My Favorite Things to Do in Venice

1. Learn the “story” of Venice. You’ll be glad you did. The history of Venice is alive in the people, the canals and top city monuments. On our first evening in Venice we went to the Teatro San Gallo show, which depicted the story of Venice in an entertaining, yet educational way. We got their dinner and show tickets for the student rate of €80 for two.

2. Visit St. Mark’s. It was one of my favorite churches in all of Italy. Spend the extra euros and visit the treasure room, in there you’ll see saints relics, stones from Jesus’ crucifixion and a piece of His crown of thorns. Be prepared to get emotional and be blown away by some of the items you’ll see in there.

3. Try to count the all of the lions in the city. During a tour we learned there’s over 400+ lion figures in Venice. We could only find 150!

4. Visit the St. Mark’s bell tower in the morning. It’s tourist and pretty pricey for a bell tower, but the views are pretty spectacular. Tickets are about €6. Extra tip – it’s windy up there, so you may want to grab a sweater or jacket, even in the summer.

 

5.  Travel the Grand Canal. You can travel the canal by vaporetto (water bus), gondola or water taxi. Confession time – we took a gondola ride and I’ll be brutally honest with my experience, but that’s another story, check that out here.

 

6. Hang out in the Piazza de San Marco. One late afternoon we purchased a bottle of wine and just walked around the piazza, danced to the string quartet and people watched. It was lovely.

 

7. Visit the small canals too! The vibe of these canals are more casual and quaint. They aren’t as busy or filled with as many people so you can really enjoy the view.

 

8. Stroll the city at night. The photos don’t do it justice. It’s magical!

How to Explore Every Village in Cinque Terre

Not a hiker? That’s okay! There’s other ways to see the beautiful villages of Cinque Terre. You have the option to travel by boat or train. We tried both and loved the different perspective each gives.

By boat – there’s a ferry that costs €15 for a daily pass. It may not look like a very “formal” operation based on the where you purchase tickets from, but it totally is. We just purchased our tickets from a women sitting at a booth selling ferry tickets. But you should know that they only accept cash.  For more information, visit their site.

 

(This is where you purchase your ticket for the boat)

By train – It quickly runs through all five villages multiple times a day. This is the cheapest and quickest way to see all the villages. It cost €3 for a one way ticket. I will admit that the timetables are slightly confusing, so I recommend asking a rail station employee for help if needed. For more information visit their official site.

Another option is to purchase the Cinque Terre Card that gives you unlimited access to the train, among other benefits (access to the hiking paths and wi-fi connection). For one day this card costs €7,50. For additional information on the card, visit their official site.

How to Hike Cinque Terre

We spent a few lovely days off the western coast of Italy in the colorful towns that make up Cinque Terre. This area is by far one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. In order to capture all of it’s beauty we hiked the footpaths between the towns. We were staying in Monterrso so we started there and hiked to the next village, which is Vernazza. We had full intentions of hiking to the third village, Corniglia, however we were so burnt out from the first hike we took other modes of transportation to see the other three villages that make up Cinque Terre.

Here’s a few things we learned along the way!

• You have to pay to get access to the trails between each town. There is a small pay booth at the beginning of each path. One pass costs €8. Note – they only accept cash.
  • Another option is to purchase the Cinque Terre Card that gives you access to the hiking paths, as well as unlimited access to the train and wi-fi connection. For a one day pass, this card costs € 7,50. For additional information on the card, click here.
• Some of the trails are could be closed due to weather conditions, so check their site.
• There are no bathrooms or water fountains on the trails. Make sure you bring enough water! We had a water bottle for each of us, but could have used another one!
• The trails are narrow in most places and usually doesn’t have a handrail.
• There are over 400 steps in the hike from Monterrso to Vernazza.
• There are scenic overlooks where you can stop and take photos.
• Wear comfortable workout clothes

 

So, how long does each hike take?

• Monterrso to Vernazza (1.5-2 hours)
• Vernazza to Corniglia ( 1.5 – 2 hours)
• Corniglia to Manarola (1-1.5 hours)
• Manarola to Riomaggiore ( 0.5-1 hour) – this is currently closed until 2015

If you still have questions about hiking between Cinque Terre’s villages. We found these resources to be really helpful.

• Cinque Terre Footpaths 
• Cinque Terre Hiking

Anyone else have any advice to share about their experience hiking Cinque Terre? Please share!

6 Day Trips Worth Taking In Minnesota

The definition of travel is “to go from one place to another, as on a trip or journey”. So then, what is the definition of journey “a distance, course or area traveled” .

