccia for breakfast and headed off on the trail to Corniglia. This was the other more difficult hike but it was extremely scenic. The weather was great, although warm when climbing a lot of steps. Corniglia is the only town of the 5 that isn’t down by the water and also seemed like the smallest one. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there but we walked through it without really realizing it.

The trail to Manarola was down about 400 steps and then it went by the water for a good stretch. We had done all of the hard work by this point so the remaining trails were pretty easy. We arrived at Manarola about an hour after leaving Corniglia and saw some friends we met in Vernazza. They had rented a boat for the day and were going between towns by sea. We walked through the town a bit and then headed to the final town, Riomaggiore.

The walk from Manarola to Riomaggiore is the shortest and easiest of the hikes. It’s only about 20 minutes and pretty flat. They put a bunch of money into that trail, which they named Via dell Amore. (path of love...or something). There is a covered section with a bench that has a bunch of locks on a rail overlooking the water. People put their names on the locks and attach them to the rail and throw the key over into the water. (I so wish I had read about this before we left for our trip so I could have brought a lock. Might be hokey, but I think it’s a cute tradition. – Mer)

The hikes between all of these towns are spectacular. There is a reason they are being preserved and protected. It’s probably the best hike I’ve ever done.

We got to Riomaggiore and were pretty hungry after several hours of hiking. We settled on a place called La Grotta where the menu looked good but as we sat down we found out that they weren’t serving from the full menu, only from the special board. We didn’t feel like finding something else so we stayed and kept it simple with some pasta, caprese salad, and beer.

We took the train back to Vernazza by mid afternoon to get in a little more swimming and beach time. For dinner we decided to try Trattoria al Sandro. You never really know who is open on what nights so you always have to check for hours in their windows. Even then there are no guarantees since in these small towns they seem to make their own rules. The menus are pretty similar at each of these places so we just try to take advantage of the local foods and have them as much as possible. We ate more trofie with pesto, stuffed mussels and grilled swordfish. As usual, everything was quite good. Since we ate with the friends we met (Steve and Cheri) we went over to the Blue Marlin bar for some drinks and conversation as the night wound down. (One of the fun things about this trip is the people we’ve met along the way. In some cases, we’ve seen familiar faces from one city to the next. For example, I saw a woman in the bathroom at Il Latini in Florence and saw her several days later in a bakery in Cinque Terre. In other cases we’ve met people in one town and spent the night drinking and talking. In Cinque Terre, it’s pretty common to see the same faces over and over. We met Steve and Cheri from California on the beach on Thursday and proceeded to run into them at least 10 times over the next day and a half. –Mer)

We started off the day by heading to the top of the lone street in Vernazza to Il Pirata for breakfast. The place is run by two Sicilian twins who seem to be genuinely crazy. After too many pastries and coffee we embarked on the trail to Monterrosso. This is one of the more difficult stretches of the hike but the views are spectacular when you descend into Monterrosso. It took us about 2 hours to make the hike and the trails were pretty well maintained. We had lunch at Nouvo Eden, overlooking the water, and then decided to relax at the beach for a while. Monterrosso has the biggest and nicest looking beaches of the 5 towns but instead of sand they have lots of rocks. A lot of the beach area is also private where you have to rent chairs and umbrellas. We only spent about 2 hours on the beach before we decided to head back to the beach in Vernazza for a few hours. (I went for a swim and getting in an out of the water was a challenge because of the sharpness of all of the rocks. I definitely prefer the Vernazza beach to the one in Monterrosso. –Mer)

For dinner we decided to try Gianni Franzi since it wasn’t open the night before. They had a local page on the menu so we stuck with that. We had more trofie with pesto and I decided to try the octopus casserole. It was quite good and interesting to try something different. After dinner we headed up to Il Pirata for a coffee. The bar in the main plaza was going strong so we took our bottle of wine down there and closed out the night.

We had to take the regional train from Florence to La Spezia and then take the train in to Vernazza. This took about 3 hours because we didn’t have the luxury of the high speed train. Entering the Cinque Terre is quite stunning since you are cutting through hills in the darkness and then you peek out long enough to stop in one of the small towns and see the blue waters crashing up against the rock. For those that don’t know, Cinque Terre is made up of 5 small towns along the Ligurian coast. You cannot access them by street. The only way to get between the 5 towns is to hike the trail along the coastline or via boat or train.

We didn’t do too much here on the day we arrived except to take in the beauty and feel of Vernazza. These are much smaller towns than we’d been in for a while so we spent time just sitting around and taking it easy. The apartment we rented was very small but had a balcony overlooking the Piazza Marconi. (I’m convinced it was the best room to rent in all of 5 Terre. If you ever go there, ask us for the name. The view from the balcony was amazing! – Mer) We drank the bottle of Pinot Grigio from Martha and Steve out there as we waited for dinner. We were eyeing Gambino de Rosso but as we got down there they filled up and weren’t taking any more people so we walked around the corner to Il Baretto.

