confused20s

Hi- Almost a month ago, I posted (for the first time) on Fodor's my Rome trip report (here's the link: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ome-report.cfm) as to say thanks for all the useful advice and information I gathered on the site pre-trip. Everybody was kind and gracious and welcoming, which made me all the more motivated. It still took me a while to put the reports for the second leg of our trip together though, which included 3 days in Florence, 1 day in Tuscany and 1 day in Cinque Terre. I could easily paste everything here on Fodor's to save y'all for having to click and click and click, but there's no way to include the photos so bear with me (j/k). Here goes:

- My 3 days in Florence (I'm in the final stage of writing about my last day in Florence. I'll give an updated link as soon as I'm done):
http://theconfuseddasher.com/category/florence/

- My day trip to Cinque Terre visiting 5 villages:
http://theconfuseddasher.com/2013/07...radise-part-2/

- My day trip to Tuscany visiting Siena, Chianti vineyard, San Gimignano and Pisa:
http://theconfuseddasher.com/2013/08...imignano-pisa/

There are a lot of photos (30-plus) in each post, so I hope they give everyone who is about visit a sneak peak of what each place looks like and everyone who has been there a nice walk down the memory lane. If anyone has any question about anything, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or message on my blog or here. I'll try to answer as soon as I can to the best of my knowledge. Now I'm back to reliving Venice and Paris through words and pictures Enjoy!

BumbleB6

Lovely photos, confused20s! And I believe we took that same walkabout tour two summers ago - The Best of Tuscany? The views of the towers of San Gimignano look familiar, .
I'm normally not a fan of seeing a bunch of sights in one day, but that tour changed my opinion of organized day tours. I found it very well-paced and an efficient use of our time, since we only had one week in Florence.

My favorite town was Siena. And I agree about Pisa, it was almost too crowded there to really enjoy! (We went in August.)

Seeing your photos makes me want to go back to Florence and Tuscany and see the things we missed before, as well as go back to Siena and linger more there...

MichelleY

Great photos and report!

Dukey1

You did the five villages on a DAY trip???? THAT is great because

1. you lived to tell about it

2. you enjoyed it as much as everybody else

3. you have proven it can be done

So, please, stay around and when all these naysayers pop up and say you need to spend DAYS there and go on and on about all the "depth travel" and blah blah blah you can remind them that not everyone travels the same way and thank you for your reports.

raincitygirl

Thank you, I enjoyed this every bit as much as your first reports.
Your photos are beautiful and once again I compliment you on your amusing narrative style!

Indogirl1

Can't wait to read about your Venice and Paris adventures, both my favorite cities.

confused20s

BumbleB6: thank you. No, we surely didn't do the same tour 2 summers ago Two summers ago, I was in New York the whole time. I went to Italy for the first time this summer (2013) and did Best of Tuscany and Cinque Terre Trek in 2 days. I'm jealous that you had one week in Florence. I had 5 days and that was too little. Siena is really charming, right? One of the towns that I'd love to explore more. Pisa is so-so, and I feel like many travelers echo the same sentiment. Next time I visit Florence, I'd also check out Lucca. Have you been there?

MichelleY: Thank you. I appreciate it

Dukey1: Thank you. 5 villages in 1 day, totally doable in my opinion. Of course you can spend more time in each village, that would be lovely. But that's more for relaxing purposes. If you want to see the village, learn about it and then move on, doing all of them altogether is the perfect itinerary. I'd love to go back and just lie on the beach doing nothing, though

raincitygirl & Indogirl1: Thanks for the kind words. I'll try to finish them as soon as I can. Posting pictures is a cake, but writing 1,000 words is a bit more time-consuming (though enjoyable).

BumbleB6

"No, we surely didn't do the same tour 2 summers ago" Ok, ok...

My family and I also missed Lucca that time, but wanted to go. Not enough time...
This is another reason why I need to go back to Florence - take a day trip to Lucca; maybe visit Siena again; visit San Miniato al Monte at vespers; actually go inside the Duomo! Yes, that's right. Spent a week in Florence and never made it inside the Duomo - although we walked by it countless times! My husband wanted to see the Galileo museum and we missed that too. So much to see and do - it's hard to relax there!

