June Travels...

After Josh's CFA exam, we jumped right on a plane in London to start our 8 day tour through Northern Italy and Southern France. 

First stop was the waterways and narrow walkways of Venice!

After our morning run, we had breakfast of omlettes and prosecco.  When in Venice...

The Art Museum

The Rialto Bridge that crosses the Grand Canal

The largest pizza ever that I was dying to dive into and the chef in the background.  Pizza was a MAJOR theme throughout this trip!

Live jazz music over the lunch hour in the Piazza San Marco

St. Mark's Basilica- home to hundreds of tourists and even more pigeons

San Marco Canal with the island San Giorgio in the background.  Love the gondola stations.

After a full day and night in Venice, we jumped on a train and headed to Florence.

My favorite church of all time...Duomo

The Loggia della Signoria in Palazzo Vecchio

Josh and his buddy, David

Ponte Vecchio in the background

One of our favorite lunch spots. Baguettes with "pink mayo."

Before our bike tour, Josh needed an hour to catch up on the Mavs playoff game.  Thankfully, they won...otherwise we might have had a crabby biker.

And we are off to see Florence on our cruisers with our guide.

The golden doors at the Baptistry

The sunset over Florence

Uffizi Gallery

We had dinner at our tour guides favorite local pizza joint.  A little hole in the wall with an option of house red or house white wine and pizza only.  We got lucky with a 10:30 reservation...we now know why it is booked ages in advance, and we even shared a table with two gentleman.

The last stop in Italy was Cinque Terre...undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in the world, even with 48 hours of rain and landslide warnings.  Due to the weather, 3 out of 4 of the hiking trails that connect the "five lands" were closed the day we arrived and then all 4 were closed the day we left.  Clearly we need to schedule another trip back.

We started in the Southern most village, Riomaggiore, at lunchtime with high hopes that the clouds would blow over.

This was our only hike...Riomaggiore to Manarola.

Manarola behind us

Corniglia in the other direction

We then jumped on the train to get into Corniglia

We met a couple at a cliff point and shared a bottle of wine with them.  They had met 2 weeks prior to the trip.  One from Australia and one from Sweden.

Manarola in the distance

Again, we jumped on the train to get back the town we were staying...Vernazza...the most charming.

And we shut down a restaurant with a piano serenade.

The next morning, the weather wasn't any better.

We did venture out to the last town, Monterosso, but the weather had worn us out...so it was off to Nice.

The view from our hotel balcony.  We overlooked Jaridn Albert and there was a summer concert series all week...we woke up to music and went to bed to music.

Promenade du Paillon

One of the many squares of Vielle Ville- Nice's Old Town.  This is where we spend the majority of our nights...always a lively crowd.

We ate at an outdoor eatery our first night, and it backed up to this amazing church...and we had pizza.

And then we had gelato.

And then we went back to watch the Mavs win again.

The French beaches are rocky beaches.

The stairs are the entrance to park, Colline du Chateau

The East end of Nice.

Dinner with a view.  Wine, cheese and a baguette.

Our 8:00pm departure turned into 11:00 because we quickly found out that we were locked in.  The next three hours were extremly interesting with the language barrier, the crazy gate/wall security and the attempt to squeeze under and jump over.

The next day we were off to Monaco.  This is the view when you exit the train station.

Monte Carlo Port

And the famous yachts

Jardin Exotique

Lunch overlooking the port

The shopping district...we didn't do any.

I LOVE THE FRENCH RIVIERA!

We stopped by the Fairmont to have a quick glass of champagne.  We could have stayed for ages.  It was a beautiful hotel with an amazing view.  A bird decided to poop in my glass and I got an entire new glass of champagne.

Back in Nice the next day and Josh went for a swim in the cold water.

Last night in Nice.

At dinner, we had some time to reflect on where we have been and where we hope to go.  Josh's City Ratings thus far...

And Annie's. 

Cheers to a terrific and well traveled 10 months across the pond.