Robyn Skinner left The Royal Gazette to go travelling. In the latest stage of her trek she lands in Italy and finds herself captivated by the Italian culture.

Next Stop: Pisa, Italy: Buon Giorgno, Ciao, Prego!!! It's back to the land of all things bella! I studied here for a semester in college and taught in an American school in Rome for a year so I was excited to return and hopefully get my Italian (in which I was nearly fluent) back.

After roughing it for a while, Italy was going to be a bit easier. We found an apartment in a Borgho (a renovated hunting lodge/palace) outside Pisa. We did some calculations and renting a car and a one-bedroom apartment in the hills of Tuscany was cheaper than booking youth hostels and struggling for trains between the small towns in this part of Italy. The apartment only cost us about $350 for seven nights and with a $200 car rental we were living large for a while.

To start our Italian adventure, we flew to Pisa, a coastal town known for its leaning tower. Our Borgho was about 40 minutes away. On this occasion my travel buddy forgot to write down which car agency we rented with, so after having to ask every single agency in the airport we finally ventured onto the crazy Italian roads. With me navigating and my travel buddy negotiating the Italian desire to be in any lane they are not currently in, we made it to the beautiful Borgho in one piece.

Tuscany is everything it's known for. With olive trees and hilltop towns dotting the landscape it was an incredible, romantic drive up into the hills to this isolated Borgho. The rarely travelled roads also offered a great chance to go for runs in the countryside, though the clouds would move in very quickly and once I even got caught in a storm. Unfortunately, the entire week in our luxury apartment was rainy until the last day typical.

Still, from our hilltop hunting lodge drives to little Tuscan towns like Siena and San Gimignano could be done in one day. Our first stop was the hilltop town of San Gimignano with a population of 7,000 and 14 towers of which you can climb up one. Even though the entire valley was fog-filled we decided to do it and of course when we got to the top there was not much to see. We hoped the seven Euros we paid might actually be worth the museum that is attached to the tower. We thought wrong. There was not much more than three or four rooms with some drawings. Oh well!

The town is cute and it was carnival time in Italy, so we were dodging 'crazy string'-loaded youths as we wandered through the pottery and wooden bowl lined streets of San Gimignano.

After my travel buddy managed to talk me out of the beautiful wooden bowl shops without buying anything and a café Italiano (or an espresso for us Westerners) to warm up and to try to dry off, it was back in the car to the nearby town of Siena.

With a population of 50,000 Siena is a medieval town between Rome and Florence. In the town's centre is the shell-shaped, Piazza del Campo where on July 2 and August 16 every year it is filled with screaming Siennese while horses race around the square. Far calmer when we went, it was dotted with wine bars and restaurants. Unfortunately, we arrived in Siena too late to walk up yet another tower, the Torre del Mangia which would have offered a view of the town.

Instead we enjoyed an aperitif in a bar and the free food that Italians love to hand out with a glass of wine. A nice cheap way to find dinner. Honestly from snacks to entire pizzas we were in heaven. Before leaving we went to see the impressive Duomo, which looks very similar to the one in Florence. Again it was closed so we could only admire from the outside (the downside of travelling during the off season.)

Other sites we managed to fit in while staying at the Borgho, was an afternoon trip to Pisa where the tower continues to threaten to crush tourists pretending to hold it up! Though I had been here before when I was studying in Florence for a semester in college, I had not gone up the tower because it was not open.

It costs a small fortune and for those terrified of heights, like myself, I would suggest just posing for the necessary picture downstairs. Not only are you climbing up a spiral staircase to crazy heights but you are also swaying like you've had one too many rum and Cokes to get to the top. At points I was holding onto the wall (and no I had not had wine with lunch) to just stay upright as we climbed.

There was not much else to see or do in Pisa as we decided to give the museums a miss trying to save some money. We decided instead to make a long day of it the next day, and drive up north to what is known as the Cinque Terre area.

Translated it literally means 'Five Lands'. Part of, or at least very near, the Italian Riviera which is better known for the likes of the expensive and high-end cliff entrusted town of Portofino, these five villages are more of a backpacker and outdoor enthusiasts style. Dotted along the cliffs of the Riviera these villages, Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Anarola and Riomaggiore, were quiet fishing and farming villages. Now income also arrives in the form of tourists as the area is quickly becoming a must-see when visiting Italy.

