tin roof.... rusted!

K back to it.

Leaving France was kind of le sad, but the next stop held a couple of cities that neither of us had ever been to: Pisa and Florence. The port was Livorno, so we took a little tour led by a dude named gianni. Mar and Joe have had a tour by this guy before so we knew he'd be a winner, and he did not disappoint.

We first checked out Pisa, after a short drive through the country side {recurring theme - we pretty much took country roads from place to place. amazing scenery}, and it was a good thing we got there relatively early because let us tell ya, it gets packed quick. Seriously though, we got about 10 minutes of relaxing strolls around the piazza del duomo before we were swallowed by the mobs. It's a good thing they showed up though because we were worried that the tower would fall over without all the people acting like they were holding it up. Granted we maybe should have done the pose because it's so classic or something like that, but just seeing all the goons with arms or legs randomly up in the air just turned us off.

And speaking of goons, there was this one girl who was literally having a photo shoot on the lawn of the baptistry. A full 20-minute photo shoot chock-full of crazy, back-bending poses and super attractive duck faces. A few of our faves:

On our way out of pisa we caught some scenery of the Arno, the original leaning bell tower, and then headed off down a windy, country road and stopped at a olive oil and table wine production facility. We learned more than we ever thought we could about olive oil and how it's made and then got to taste some of the local olive oil. So good. Had to buy some and bring it back.

{the original leaning tower}

But for sure the best surprise of the morning was this old Italian bro coming in to buy some wine. First a little back story. This house/villa/wonderful place makes just regular ol' table wine that is not the good stuff, but is definitely good enough for any of us. We go in there an expect to get a little sample from some open jugs or jars or something. We got a sample, but not from anything like that. We walk in and see this stainless steel, terminator-style, gas station-esque, beautiful wine pumping apparatus. This thing literally dispenses wine at the pull of a trigger.

It was glorious.

So we get a bunch of samples of all sorts of different wines with all kinds of alcohol contents and it was so good. Of course, we're drinking fresh table wines at an olive oil production facility in the middle of the Tuscan countryside and tasting a bunch of different olive oils with amazing breads. We coulda be drinking warm beer from the bottom of a quarter-filled Oktoberfest pitcher and we woulda been happy.

But back to the point - you can buy awesome wine in whatever quantity you want, basically. So we see this quintessential, wrinkly Italian man do a typical sprezza stroll in to this shop, grab a massive multi-liter bag and pump its guts full of the red table wine. Immediately, we decide we need to follow this guy wherever he is going.

Alas, the tour had to continue.

We drove up through the countryside to get to Florence and we automatically knew that we would have to come back. I mean, the scenery is just crazy beautiful. We kind of came in from the back way, I guess, and after some awesome panoramics we headed to a piazza to walk around then head to grub. 

{layne at her normal weight...}

{... and what layne would look like 20 lbs heavier}

We got down into piazza santa croce, took a look around and actually ended up buying a painting. The calcio fiorentino was about to go down so there was a massive steel structure in the middle of the piazza. Gianni told us about the game, but no one really followed how it actually works. The gist we got: it's like gladiator rugby with no rules whatsoever. And you can wear anything you want. And anyone in the world can play. We think.

{the small plaque in the middle was the water level during the flood of 1966}

Straight from the piazza, Gianna set us up at this restaurant and let us tell ya, this was legit. Like, when you think italian, it's pretty much this place. Orange ricotta ravioli with an almond pesto {layne's dish that we will attempt to recreate soon}, homemade spaghetti with a spicy tomato sauce {second best dish of the day. classic for a reason}, and then the other obvious amazingness like bruschetta, tiramisu, house wine, etc. Seriously, drinking house wine in Italy might be the best feeling in the world.

{if you go to florence, you must eat here...}

{and order this....}

{... and this. the best ravioli ever}

We were bloated after lunch. And pretty much feeling great from the wine. Perfect time to go to a museum and see the statue. We got in straight away thanks to Gianni {again} and we were soon on the streets of Florence to just walk around and see what the city is like. We got to see the duomo and baptistry, ponte vecchio, have a beer at a cafe in a small piazza {one of our fave things to do, anywhere}. We feel like we barely had any time in this awesome city and we are pretty much already planning out our next trip there. No cruise this time, just gonna rent a car and drive across the country.

{our illegal picture of state of david}

{street artists using chalk}

{ponte vecchio}

Last stop on the Gianni train was a trip to a gelato shop. This place was a bargain compared to some of the other places we've been. And that was just the bonus cause the gelato here was some of the best we've tasted. Layne got her signature pistachio {and actually added nutella to it. pretty good, but those are her two fave flavors, so of course it was good} and Kyle got the best flavor of the lot: berries and pie crust mixed with vanilla gelato. Wipe that drool off ya face.

With our bellies full of sugary, creamy delight, we all dozed off on the way back to the boat. Well, except for Joe and Mar probably. But it was a good thing we caught some zzz's, because that night was a doozy.

Precursor:

The seas were angry that night, my friends.

Some of Layne's worst fears include: 1) flying; 2) deep water {you can see now that flying over deep water is absolutely, bone-chillingly terrifying. meds will be packed for the next trip}; 3) spiders {don't factor in here, but nasty nonetheless}. So basically Layne doesn't like when she's not standing on solid ground, right? So good thing that night was ridiculously rough and even the captain and crew were commenting on how rocky the boat was. We pretty much felt drunk just walking around.

And that gave us an idea.

Why not drink so eventually you are in sync with the boat rocking and therefore you don't feel it? What made this plan work even better was that there was a gold member party going on with free cocktails. Guess who are gold members? You probably guessed right, it's us.

The other kids joined along and it lead to a seriously memorable night. Instead of us writing what happened, we thought we'd do a hangover credits type thing and just let the pictures speak for themselves. Try to follow what happened.

Obviously, we all like to dance, but how could we not. We got them to play Tricky and a Love Shack  techo remix. Invite us to you're wedding, play us these songs and it's a guaranteed fact that we will dance and automatically make your reception fun. 

Promise the next post will be the last about the trip and then we will finally be back to our normal boringness.