Tuscany & Liguria (IT)
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Just prior to the party, my wife and myself spent a week in Italy - Tuscany and Liguria, to be specific.
We haven’t visited either of these regions previously, so we decided to bear the crowds and largely seek out the ‘greatest hits’ the area has to offer - hoping we’ll get the chance to go back in the future to get off the beaten track.We stayed in Florence (Tuscany) for the first few days, which is a wonderful place to wonder round, see the sights, people watch, and generally eat and drink well.
Ponte Vecchio:
Piazzale Michelangelo (view from):
Opera Duomo (inc. view from the bell tower):
Piazza Santissima Annunziata:
Piazza Signoria:
We spent a day out visiting Pisa (see the tower, move on, type of place):
Then on to Lucca which is a beautiful walled city from the Renaissance era with a circular central piazza:
We then stayed a few days in La Spezia - ultimately, this is a fortified port town, but was a nice base for a few days:
From La Spezia, we visited Porto Venere:
We then spent a couple of days visiting the villages of Cinque Terre, although the weather restricted walking the (somewhat perilous) trails between the villages:
It’s definitely a tourist hot spot, so not for everyone, but we had a wonderful time there.
I’ll add a separate post in the next day or so with thoughts and recommendations based on information we were provided and/or gleaned from the week, in case anyone is travelling in the area.
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Oh, and I forgot the @endo homage in our Florence apartment building!
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Awesome!
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Great pics and certainly looks like you had a great time. The wife and I were in Tuscany 5 years ago, and Siena and particularly Florence are pretty crowded. Lucca on the other hand had a similar vibe with far fewer visitors, so would definitely recommend a trip there if anyone is in the area
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As far as accommodation goes, Agriturismo is a great option. Basically, it's holiday accommodation on a working farm, which in the main will be olive groves and vineyards in that area. Pretty neat if you want to set up a base and explore from there. We stayed just outside San Gimignano, another very popular tourist destination, but reasonably quiet once the day trippers have left
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@Nocturama Emily and I went in April this year, awesome place
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I mentioned to @Giles that I may be living on the wrong side of the pond…these kinds of pictures reinforce my thoughts.
@Nocturama Thank you for sharing!!
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Fantastic post, thank you!
Andrea and I travel to Italy every other year. We keep saying we need to go somewhere else … then we keep discovering new places and we remember the pasta. It’s our favourite and we plan to spend more time there once we retire.
As a side note, beware of that little wooden fella, he likes the ladies ..
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@Brandrea - my wife and I actually did a pasta (and tiramisu) making class when we were there - not normally something we would consider doing.
The cookery side of things was great fun, but whoever thought to provide unlimited Prosecco throughout was a genius because the whole class was legless by the end! They could have served anything, and we’d all be none the wiser, however I vaguely recollect it tasting okay!
Am now on the lookout for a pasta machine…
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@Nocturama that’s just awesome
We learned how to make carbonara on one of our trips and it’s was sort of similar … copious amounts of wine
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@Nocturama thank you for the wonderful fotos of places I've been loving for ages. Been there with family and friends a number of times since the 90s, when we sometimes just hitched down to Florence to be able to spent a few days there.