It doesn’t have to be half way across the world or even a 10 hour drive. This is why I love day trips. It’s a quick escape from your reality, whatever your reality is. For me, reality or home in the great city of Minneapolis. I love the city lights, semi busy atmosphere and great architecture, but escaping that life ever once and awhile can feel just as good as traveling to a exotic land.

 

Here are a few of my favorite day trips in Minnesota.

1. Stillwater, MN

Less than an hour from Minneapolis. This small town off of the St. Croix river is surrounded by great views. Grab your hiking boots and let your adventurous side run wild. After hiking grab some food at one of the quaint restaurants off the river. They even have a few wineries and a brewery that are worth visiting. Peter and I love day trip to Stillwater.

2. Duluth, MN

This maybe a stretch because it’s 2.5 hours away, so feel free to stay the night if need be. This maybe one of my favorite places in Minnesota, only in the summer. The winters can be a bit cold!

Lake Superior hugs this town and makes it look much smaller than it is. If you haven’t even to Superior, it’s huge. You literally can’t see the other side. There’s a scenic drive that goes for miles, but if you want to stay in Duluth the lift bridge is pretty cool.

3. Red Wing, MN

4. Taylor’s Falls, MN and WI

Less than an hour from Minneapolis, this little historic town sits on a huge glacial pothole. This is another great hiking trip. Visit the potholes, as well as climb to the top of the cliffs for some awesome views of the valley.

5. Minhaha Falls, MN

Okay so this is technically still in Minneapolis, however it’s obviously not in the heart of downtown, where we live, so I still consider this as a day trip. I’m probably bias because this place is where peter asked me to marry him!!

You can also canoe or kayak all the way down the Minnhaha creek to the falls. This is an amazing experience, lots of work if you do the whole thing, but totally worth it. The creek starts in Lake Minnetonka and wides down for 18 miles until you arrive at the falls in Minneapolis. Check out the time we canoed it here.

6. Rochester, MN

This city reminds me of a mini Minneapolis with its city vibe. Only an hour and a half from the Twin cities makes it a perfect day trip. One of my favorite things to do there is visit the caves!

 

 

Travel Tips – Italy

My husband and I recently returned from an amazing trip to Italy! We prepared for over a year for our Italian adventure! Researching, saving and planning. Despite how much I prepared before the trip a few things still stocked me. Below is a list of travel tips for Italy (some I learned before the trip and a few tips we picked up along the way).

 

1. You walk a lot! We averaged over 24,000 steps a day! (Back at home I barely reach 10,000 a day.) So bring comfortable shoes. I brought converse sneakers, but wished I would have brought tennis shoes.

2. Showers are small. Very small.

3. Bring reusable water bottles. In nearly every major city (Rome, Florence, Venice and I am sure others) we found natural spring water fountains that you can use to fill up your water bottle or take a quick drink from.

4. Bring or buy Vitamin C when you are there. Your body will thank you.

5. Bring more cash. I read many blogs/articles that claimed the “big” cities in Italy takes plastic, but from our experience over 50% of restaurants, tourist attractions and souvenir shops didn’t take plastic.

6. Book a ticket for the sites you really want to see. The lines are crazy long, especially during busy season.

7. Bring your own headphones. Some of the tourist attractions have a separate fee for audio guides. If you are traveling with a companion, just purchase one audio guide and use your headphones in the spare jack.

8. Pack only what you need. (See our 2 week packing list blog post)

9. Have some understanding of the high speed train that runs across Europe . A site that really helped us was Rail Europe. We even booked our train ahead of time!

10. Take advantage of their public transportation (trains,subways,buses).

11. Carry a safety purse and/or wallet. We saw our fair share of pIck pocketing while there. I had my travel purse and Peter carried a wallet with a chain lock. We felt extra safe with these.

12. Don’t order water at a meal unless you want to pay for a bottle water. There’s no such thing as “tap” water at restaurants. A bottle of water ranged from 2E to 6E.

13. Don’t eat the bread served unless you want to pay for it. It usually cost 3E per person for bread.

14. If you order water, you will get asked if you would like still or sparkling water.

15. Try to learn some Italian before you go. You’ll get more respect from the locals for trying. We learned from a free app called Duolingo.

16. Give yourself extra time when trying to arrive somewhere at a specific time (I.e. A tour or train ride). Things move a little bit slower over there. And worst case scenario be prepared to RUN!

17. Bring two converters. You’ll need it for charging your cell phones, iPad, camera, etc. We got ours from Amazon and they worked perfectly. One even have multiple USB plugins so we could charge all small electronics at the same time.

18. If you don’t want to get charged with international data fees make sure you keep your cell phone on airplane mode AND turn off your data before leaving the country.

 

Have your own tips you’d like that share? Please do so below!