Jul 14 - Italy Pictures

In April Marco and I did a road trip to Italy. We visited Florence, Siena and Arezzo and hiked the UNESCO World Heritage area called the Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean coast. Here are some pictures of the trip.....



Florence: Il Duomo



















Florence: the dome inside Il Duomo


















Florence: the Ponte Vecchio -- it's a a medieval bridge which has shops built across it. Many medieval bridges were encrusted with shops and houses (in Paris, for example) but few such bridges have survived.


















Siena: Il Duomo


















Siena: the Palazzo Publico


















Cinque Terre: the Cinque Terre, or Five Lands, is actually a set of five traditional Mediterranean villages. The local fishing industry here was dying and along with it these five villages. UNESCO made the area a protected World Heritage site. The villages are now closed to cars and are experimenting with a system of sustainable tourism that will enable the villages to survive. For three days we hiked the area through all five villages. Here we are leaving from Porto Venere, past old fortified ramparts.


















Cinque Terre: peninsula fort at the entrance to the bay of Porto Venere


















Cinque Terre: coastal flowers























Cinque Terre: a family vineyard


















Cinque Terre: spending the night in the village of Riomaggiore























Cinque Terre



















Cinque Terre: the village of Vernazza























Cinque Terre: cold water in the village of Vernazza























Cinque Terre: the village of Vernazza



















Cinque Terre: they got that date right...























Cinque Terre: boat back to Porto Venere