I love the rest of your blog too, btw.

confused20s

BumbleB6: Walkabout Florence has the Vespa tour. I heard it's absolutely amazing. I personally like riding the Vespa a lot, imagine riding it in the Tuscan countryside...yum haha. There isn't much too see inside the Duomo though, except for climbing the Cupola for the panoramic view of Florence. Speaking from personal experience, the first time everywhere is always jam-packed with activities. That's why we all need to come back, slow down and just soak things in.
Thank you

confused20s

Thought I would give the thread a quick update about the last leg of my Italian trip--Venice. After 4 days in Rome and 5 days in Florence, we got 2 and a half days in Venice before heading to Paris. Many of you have been to Venice before, so you know that we could barely scratch the surface of Venice in 2 days. Before I headed to Venice, I put together a very detailed plan like museums, restaurants, hidden places in each neighborhood and all that jazz. However, just an hour after arriving, I knew that would be the worst way (for us) to explore Venice. So, we completely abandoned the itinerary and just walked everywhere on the two days we stayed there. No church, no museum, no popular tourist spot, even no St Mark Square (OK, does spending 5 minutes there count? ). We did spend half a day visiting Murano and Burano, though. What we accomplished was visiting all the six sestieres (neighborhoods) of Venice, having the whole streets to ourselves 85% of the time and watching the locals leisurely go about their businesses. I certainly felt like I got to know the town in a much more personal way. This might not be the preferential way for everybody, but if you get a chance, I highly recommend you to try it. It's fun. The next time I visit Venice, I will reverse and pay all the touristy places a visit. Anyway, here is the link where I posted a detailed reportage of each day, along with many photos.

http://theconfuseddasher.com/category/venice/

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you have any question. I'd be more than happy to share any tips and tricks I learned (if any). Cheers.

HappyTrvlr

I think when one says it takes more than one day to do the Cinque Terre travelers are referring to hiking the whole trail from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. It can be hiked in one day but two days is a little easier as the hike is quite demanding with many steps and sheer cliff side trails in places. Certainly using boats and trains , it can be done in one day.

confused20s

HappyTrvlr: I agree. I did all the five villages in one day with a combination of hiking, boats and trains. It was fun and well-paced. If you have more time, 2 days will be nice. Cinque Terre is such a gorgeous place, so I don't mind spending a few days there at all

tdk320n

Thank you for your beautifully written and photgraphed report.

Great fun to revisit places that I have been to and see new places to add to my wish list.

vardon

Your trip was very interesting and informative. Did travel from place to place by train or did you rent a car?

jamikins

Lovely photos!!! Sounds like a great trip!

CharlesB

My dear wife Barbara, who is a published photographer, asked me to pass on her compliments for the clarity and creativity of your photos. Good job.

Some of her work can be seen at our trip report for Venice and Florence.

confused20s

Thank you tdk320n, pardon, jamikins. It was a wonderful experience indeed. In Italy, I took the train from Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice. I didn't rent a car because...I can't drive haha.

CharlesB: Thanks so much and pls send my regards to your wife. Her compliment is very, very encouraging. I had a look at the article and the photos are stunning. I think I need to stop looking at pictures of Italy and Europe in general or I would never move on, j/k.

CharlesB

Thanks so much for your kind reply about our Italy article and pictures. I really enjoyed your style of taking so many close up shots, especially of people. You have inspired me to be more creative.

By the way, what kind of camera and lens do you use? Also, how do you get such clear night shots? Any tips along these lines would be helpful.

Hope you continue to enjoy photography. It is great that you have started so young.

Barbara

kelsey22

Wow - I just looked at the photos and I wanted to say how beautiful they ALL are! I will be going back to read about your adventures.

Thanks so much for posting.

confused20s

kelsey22: thank you

CharlesB (or Barbara): my camera is Nikon D5100 and my lens are standard lens (18-55) and fixed lens (50mm f1.8). I have telephoto lens (nikon 55-300 bought in Japan for $100) but I don't really use it that much. I couldn't believe that the one I found most helpful was the standard lens that originally came with the camera. As for night photos, I think tripod is a must. Other than that, I don't know what else to say because I'm such a nob when it comes to low-light and night photography. It's definitely not easy. When I got back to the hotel/apartment at the end of the day, I usually searched online for tips on how to shoot scenes that I hadn't managed to capture earlier in the day A lot to learn...