Florence

And, though it's a bit late in the coming, here's the rest of our week-long cruise along the Mediterranean.

After the Monte Carlo stop, we make our first of many stops in Italy. First up, Florence! But before we get to Florence proper, we must stop at the ultimate tourist mecca: Pisa.

That's right - it's leaning tower time. I'd visited the tower previously on my college Italy trip, but I hadn't had time to do much more than gawk and buy a fake Burberry purse. So this time, Ian and I decide to make the 300-step climb to the top.

The views from the top were pretty nice -- and we beat the rush of tourists on day trips so it was pretty quiet too. We tried to appreciate the beauty of the buildings and the grounds...but in the end, we gave in and took the same touristy shots as everyone else.

After we got that out of our systems, we hopped on the train again for the 30-minute ride to Florence. It was getting kind of late, so we decided to make lunch our first stop. We stopped at this little restaurant recommended by LonelyPlanet -- had some amazing bruschetta, a nice pear & gorgonzola salad, and a really rich gnocchi. Wish I remembered the name of the restaurant -- note to self -- take pictures of restaurant signs in the future! (Sidenote, Ian is amazed that I still remember what we ordered -- what can I say, I'm a food person!)

And since it was already afternoon and we had a 4:00 date with the train to get back onto the Norweigan Jade before it departed for Rome, we could only squeeze one attraction into our schedule. The Duomo.

Santa Maria del Fiore, known more commonly as the Duomo, is famous for its dome, which was built by Filippo Brunelleschi.

We decided to work off some of the calories from our lunch and climb this tower as well. Got some nice views of the city.

And it's back to the boat!