Cinque Terre

We visited Cinque Terre ( Italian Riveria) as it was highly recommended by Rick steves, and we glad we did. It consist of 5 villages; Corniglia, Manarola, Monterosso, Rio-Maggiore and Vernazza. It's such a romantic place; small italian fishing village by the Mediterranean sea, very good place for honeymooners. All the village were very beautiful but we settle for Vernazza and stayed at a lovely pension called Martina Callo run by a old sweet couple. We had some mixed-up with the dates of our bookings and didn't had a room. They got a friend to gave us a room just for the night.

But things can be a little expensive here, should you decide to stay here, you might like to consider getting your grocery at nearby La Spezia. And do get the Cinque Terre Cards that comes in 1 or 2 days passes that includes unlimited rides on train and hiking fees. While you are there do hike, its a good way too see the place.

Pisa

We had a tough time looking for a room in Pisa, had to walk with our backpack for hours before we managed to get one that was near to the tower.  And what better way to enjoy the sight by having ice cream sitting on the grass!

Siena

Siena is a lovely medieval town, another one of those impromtu decision to stay for 2 days there, as it was just a convenient stop to our next destination Pisa. It took us 2 hours to reach from Florence. From the Train station we had to take a bus up the hill to the entrance of the town. The first thought that i had when i saw the town was whether anything has change from centuries ago. But do take note of the slopes, it can get very tiring walking around the town, plenty of steep walkways.

Most of the action are at the piazza del campo and in the evening restaurant starts setting dinners tables out at the square for diners. We were unlucky not to have caught the annual palio horse race at the piazza del campo that was held 2 days later.

Florence

Florence, the capital of the Tuscany and the birthplace of the Italian renaissance is a very charming city.

It is famous for its leather products thus you can actually see many shop selling them. The most famous bridge the Ponte Vecchio is what most tourist come for. It is said that the bridge used to have lots of butcher shops but because it dirty the river hence now it houses jewellery shops instead.