Unfortunately, this has led to commercialisation of the area. The first time I came, when I was studying in London seven years ago, the hiking area was a case of good luck, find your way. Now they charge you to hike the path and they even close it as they did the day we arrived. The reason it was pouring with rain.

But we were not going to drive two hours to simply take the train between villages (which is a possibility as they are only about ten minutes apart in a vehicle). So we paid for the first trail which is paved and easy to walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola. Then we were met with a gate. Not to be deterred we headed for the hills and took the far more strenuous and treacherous path through the trees. In about two hours we made it to Corniglia but determined to make it to the last village so we could get a train back to our car we pushed on, back into the hills and we made it to Vernazza.

As the sun began to dim we made the decision to push on to the final town! Jumping over landslides and crawling over downed trees we arrived in the last village by light of cell phone and digital camera (just like the ancients). Relieved to be safe and not have twisted an ankle or walked off a cliff in the dark I needed a glass of wine before we took the train back to our car in Riomaggiore and began the two-hour drive back to the Borgho.

The next day it was back to the more-than civilized streets of Florence, which was only an hour drive from our place. With a population of about 400,000 it was the centre of the Renaissance with the help of wealthy families such as the Medicies.

These rich families and the city's fathers helped construct the beautiful town that still attracts students and tourists all year around. One of the most impressive displays of this wealth is the Duomo or the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. It was completed by Filippo Brunelleschi when he added the dome in the 14th century. Now there are 463 steps, which we climbed of course, to have one of the most amazing views of Florence.

The view appears much like a painting in a museum or the label of an olive oil bottle. One of the most impressive churches I have ever seen, it is the third largest nave in the world after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. The inside of the church, however, pales in comparison to the outside and the view from the top.

After our descent we decided to climb the hills we had just seen from the Duomo. We crossed the river to hike up to the San Miniato Al Monte (a church up on the hill) which had an amazing marble façade, but inside it had a slightly strange atmosphere as chanting monks filled the space with their voices.

From there it was an easy walk over to the Piazzale Michelangelo, where views of the city compared or even surpassed those we had at the Duomo and we watched the sunset over Tuscan hills.

Being back in Florence was great; revisiting my old haunts from my study-abroad experience during my senior year in college. Not much had changed for Florence, which still reverberates with the twang of American college students taking a semester abroad.

Next, we visited my favourite garden through all of my travels and belonged to the Pitti family. The Boboli gardens offer beautiful views of Florence and surprises around every corner with statues hidden behind every bend. These stretch behind the incredible palace on the opposite of the Arno river and after visiting the apartments of the palace we persevered through the rain to see the statue dotted gardens.

Trying to grab some warmth we popped back over the Ponte Vecchio the oldest bridge in Florence which is lined with gold and jewellery shops and into a bar, where we realised that the Super Bowl was on and we were surrounded by homesick and loud American students.

That was the end to our day in Florence, but before we packed up to leave the Tuscany area we decided we needed one more night in the Renaissance city to fully soak-up the art and history. Bidding farewell to our luxurious Borgho we moved into a youth hostel for a night where my travel buddy tried bread soup (a specialty of the area) and we managed a fun night out in the clubs.

The next day, a quick view of the Chiesa di Santa Croce, a Franciscan built church, which hails as the burial place for Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo and a stroll through the massive outdoor market and indoor food market was a great way to spend the afternoon. Vendors were yelling at us in all languages to urge us to buy their wares.

We managed to keep away! Unfortunately we probably missed a few sites that would have been good to include, but it's hard not to find a history-strewn area in Florence. The next day we did further our education as we barged our way through the Uffizi Gallery. This gallery holds some of the most beautiful art by Botticelli, Caravaggio, Michelangelo and Raphael as well as the sheer beauty of the building. From painted wooden ceilings to an incredibly detailed map room we probably could have spent another two hours in the museum, but we had to make our way to the train that would take us to Zermatt, Switzerland!