Jack & Jo's European Adventure: Firenze - Florence what's in a name, the place is beautiful!

Thursday 13th June, we took trains to Pisa, La Spezia and finally to the seaside town Monterosso, the most northern of the five villages making up the Cinque Terre. We left Florence at 7:00AM, the journey took around two and a half hours, on arrival we found the sun was out and warming, it would get to a high of 29C. We took a brief walk along the coast of Monterosso, up a hill and through a tunnel in the side of a big hill, coming out the other side to the township itself. Jo noticed a sign for a boat cruise visiting the five villages, it was a hop on hop off, as you please style tour and at 15 Euro seemed good value. The other modes of transport between the villages is to walk along the breath taking coast or to take the train for which we had a ticket. Taking the boat posed less walking and as I have had trouble with my back and Jo her neck, this seemed the perfect option for us, we were not disappointed to made this decision, it was wonderful way to spend our day. We had lunch on the beach of the village Vernazza, pizza and beer on the beach, it was the yummiest pizza, it reminded me of the yummy bacon and cheese toasties my SIL Wendy makes, so YUM YUM.

Friday 14th June, had a nice long sleep in after our big day out Thursday, had breakfast around 10:30AM, then went for a hair cut whilst Jo caught up with some laundry. Hairdresser: "Non parlo italiano" , Jack : "Non parla inglese", very dangerous words when your getting a haircut, a little off the top translated in his mind "He wantsa a shorta haircut", sure got my money's worth for 25 Euro, I got taken out the back by a Blonde for a shampoo, wheeled back to Luigi who proceeded to whip big chunks of hair off my scalpa, then whisked out the back again by an Italian Madonna to have what I think was some conditioner thrown in, then whisked back out front for a few final touch ups and a blow dry, belissimo.

Feeling some what lighter, I dashed home, grab Jo and raced her out for lunch at a little cantina on Via Nationale, the food was fantastico, as was the vino not to mention the price, 32 Euro for three dishes, wine, sparkling water and coffees. Our waiter was a real dag, very grumpy when we got there, but Jo tried out a bit of Italian on him, he did an absolute about face from there in, and kept us entertained throughout the meal, he had a ball pulling the piss out of Giovanna.

After lunch we took a quick look at a map, decided on an area to visit and proceeded to a bus stop to catch the Number 12 bus, this was awesome value at 5 Euro for a 24 hour bus pass, but the best was to come, the bus ride was the most spectacular urban bus ride I have ever taken, taking in 300 degree views of Tuscany and the city of Florence, it was so good we are going back there tonight with a bottle of plonk and my camera, which I left at home earlier.

We have loved staying in our little apartment here, it dates back to the early 1500's and is just beautiful, the ceiling has huge teak beams holding up the floor above, it is very rustic, but modern at the same time, it has been really nicely renovated. I am cooking dinner whilst I write this, Jo is pottering around doing a little ironing and packing stuff away, drinking a little vino all through it all, it is such a relaxed little apartment we really love it here. I opened a nice bottle of red, it has gone down very nicely, when pouring the last glass I mentioned how quickly the wine had gone, Jo said "yeah it is such a heavy bottle hey?" what exactly the weight of the bottle had to do with the consumption rate still leaves me wondering, it was a nice drop is all!