As we walked in we heard a big cheer from the bar next door as Barcelona scored the first goal against Man U in the championship game. The menu looked good and after some friendly advice from the Aussies dining next to us, we finally decided on trofie pesto, ravioli stuffed with fish, calamari, and anchovies with tomatoes and potatoes in olive oil. All of them were excellent. This area of Italy is known for its pesto so it’s a very popular dish here. The calamari was just caught that morning and it was the biggest and most fresh I’ve ever had it. I thought I had good calamari before but this was in another league. As we finished up Barcelona scored another goal and won the match. As I had a cappuccino, Mer decided it would be a good idea to finish off with a gelato cone. (This seems like a good time for me to comment on the pesto. Basil grows really well here so I’d always read that the pesto in this area was excellent. I was excited to try it but didn’t think it could really be much different from any pesto I’ve had before. I’m happy to say I’ve never been so wrong. The pesto in Cinque Terre is a vibrant green color and is much sweeter than any other pesto I’ve had. It’s not just good. It’s not even really good. It’s absolutely incredible. As you will eventually discover, I ate pesto at every single meal during our stay in CT and I wish I could have had more. Amazing. – Mer)

We decided to take it easy today and just mill around the shopping stalls and market instead of seeing art or historical sites. Florence is similar to Rome in that every building or street is something historical. Every building is gorgeous even if it’s just a tobacco shop or gelateria. They have done a great job of preserving buildings and design here.

We went by a paper store, Il Papiro, that Mer heard about. It’s all handmade Italian paper goods that are beautiful. I’m glad my mom wasn’t with us; she would have had a heart attack in that store. Everything was perfectly made and the price tags were fairly steep so we had to be selective. We got a wedding guest book and a leather bound photo album after much deliberation.

Near the San Lorenzo church, built by the Medici, there are several streets of stalls full of every leather item imaginable. From purses, wallets, belts, jackets, book covers and shoes they have it all and there are tons of them. Don’t like the price? Walk next door and they are probably selling the same stuff and you might get a better price. There was tons and tons of stuff for sale, most of it at fairly reasonable prices. Lots of things were knockoffs, though, so you have to be careful. There are big signs posted all over Florence about counterfeit goods being illegal. These guys get around by not actually using the brand names. You might see a Louis Vuitton handbag but there is no LV on it even though it looks very similar to a real one. Technically, it’s not a knockoff since the brand name isn’t on it.

The Mercato Centrale is right next to this area so went in for lunch and to look around. We didn’t realize they closed down at 2p so a bunch of stuff was already closed but the places open were foodie heaven. They had tons of prosciuttos and salamis hanging everywhere, bottles of aged balsamic, olive oil, wines, cheeses and tons of other stuff. (I found a stall that was sampling spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar, some aged 8 years and some aged 15 years. It’s amazing how good the expensive stuff is and how different it tastes from the cheap stuff you put on a salad. I bought a small bottle to bring home. I can’t wait to try it on fresh strawberries or ice cream. – Mer)

Mer ordered a sandwich that was piled high with prosciutto, salami, cheese, sundried tomatoes, and balsamic that was bigger than both of us could even eat for only 5 euros. This place was clearly popular because many people wanted to eat here. The Italians just rolled up and started ordering stuff but the foreigners looked around confused. Partially because of the volume of various foods and also because there were no signs about how to order. We found out you just had to tell them what you wanted and they would make whatever looked good. It was excellent.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around in various shops and had some beer by Santa Novella church. They sell beer and wine everywhere here and they ask you if you want it opened right there and you can sit outside and drink it without being hassled. We aren’t clear about the actual laws here but it’s common to see others doing it.

We heard Il Latini was open at 7:30p so we went for dinner. We were told that they basically seat you together at community tables and just start bringing you food. They prepare several things different each night and you eat at their discretion. The placed filled up within minutes and the food started coming as fast as we could eat it. We were put next to a French couple and an American couple from Alabama. There was a starting plate of prosciutto and salamis, a rice salad with tomatoes and onions, pate on garlic bread and plenty of bread and wine. The next course they brought out pesto gnocchi and ravioli in tomato sauce. Both were quite good. For the main course we got lamb and veal. It was some of the best veal I’d had and we had quite a lot of food by this point. For dessert we had chocolate cake, some kind of nut and cream cake, and biscotti and vinsanto. Then they brought out spumanti, some kind of strawberry liqueur, and coffee. It was a ridiculous amount of food and beverages. I was in heaven. It was quite the worthwhile meal. (As good as the food was, Il Latini was even more about the experience. We overcame language barriers and had some interesting conversations with the other couples at our table. Looking around, that was the vibe throughout the entire restaurant and the meal always ended with total strangers clinking glasses in celebration of a really fun meal. – Mer)

We went back to the hotel to grab a bottle of prosecco that we had from Rome and took it to Piazza della Repubblica to enjoy the weather and people watching.

