Italy

Milan
After a quick flight from Athens we arrived in Milan. We made our way into the city center just as it was getting dark after an hour bus ride from the airport. Finding our hostel was a tougher feat than we had expected, after discovering that rather than having street signs, the street names were just posted on buildings. Our big backpacks didn't help. After settling into our room, we craved our first Italian meal. Luckily when we walked onto the street, just around the corner there was a hole in the wall Pizzaria, that had by far our favorite pizza to date. And of course we sought out the best gelato spot on the block and fell in love. The next morning we made our way to the train station and off to Levanto we went.

LEVANTO
Our first European train ride flew by because we were so excited to be in Italy. We decided to go west to a small city just north of Cinque Terre called Levanto. We were quickly swept away by the charming feel of the city. While searching for our hostel we realized that we arrived during a really intense bike race/festival going on in the middle of the city. We seem to be in all of the right places at the right time. Shortly after checking into our hostel, we found a local produce market where we bought some fruit and veggies. This was followed by a trip to the grocery store where we loaded up on cheese and wine. After polishing off our treats we meant to take a short cat nap, but ended up falling asleep until the morning.

The next day, to make up for our lazy first day, we decided to do the Cinque Terre hike. It was a 5 hour hike/walk through five coastal towns nestled in between cliffs, olive groves and vineyards.
We managed to make a few stops for pictures, gelato, chocolate caneloni and the occasional glass of vino.

The next day was our final day in Levanto so we spent it on the beach. We wanted to stay an extra night but tourist season had started and we had to change our plans last minute. The woman at the reception mentioned that Lucca was a cute place to stay the night, so we made hostel reservations and were off.

LUCCA
Upon first glance, Lucca reminded us of a scene out of Big Fish or Pleasantville. The Centro Storico, where we stayed, was walled off from the rest of the city and the main plaza contained little more than an antique carousel. Our hostel exceeded our expectations-it was furnished with enough beds for all of us, a couch, a table and a big window overlooking the plaza. They even had free coffee and pastries! The first night we went out to dinner where the men at the table next to us asked us to do a jingle for the radio station that they deejayed for. After a few takes we cam3e up with a real gem, something along the lines of: Hello, you're listening to radio 2000, woooo!! We also tried our first lemoncello that night, on the house.

The next day we woke up early because we had big plans to go to a small town on a hill called Terriciola to celebrate the annual Fragola (Strawberry) Festival that we had read about somewhere. People told us that it would be impossible to get there, but after several buses and a cab ride later, we defied the odds and ended up at the fest...only to get there during siesta so we were the only people in attendance. To pass the siesta hours, we decided to grab a bottle of local Tuscan wine, some strawberries and whip cream and sit on the ledge of a building overlooking the countryside. When we thought siesta might be ending we went back to the location of the festival just in time to see a marching band, dancers and to see that there were actually people other than us at the festival. We dined on strawberry risotto and scalopini (thinking it was strawberry scallops but realizing that that actually meant pork). It was one of our favorite Italian meals.

We spent the rest of our time in Lucca relaxing, seaking out grocery stores and enjoying the small town feel. On our final day in Italy we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower and then took a train to Florence for dinner and some sight seeing. We were there just in time to see the sun set over the river. After stuffing our bellies with walnut ravioli, pesto pasta and gelato we got on a train to Milan where we bussed to the airport to sleep for the night. Next we were off to Morocco!