Due to some personal issues I will be taking a bit of a break from blogging. Please send positive thoughts my way!
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November 2010
After leaving Sienna and the other hill towns of Tuscany we needed to head back to Florence to drop off our rental car and we stayed one more night in Florence. We left luggage at the hotel and grabbed day packs since we were heading to Pisa and the Cinque Terre. After figuring out the train schedule and the best way to stop off we headed towards Pisa.
Pisa can be done in just a few hours. You stop off on the train, hop a bus downtown see the Leaning Tower walk around a bit and get back on your way to the next town. Checking off seeing one of the major landmarks in Italy.
The area around the Leaning Tower is packed with tourists and it is best to head there, wait for pictures and decide if you want to tour the tower or just do the “required” photos. We opted for the later and stopped off to take pictures and stretch for a bit.
Now I am sure Pisa is a great town but we saw what we needed to see and headed back on the bus to the train station and continued on our journey to see the Cinque Terre.
Favorite Part: Seeing the engineering marvel
Not So Favorite Part: Being surrounded by tour groups, it was packed and hard to move around the tower.
Coming Up Next Week: Cinque Terre
Looking for more Travel Thursday:
Other Travel Thursday Posts:
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Tonight has been the first night we have been home to have dinner all week and we needed to use up some items in the fridge and pantry before we leave. I came across a print out of a Roasted Cinnamon Pear Bruschetta from Jessica’s blog and figured I have pairs to use and could make my own version.
I chopped up two on their last leg pairs and added them to a skillet with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. After cooking for about 12 minutes I added in the balsamic and cooked for another minutes. I served the pairs on top of whole wheat crackers spread with a bit of bison gouda cheese. The crunch from the crackers and a nice warm pairs over the cheese was so delicious.
On the side a few peanut butter and jelly halves on wheat bread with raspberry jam and dark chocolate peanut butter.
The fridge is looking very bare with just a few beverages. condiments and the usual cheese drawer.
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Packing light is a necessity when going on a nine day trip that will involve at least 4 cities and lots of moving around. There is nothing fun about checking a bag and have it not show up, lugging a heavy suitcase on public transportation and having to walk down an old street with a wheeled bag that doesn’t wheel very well on those streets.
I spent about 40 minutes finding good travel clothes from our bin in the basement, grabbing the shoes I would need and prepping my bag. I started with making piles of the clothes I though I would need for our 9 day trip. The weather will be in the 50’s and 60’s so I needed layering clothes and mostly pants. For 9 days I grabbed 9 base shirts, 2 layering options, 4 pairs of pants, 1 skirt, 1 pair of jeans and two additional pairs of shoes other than what I will be wearing on the plane.
I laid all the clothing out, eliminated a few pieces and got to work rolling each item and using a rubber band to compress. I placed all the tops in one compression sack while all the pants were placed in the second one.
After placing all the apparel items in the sacks and got to work on compressing them down. Using the straps on the opposite sides to start compression and alternating between sides to get the items as small as possible.
Each sack was placed in the backpack with my pj’s and undergarments in the front pocket, my rain jacket rolled and placed on top of the two compression sacks.
We will be carrying on our backpacks, camera bags and one lighter vest for the cool evenings. I don’t usually wear my big backpack but rather carry it by the handle and have my camera bag on my back.
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