A little bit of insight to London; art, bars, cafes, clubs, restaurants, and other things to do in this wonderful multicultural city.

Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 August 2013

Pisa

The closest big city to my Dad's hometown is Pisa, and since that's the only airport nearby too we decided to spend the day there. We took the train there and arrived around lunch time. We stopped at a few stores on the way to lunch. I love going to Zara there because its really big, well organized and I always find something I like.We then stopped at a student bar for lunch, having typical Italian food and enjoying being in the shade. After our insanely cheap meal we followed the tourists to the leaning tower of Pisa and the cathedral that is in the square next to it.
There's a legend that says that if you walk up to the top of the tower before you finish your studies you will not pass your exams, so obviously Charlotte and I didn't visit it inside. Unfortunately Italians are quite focused on making as much money as possible, and therefore they charge you for every little thing. Just to visit the town alone costs 15 euros, and in the square there are three other buildings that everyone should see, but they're all expensive.
At this point Charlotte and I just sat down to read in the shade, and then we spent the late afternoon walking around and getting drinks at a couple of different bars. Because in Italy, everything is called a bar, even if its only a café, they just don't ever use the word café.
I don't really like Pisa, but if you're in Tuscany for more than a week, its worth a visit because after a while you get bored of lying on the beach all day. 

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Cinque Terre

The "Cinque Terre" are a very famous group of villages on the edge of Tuscany. Charlotte and I were able to take a boat trip to see 2 out of the 5 places. We took the boat at 10:10 and off we went for the day. The first stop was Portovenere which is not one of the five villages, but it was beautiful none the less.
We walked around, and then laid down in the sun, appreciating where we were. Charlotte even did a few drawings. We then ran back to the boat, scared that we had missed it. Luckily we didn't. The next pit stop was Vernazza, a town with a very curved cove, perfect for swimming since you didn't get sand in your toes. At this point I thought it would be smart to pretend to be different sea animals. At least I had fun.
The third town was Monterosso, this was the last stop. The village is very cute, smaller than the others. The thing I liked the most about this place was that the train passes in the middle of the buildings, about 50 meters from the waterfront.
If you're ever in Tuscany I really recommend you go see at least one of these towns, they give you a sense of fairytale unlike bigger towns in Italy.
Here's the website for the group of towns: http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.cinque.terre/Eindex.php

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