Best Europe Eats

The best indian food I've ever had in London, across the street from our flat, should have gone more than once! 

Freak shakes in London

Afternoon tea at the Orangery in London

Thai box from Leon in London

Butterbeer at Warner Brothers studios London

The best flower gelato in London

Yummy Chocolate from Germany

Ice cream in Germany

KEBAB in Germany

Pizza in Florence

Handmade ravioli from the florence markets

Dinner in our private garden in Florence

THE BEST PIZZA IN Monterosso (we went back 3 times)

Gnocchi and Spaghetti in Monterosso

Gelato in Porto Venere

Trofie pasta in Manorola

BEST GELATO OF THE TRIP in Vernazza

Brushetta in Pisa

Paella in Madrid

Gelato macaroon in Madrid

Tapas in Madrid

The best pastries (Napolitanas) in Madrid

Chocolate spoils from all around Europe

Our trip was dominated by food. Lets be honest my mantra was gelato: all day everyday. 

Everything was just too good, and it was hard to try everything that we wanted to. 

We tried lots of different cuisines in london, and cooked two nights at our flat. 

In germany we got the strongest taste of authentic meals due to staying with a family living there. We ate delicious homemade german food every night, and ate lots of Kebab at lunch. 

Florence and Chinque terre were overflowing with Pasta, Pizza and gelato.  The only thing I got sick of was italian food (I know, you feel so bad for me). After a full week of just pizza and pasta though, I was so ready for the cuisine of spain. And it did not disappoint! My chicken Pealla was delightful. Everything we tried in Spain was mouthwatering! 

I can't wait to recreate these dishes at home. It won't be the same, but I'm sure it will still be  delicious! 

Cinque Terre, Italy 2016

Monorola- first stop on our boat tour!

Tour boats!

Riomaggiore

Starting the hike in Monterosso

Vernazza!

Best gelato of my life!

Our beach in Montorosso


Riomaggiore, Manorola, Vernazza, Monterosso

The four towns in Chinque Terre that we had the pleasure of visiting. We did miss Corneglia which I regret, but it was more difficult to get to and we decided to spend more time in the other places. We travelled the towns by train, boat and hike. And we loved every second of it.

our first full day in Chinque terre we decided it would be fun to go on the big boat tour that hits 4 of the 5 chinque terre towns. It was such a treat! A totally different way to see the cities, those views from the boat were unreal.

We got to the boat terminal for the first boat, it was PACKED. We hadn't decided beforehand in what order we would make our stops but we had paid an extra $10 to also go to porto venere (another post coming on this soon) so I knew we definitely would stop there as we didn't have another way to get out to it.

The first stop was Vernazza, Im pretty sure everyone got off the boat- its the most popular city- we decided to stay on. Our first stop was manorola. And it was already lunch time. I couldn't believe how quick our boat rides felt, but how much time they sucked up. We hiked up the city a bit and came down for some lunch. i believe we got a pizza and sandwich to share- obviously not too memorable.

Next we got on the boat again and skipped Riomaggiore to head to the last stop on the boat tour, porto venere. We spent a couple hours in Porto Venere because we fell in love with it! we were like eh we could go back and hit up all the cities in our remaining time or spend a lot more time here since we can't easily get back. Plus we wanted to get our extra $10 worth!

After exploring the heck out of Porto Venere we got back on the boat and had a quick little stop in Riommaggiore and quickly explored the little town, we only had an hour. Nothing super exciting going on here other than of course the buildings are adorable.

Our next day was mostly spent hiking from Montorosso, where we stayed, over to vernazza! The hike was about two hours- SO MANY stairs, but it was totally worth it when we got that view of Vernazza. Prime photo opp. Also, probably my favorite picture of the trip.

In vernazza we got some lunch- I had the tastiest pesto pasta that the area is known for. Its called "trofie.' It was delicious. Travis had had some spicy sphagetti on our first night in Florence and he was on the hunt ever since! Finally he found some here.

As we were walking back up to the train to head back to our flat travis persuaded me we needed Gelato- for some reason I was actually kind  of hard to presuade at this point- I find this crazy now. Im so glad we stopped. It was the best gelato of the entire trip! I got Chocolate and hazelnut and craved it the entire trip! It was so creamy! We headed to the beach after and it was sooo cold travis was not happy with me for staying out of the water. I just liked sitting on a beach with nothing to do!

Our last day in Chinque terre was my least favorite on the public transportation front. We has zero luck with the ticket printing machines. I swear we missed at least 5 trains throughout the day. Luckily we had the chance to go to church at this awesome little italian branch in La Spezia, and randomly ran into a couple that travis knew! It was so funny! We ended up going to lunch with them after and enjoying the beach for hours together! And this time I got in, it was much warmer!

Chinque terre was by far the best segment of our trip. Our flat was BEAUTIFUL and a 5 minute walk to the town and beach, and we just really went into vacation mode. We had lots of things we wanted to do, but took it a lot slower. We went to bed early and slept in. It was amazing. We found our favorite pizza place of the trip (ate there 3 times) and our favorite gelato shop (ate there twice). We will definitely be back someday!