#gustapizza

My beloved Magnum Ice cream bar. Since the trip, Magnum has also opened a store in New York City. 

Ah, Florence. The capital of Italy’s Tuscany region is made up of quaint, brick streets lined with museums filled with Renaissance art. There’s also an abundance of rich architecture such as the Duomo, as seen below. The Duomo, formally known as the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the main church of Florence. It was constructed in 1296 and still stands as one of the world’s most famous examples of Gothic architecture.

More importantly, the Duomo was a beautiful backdrop for my custom-made Magnum ice cream bar. You know Magnum? That brand that has Rachel Bilson climb over trucks on the interstate to get to an ice cream bar? It’s that good. My ice cream bar had a vanilla ice cream base with a white chocolate shell, milk chocolate drizzle, brownie bites, ginger salt, popcorn and topped off with a white chocolate “M” for Magnum. I am drooling just thinking about it.

For more information on visiting the Duomo, click here: http://www.firenze-tourism.com/en/florence-piazza-del-duomo.html.

Another popular restaurant in Florence is Gusta Pizza. Gusta pizza is well-known on Instagram for their heart-shaped pizzas (only given to girls). It is a small restaurant that allows you to order right from the counter. The best way to do Gusta Pizza is to grab a few boxes to go and eat them at the Boboli Gardens, a garden chock-full of renaissance statues.

For more information on visiting the Boboli gardens, please visit: http://www.florence-museum.com/boboli-gardens-tickets.php.

Now, we are talking about Italy so we definitely cannot forget the pasta! A top-rated pick for pasta in Florence is Yellow Bar. With a line that always goes on to the next street, I figured it would be a good choice. The vodka gnocchi was a dish to dream about, which I do. Daily.

Also in the Tuscany area, there are incredible tours of wineries and vineyards. Taking into consideration that I was of legal drinking age in Italy and not in the U.S., I can assure everyone that I tried every glass of wine given to me. I am basically a connoisseur.

But, at the end of the day, my favorite part of all of the tours was the food (shocker, I know). At a small winery tour, the owner’s family fed us six different types of bruschetta, toasted ciabatta bread, several types of pasta and a special meat plate. As you can guess, I had to be carried out of that place.

After a day and a half in Florence, on Saturday we had an early wakeup call at 7 am to start our hike through Cinque Terre. Our tour guides, Sándra and Phillipe, were hysterical as they checked us all in on the bus. The ride was only about two and a half hours, but for the first hour Phillipe would not stop talking on the loudspeaker, first about what to expect on the hike, what kind of food we can get, then about the areas we were driving through. We actually drove through a few “marble towns” in Italy, one of which supposedly supplied the marble that Michelangelo used to carve the David – pretty cool, but not that cool at 7:15 am...

The last 15 minutes of the drive were absolutely stunning, but also terrifying. Taking after my mom, I’m not a fan of heights, so driving in a massive bus on winding roads up the side of a cliff to our drop-off point was not ideal. But the views were incredible, overlooking the trees right onto the Ligurian Sea, we could even see a couple of the stops we would make later that afternoon. As we pulled up to our drop-off point, Sándra told us about the vineyards that lined part of the cliffs, and also the olive trees that lined the rest, which were used to make some of the world’s finest olive oil. She also told us that Cinque Terre, or “Five Lands,” is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site (just like parts of Prague), which means it has a special cultural or physical significance, which must be recognized and preserved. So, nothing in Cinque Terre can really be drastically modified or updated, which gives the area a really cool feel. The buildings and roads are extremely old, but also very bright and colorful.

Anyway, once we got dropped off, we started our trek down to the first stop: Monterosso. We primarily stopped to get some cool views of the water, and the rest of Cinque Terre, then kept on going towards our first real stop for lunch. After a quick train ride that led us from Monterosso to Vernazza, we hiked up to lunch. The restaurant overlooked all of Vernazza, and the sea beyond the town. We had delicious, homemade pesto with pasta for lunch, along with a few skeptical fish appetizers. After lunch, the real 2-hour hike began, from Vernazza to Corniglia. The path led us uphill for the most part, through the trees, right along the edge of the cliffs. The views were absolutely incredible – behind us, ahead of us, and right along our left side all we could see was the bright, clear blue water. The hike itself was tough at times, but totally worth it. When we finally reached the end, we were at the top of Corniglia, overlooking the whole town below us. But, we quickly started our descent down to the town to try some of the homemade gelato, which supposedly offers the best gelato in all of Italy. After trying it, I’d agree. We sat on the rocks along the water, with our gelato, and hung out for a bit before making our way to the fourth “land.”

Manarola was a quick stop, but still beautiful. We hiked to the top of a monastery right along the water, with the most incredible views of the town below. And in town, we walked around a bit and bought some local delicacies – homemade pesto, olive oil, and the Cinque Terre white wine. Haven’t tried any of it yet, but I’ll keep you all updated when I do. From Manarola, we took about a 30-minute boat ride over to Riomaggiore, on which we watched the sun set right along the sea. When we finally got to Riomaggiore, we listened to one of Sándra’s suggestions and walked up to the top part of town to try the local fish and chips – they were SO delicious. Deep fried vegetables and cod, mixed with mini French fries. Incredible.

After a long bus ride back to Florence, Cara took us to Gusta Pizza for dinner. Probably the best pizza I’ve ever had; we each got a personal pie and ate it on the steps outside the restaurant. It was a long and tiring day, but all so worth it…the hike was beautiful, the food was incredible, and the weather was perfect. Cinque Terre is definitely one of my favorites that I’ve visited so far. Next stop on fall break: Nice and Aix-en-Provence with Didi and Aunt Carol!