We took the train from Rome to Florence and had the opportunity to ride the Eurostar fast train. This was a direct trip and only took 1.5 hours. It was a fast and quiet ride and made me wish we had better long distance travel options in America. It’s just so easy to use and affordable. It was sweltering as we made our way from the terminal to the Grand Hotel. They had a heat wave for several days that we got stuck in. The walk wasn’t all that far but the streets in Florence seem even more confusing than Rome and their streets aren’t exactly easy to navigate. The main problems are that there are no grids whatsoever and signage is lacking.

All that aside, the people at the Grand Hotel were very kind and gave us a great room overlooking the Arno river and famed Ponte Vecchio bridge. Also, there was a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio in our room from Martha and Steve (Thank you!!). That was a nice surprise and extremely appreciated. We were also still carrying our prosecco along with us from Rome that we didn’t get a chance to drink. It was a good problem to have!

Our plan in most of the cities is to try and hammer out the tourist spots as much as possible the first day so we can relax and wander aimlessly the next day. Florence is smaller and less crowded than Rome so we were already enjoying ourselves more. We went to the Ponte Vecchio. Mer wanted to get a piece of jewelry from there but the prices were outrageous. We took in the nice views and then headed to the Duomo. There were countless clothing shops and gelaterias along the way.

In need of a quick snack to power us through the hike to the top of the Duomo, we found some awesome pizza right across the street. It was sauceless with super fresh tomatoes on top. We went inside the Duomo and it’s phenomenal. It’s not as flashy as the basilica in Rome but I think it’s cooler looking given the style of artwork and the amazing paintings done on the ceiling. We wanted to go up to the top of the Duomo and it’s exactly 463 steps to the top. They asked some older people if they were sure they could make it. They are quite clear that there is no lift up or down. You have to hoof it up many narrow and circular stairs.

We finally got to the top and it’s everything you could expect and more. You could see the entire city of Florence in a 360 view all the way out to the Tuscan hills since it was a really clear day. It’s yet another thing we saw that our pictures and video probably won’t do any justice. On the way down you get to walk around the interior of the dome and see the paintings up close. It’s really hard to believe men did that work so long ago. The work has a really cool heaven and hell theme going on that, regardless of your beliefs, is incredible. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve seen on our trip.

We finally got down to the bottom and found a gelato place that Mer heard about called Grom. This was easily the best we had on our trip so far. The flavors were strong and I’m sure it was extra good because it was so warm outside and we just climbed a bunch of steps.

We headed over to Palazzo Vecchio afterwards, where there are tons of really interesting statues including a replica of David. We found an open spot under one statue and rested for a while before dinner. For dinner I had a recommendation from one of our running friends about Il Latini. We got there at 7:30 (which is when you have to arrive in order to get a table) but they were closed! Gah! We did not know they were closed on Mondays and they had no hours posted. Mer had a recommendation from another one of our running friends, so we made our way to Lob’s Ristaurante. The place is half empty inside except for a few Americans and Asians so I was a little concerned. It was still warm outside so we opted for a table inside. It was the first time we’d eaten inside on our entire trip. (Chris was convinced we were going to regret this meal, but I wasn’t worried. One of our running friends has a friend who married an Italian chef from Florence, and this was the restaurant of a close friend of his. They said he was the best seafood chef they knew, so how could this meal be bad? – mer)

My fears were quickly set aside when the food started coming out. We started out with some awesome scallops gratin that were baked in parmesan and olive oil. We also had some crab risotto along with it. Both dishes were excellent. Then we ordered some enormous lobster, prawns, clams, squid and pasta meal for two. It came out in a giant pot and was easily some of the best pasta and seafood I’ve had and there was far more of it there than we could even eat. Now THIS is what I’m talking about. This was one of the best places that got recommended to us. We chatted up with the owner, Franco, for a bit (his English wasn’t very good and our Italian totally sucks) about mutual friends and then he gave us a nice discount when we checked out. Very cool.

We ended the evening by hanging out in the Piazza della Repubblica and watching people. The people selling illegal fake watches always scatter when the cops drive by. As soon as the police are out of site they walk back over and set their stuff up again. It was an amusing sight.