Last night as we went to bed (with ear plugs this time haha) we decided that the only thing we really wanted to do in Florence before our train left at 2 was go up to the top of the Duomo. We knew the line would be long, but figured we would just wake up whenever with a relaxed morning and then go over instead of trying to get there before it even opened. Well the lazy morning was nice! Free breakfast with our Air B&B, a little workout, getting packed up & ready for the day. We didn't leave until like 10:30. By the time we got our tickets and got in the long line for the dome it was 11:00. The line was long and moving slow, (great time to catch up on the blog) it was supposed to take 3 hours just to get inside! Then you still have to walk up, we didn't think we would make it in time. Russ went and looked at one of the other lines to go up to the top of the bell tower instead of the dome, I also checked out that line and we decided that it would be better. It goes basically as high as the dome, but this way we could still see the dome! The dome is like our favorite thing about Florence so we wanted it to be part of the view.
Plus the line for the bell tower only took about an hour. So even though this wasn't our original plan, it ended up being awesome!
Then we were on or way up! It seems like we are constantly climbing stairs on this trip! Haha good thing the view is always worth it. This time was no difference. The bell tower has like 3 or 4 different levels you can stop at so it's fun to see the city and the dome from different heights.
Almost to the top!
And here's the top.
Is that beautiful or what?!
I was a little bit blinded by the light haha
Pisa also had this statue; we have no idea who he is but we thought he was funny:I love how all of the orange/brown rooftops look in Florence.
Before I knew it we were on the train leaving Florence. Thanks for the good time Firenze!
It took a good 15 minutes of speed walking to get to the tower. And man when they said it was leaning they weren't kidding! (Haha one more movie quite..."hey Lucy, is this guy bothering you? He's leaning.")
Seriously I can't get enough of all the pretty views we are seeing this trip!
But soon it was time to head
back down the dark, skinny, hot & crowded stone staircases.
With only about an hour left in our Flornece time we just perused the street markets a little bit. There are some beautiful things here. Haha some guys tried to convince me to buy a $250 leather jacket because it was 40% off...yeah right! I did buy a little purse from someone else though...and it's adorable!
We tried on some fun hats...thanks to my grandma Larsen I love doing that. She had a collection of big, fun, fancy hats. All of us grand daughters loved to dress up in her hats and take pictures. And grandma played right along having as much fun as us! Tomorrow at her funeral when they go to the cemetery all of the granddaughters will be wearing big beautiful hats in honor of grandma :) I think it's a great idea and I'm super sad to not be there! But I atleast got a picture today in a big hat that Grandma Weez would have loved! 
Our final destination today was Cinque Terre, a string of five beach villages on the west coast of Italy (sounds awesome right?) but on our way we stopped for about an hour and a half in Pisa. Just enough time to see the famous leaning tower. "It's a leaning tower of cheese-a!" Haha.
It's amazing that it hasn't fallen over. There were tourists all around, each one taking their own fun picture with the tower. We jumped right in!
Russ had this brilliant plan, ninja style:
I went this route; I'll huff and I'll puff and blow you right over!
Together we make this:
It was a good time! Over all you could say we loved it so much we could hug it! 
On our way back Russ was excited to grab a kebab Duner from this place. See the big meat spit in the back there?
Although it was good, it wasn't quite German status. 
The rest of our train ride had some really pretty stretches. 
The train was way hot though! All the windows are down, so I thought I'd stick my head out the window to cool down & get a different view, puppy dog style. The train is moving quick and it was win-dy! 
We got to our city, La Spezia, around 6:30 and started waking towards our place. It's was raining here earlier today and the tops of the mountains are covered in mist. It really reminds us of the mountains in Hawaii!
As we approached the neighborhood of our Bed & Breakfast it was ghet-to! Seriously I was like "well an adventure is good haha" but then we got to the big locked gate, rang the bell and once we got in it is really nice! "I Colori de MAGI" Seriously so cute. It has a color theme...we are staying in the orange room.
Yes, lots of orange. Go Spartans haha. It is way nice though, even with a fireplace,(not needed!) great AC, nice towels and slippers! Pretty awesome. The common area downstairs is also great.
By then it was about 7:30 so we walked back into the city to find dinner. We figured since we're on the Mediterranean coast we should do seafood right? Plus that's my favorite. We went into this place:
The yahts were amazing. Three of them were like mini cruise ships! We love boats and harbors so this was way fun and we were in awe! Unfortunately the picture quality is pretty bad :( 
The head waiter there just felt like a classic Italian experience, it was awesome! He sat us down and was great at "selling" the menu. 
Once we ordered he came out like two minutes later and said "it's a present for you" in this great little accent and set down two mini appetizers that were way good.
(Pretty sure we ended up paying for them, but whatever) I love seafood and this meal didn't disappoint me. For grilled fish the option today was sea bass, yum...I wasn't sure it would come out like this:
There was some serious seafood coming out of this place, like this giant lobster platter:But it did and was seriously so good! Very tender, fresh and flavorful, without being "fishy".
Russ got the fried shrimp. It was a lot of work for each shrimp haha but way tasty from what I had! 
And here you have the remains...
"I've got a cold fish head...frozen head of fish!". . . Anyone know that quote?
Overall way yummy and a fun experience!
To end the night we walked down to the pier. There was an awesome bridge, which Russ the engineer told me all about it. 
And there were tons of cool fishing boats, sail boats and yahts.
It was a nice long walk. It's always fun to just walk hand in hand and talk, which on this trip we're doing that all the time! Tonight we talked a lot about the future and cool engineering things Russ wants to do etc. I love that he is so excited about his field and passionate about it. There are lots of things he wants to do, he will never be bored that's for sure!
Today was a great day, we can't wait to see what adventure tomorrow brings!
Frozen solid! Frozen head of fish! Brian Regan? I sure love reading about all of your adventures. The only thing better for me would be to be there experiencing it all with you! Sounds so amazing!
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