Two weeks ago, we spent a week traveling through the northern part of Italy. It is not a secret that I love this country that borders Switzerland and is, therefore, only about 2.5 hours away from us. I will share the trip in three posts to give you some impressions without flooding you. So, this week will be dedicated to beautiful Italy.

We started our journey in Genoa. When we drove through the city to find our hotel, we drove along the huge harbor area for cruises, ferries, and goods transportation. It is one of the largest Cruise harbors in Europe (if not even the largest). There are two cruise terminals currently, and a third one is under construction. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to take pictures of the cruise harbor since we did not get there anymore by foot.

Genoa is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city’s administrative limits.^[3] As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of Genoa, which in 2015 became the Metropolitan City of Genoa,^[4] had 855,834 resident persons.^[5] Over 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera.^[6] The historical center, also known as old town, of Genoa is one of the largest and most-densely populated in Europe.^[15] Part of it was also inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 as Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli. Genoa’s historical city centre is also known for its narrow lanes and streets that the locals call “caruggi”.^[16] (Source: Wikipedia)

The next day we left for Pisa. When I was a child, I was completely impressed by that leaning tower, and I was excited to see it in person eventually. But on the way to Pisa, we visited one of the five picturesque places of Cinque Terre. We decided to see Vernazza. During the ride along the coast, we could also see some of those other places from afar. It was hard to choose just one place. So here is an excerpt from the trip along the beautiful coast.

And here is the charming little city of Vernazza:

In the evening, we arrived in Pisa. The city is actually bigger than I expected it to be. The next morning, it was very cloudy but still the weather was good enough to visit the old town with its famous leaning tower. Gosh, and how that tower is leaning. Unfortunately, it was not easy to convey that well enough with my phone but I found a perspective that worked pretty well. It was so funny to climb that tower. Because of its slope, sometimes you had the feeling of walking almost level or all the steeper uphill or downhill – depending on which side of the tower you were on.

I hope you enjoyed the first days of our trip. There is more to come on Wednesday!

In Love and Light