Wanderberry Tales

We explored the architectural extravaganza that is Rome and Vatican and then had headed to the beautiful countryside of Tuscany and Umbria . Our last destination would be La Spezia to explore the coastal villages of Cinque Terre. We briefly stopped by Pisa to catch a glimpse of one among the many wonders of the world ( just because I think that there are more than 7 wonders) - The Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took the train to Pisa and had our luggage checked into the baggage area before an approximately 2.5 km walk to the Leaning Tower. We loved the fact that the trains in Italy were well maintained, be it regional, intercity, or the high speed Freccia trains. It was lunch time and we stopped by a restaurant where we fed ourselves on ravioli (yum!!), pasta and finished it off with a panacotta. If you have visited the Leaning tower, you sure should have a souvenir to substantiate it - you have endless souvenir shopping choices along the road. Magnets,...

It is not just the architecture of Italy that captivates the hearts, the luscious greens spread across acres of countryside is equally alluring. After our tryst with Rome and the Vatican , we set out to Florence to explore the serenity of the country.  This was the part we were really looking forward in our Italy trip. We had reservations on Frecciarossa - high speed trains that connects the provinces in Italy. We got a free upgrade and hence traveled business class to Florence.  You get free upgrades on the Trenitalia website during non peak hours if you book early.  On reaching Florence (Firenze SMN station) we first took a bus to the airport. Then from the airport we need to take a shuttle to car rental agency,  from where we rented the car. The car rental agency has counters for different car rental companies like Hertz, Europcar, etc etc. Shibin had pictured himself driving a quaint little Fiat in the countryside. After spending quite a bit o...