Florence, Tuscany, and Cinque Terre Italy

Our final stop in Italy...we arrived and went directly to a leather place called Leonado as Florence is known for its leather. A local guide then took us on a tour of this city filled with stunning architectural styles. We went into some cathedrals with more perfect paintings.

The balcony at the top is actually a painting!

After the tour we went to our hostel to get ready to go wine tasting in Tuscany! We joined up with another tour group from EF and went to La Tancia. We were served Italian snacks and cheeses to go with our 6 wines we got to taste. After, we were free to explore and wander through the vineyard.We laughed so much, I was in heaven. As everyone drank quite a lot of wine, the bus ride back was all about everyone singing karaoke and dancing like maniacs. A few of us got off the bus early to watch the sun set over Florence. Since we got off the bus, we had to walk back to the hostel. I remember us dancing, singing, twirling, and laughing a whole lot through the city until we made our way back to the hostel.

The next day was spent in the Cinque Terre Region of Italy. We hopped on a train where the tracks followed the Mediterranean sea. The first town we went to is known for its picture perfect scenery, and I could see why. It was all colored houses along the cliff side of the sea. I could hardly believe people lived here as it is so crazy beautiful. We went and walked around the side of the cliff in order to get that "perfect picture". I also stumbled upon a swing set and of course had to give it a go.

The next town required a hike up a billion and one stairs...I almost died, but it was well worth it. There were more colored homes around lush trees, and a cute little beach area. We sat on the ledge, walked through the water, and relaxed.

The final town we spent about 4 hours at as it had the biggest beach. We went swimming, out to the buoy and enjoyed our first swim in the Mediterranean. It was so much fun, that we decided to walk to the shack on the beach and order some strawberry margaritas. One thing to note about this place, is that this drink comes in a bucket (two full bottles of tequila) in them for quite a cheap price. You are also allowed to swim with the buckets so we swam, and sat in the water laughing our lives away. This soon got disrupted sightly as we noticed there were jellyfish floating around and some people from our tour group were getting stung. We stayed on the shoreline at that point. Sadly, we then had to get back on the train and go back to our hostel. A few friends and I decided to end the night by a little evening walk around the town on the search for our last Italian gelato.