Today was another split activity day, with Mum going in to Florence while I headed further along the coast to Cinque Terre.

Having said I goodbyes for the day, Mum board the coach to Florence while I headed to my tour meeting point .

After her arrival in Florence and with a bit of time to spare before she needed to be at the museum, Mum decided to have a little bit of a wander around the cobbled stoned streets. Mum reports that the Duomo (Santa Maria del Flores) is still standing and is still a popular tourist attraction. The Duomo is a good example of Renaissance architecture. It was built in the 1430s by a fellow named Brunelleschi and was constructed without the use of internal scaffolding. As the line to get in was quite long, I don't believe she ended up going in, however I’m fairly sure she spent a bit of time admiring it.

At about noon, it was time head to the main event – the Uffizi Museum. The Uffizi Museum is one of the oldest and most famous museums of the western world. Paintings in the museum include Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Da Vinci’s The Annunciation. Last time Mum had visited the museum, she only had an hour to see the whole thing and as such had to rush through. This time, with a timed ticket, she was able to view the many masterpieces at her leisure. In even better news, it would appear the museum has caught up with the times and now allows non flash photography of its pieces – last time we visited it, we got in trouble for wanting a photo of Venus.

After perusing the art works for a while, she continued her walk around the city and begun her mission to break a 200 euro note she had managed to get her hands on . After trying quite a few banks and seeking some advice from the guide, she headed to the nearest pub and then proceeded to purchase a bottle of beer using the 200 euro note. On the walk back to the meeting point for the coach, she had a quick looks at the Church of Santa Croce, which houses the tombs of Michelangelo and Dante among others.

Meanwhile on the coast, I was making my way along the coastline that gives Cinque Terre its main draw card.

There are three ways to see Cinque Terre – on a ferry, on a train, or braving the winding roads to drive it. For most of the trip we opted for the ferry.

After an hour drive from where the ship was docked, we arrived at Porto Venere, the starting point for our ferry ride. On the edge of town is the Church of San Petro, a very old stone church. From next to the church you can get some good views of the ragged and steep coastline that makes up this part of Italy .

Working our way north from Porto Venere, the ferry first stopped at the town of Riomaggiore, although we didn’t hop off. Due to the timing of the ferries, if we had gotten off, we would be waiting up to an hour for the next one to come along. It is the most southern village of the five Cinque Terre and is known for its wine and character. It was also the starting/finishing point for the Via dell Amore aka the Love Trail when it was opened.

Our first off ferry stop was Manarola. It is thought to be oldest town of the five and speaks a slightly different dialect to the other Cinque Terre towns. It was also the starting/ending point for the Love Trail. Just before we left for the ferry, the town was struck by really high winds. While it was amusing to see tourists helping store owners hold their shop awnings down, it wasn’t so fun having the sand/dirt/sticks flung into your legs. The winds only lasted about 10 minutes and then were gone and quickly as they came . We later found out that the wind was heading south.

The final stop by ferry was Vernazza. It is the fourth town heading north, has no car traffic, and is said to be one of the truest "fishing villages" on the Italian Riviera. In October 2011, the town was struck by torrential rains, massive flooding, and mudslides. The downpour and mudslides left the town buried in over 4 metres of mud and debris, causing over 100 million euro worth of damage. The town was evacuated and remained in a continued state of emergency.

This was also where we had our lunch stop and boy did lunch turn out to be controversial. I’m not sure whether the waiter was just a nasty person or whether he was having a bad day. It all started when we asked if we could either move to a table in the shade or get the umbrellas put up (half the group were sitting in the midday sun). Begrudgingly they put the umbrellas up. Then there was the 'oil and vinegar’ incident. Normally when the restaurant provides bread, you get some local olive oil and balsamic vinegar too, except at this restaurant where when we asked about it, the answer we got was ‘we’re not obliged to provide it’, well that’s all well and good but we didn’t really feel like eating dry salty bread . The rest of the meal went down hill and overall lunch left a bad taste in our mouths – both physically and mentally.

Our final stop in Cinque Terre was Corniglia. The town is not directly adjacent to the sea. Instead, it is on the top of a promontory about 100 metres high, surrounded on three sides by vineyards and terraces and the fourth side descends steeply to the sea. This town isn’t really accessible via the ferry, so we rejoined our guide and got to experience the narrow, winding roads of the area. If you do want to use the ferry, it is necessary to climb the Lardarina, a long brick flight of steps composed of 33 flights with 382 steps The town is mentioned in a famous novella of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and in the novel The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan.

On the way back to the dock at Livorno, we had a quick stop in Pisa to check on the status of the Leaning Tower and the Field of Miracles. I am able to report that the tower is still leaning and best of all people are still doing the ‘look at me I’m holding it up, pushing it down, being crushed by it’ kind poses. As we only had 30 minutes in Pisa, we didn’t have an opportunity to climb the 296 steps to the top (thankfully, as I’m not good with heights).

A short drive back to the ship and then Mum and I were reunited.

Fun fact:
Florence has had many famous residents – Florence Nightingale, Leonardo Di Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, Galilaeo, Amerigo Vespucci, Donatello and Guccio Gucci.