Saying goodbye to Italy

All four of us slept in today and it felt so good. After a quick breakfast and stop at the cafe, the four of us headed over to Riomaggiore on the Via del Amore. It was another amazing day in Cinque Terre. While all of us are excited to visit Barcelona, it's hard to leave a place like this for the unknown.

After our visit to Riomaggiore, we went down the the marina in Manarola for a while. Then decided it was a good idea to get some "take away" pasta from our favorite restaurant and head back to the apartment. JJ and Charmelle stopped to grab some gelato for dessert. It's probably a very good thing that we did not know the gelato place could package to go and keep it cold. We would have eaten gelato every night on the terrace and then had to buy an extra seat on the plane.

We did enjoy a fantastic last meal on the terrace. Amazing food, great friends, and watching the sun go down into the horizon is a priceless thing. We will be back to Cinque Terre!

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore is a great little village. The views along the Via del Amore are amazing. The village itself is quite nice. There are a lot of little shops and eateries. But as you head higher up the hill, you discover some great little neighborhoods.

I was surprised to find 3 churches in this village. So far, each village has had one main church. Riomaggiore has at least three. I'll have to do some reading to find out more about why that is.



I ended up following an alley to a lookout. This was another first for me. At the lookout was the first school I have seen on this trip. It was an elementary school that was having some repairs done. On the walk back down, I noticed a flower I have never seen. I took a few photos of the bloom and one of the pods that it came from. I have no idea what it is, but it is very pretty.



Riomaggiore also has a great little harbor. I decided it was time to dip my toes in the Lugurian Sea. I went down to the dock area, took off my shoes and sat there with me chubby feet dangling in the water. It was so refreshing. In fact, I got excited to see a pretty big wave coming my way. My passport and money were safe from the water, so I just let it hit me. It was a very refreshing treat on a really hot day.

Via del Amore

Today I took a walk along the Via del Amore. The is a path between Manarola and Riomaggiore. From what I can tell, the two villages were very secluded because of the geography. The youth of the villages began to meet half-way along a rugged trail overlooking the sea.

As time went on, lovers began to leave messages for each other written on the rocks, even the cacti. Then locks began to appear, signifying their hearts being locked together.



Over time, this tradition has added graffiti to the walls. There is a lot of graffiti in Italy. There was quite a bit in Switzerland as well. I'll be interest to see what Spain is like.

How do they do that?

One of the questions I keep asking myself is how do they make deliveries, move building supplies, etc? There really aren't roads in Cinque Terre like we are used to having. There may be a main street that an occasional delivery truck, police car, or ambulance will use. Everywhere else is a series of small alleyways. And remember, nothing here is flat. Steep and narrow stairs are your access to everything.

I thought this piece of equipment was ingenious. It isn't very fast, but it handles the stairs and alleyways really well. It also looks like it carries a lot of materials. I've seen them using it to make deliveries and for construction.

Pisa for a minute

Ok, so most everyone has seen a photo of the leaning tower, but we had a chance to see it in person and took it. We needed to transfer trains in Pisa on our return from Florence. JJ went on ahead, she had seen. Jo, Charmelle , and I grabbed a later train (40 minutes later) and jumped into a taxi. 10-minutes later, we are at the tower. We took a quick walk around it and snapped some photos and then back in a taxi to get our train.

We got to the train station and realized there were 2 trains heading to La Spezia, which is where we needed to get our last train back to Manarola. We hustled and jumped on the earlier train (quite literally). One thing that brought us a little drama is, Jo forgot to validate the ticket. She tried to jump off really quickly and validate it, but the conductor yelled for her to get back on. So we took the 150€ gamble. Of course the conductor came through as soon as the train started moving. My heart skipped a beat. Jo acted like she was asleep and he just kept walking. I think he realized what happened and let us off. At the next stop, Jo jumped off and validated the ticket and jumped back on.

We got to La Spezia and again were able to get a quick transfer and we were on the way back to Manarola. We were all hungry, a bit tired, but happy. We were running earlier than we had told JJ. So we weren't sure how we were going to connect with her. In the States, we would just send a text and tell her. Here we don't have that option. I switched my phone to a European carrier and Charmelle's phone will work for an international charge. However Jo and JJ didn't have that option. So it was going to come down to a game of "rock, paper, scissors" to see which one of us went up the hill to get JJ.

We arrived in Manarola and the train heading back to La Spezia had people nearly hanging out of it, because it was so full. The vacationers were all heading home. The conductors were outside the train looking for gaps inside and telling people to move closer.

As we made our way to the stairs at the station, JJ came walking up behind us! We were all on the same train. Her train had been delayed and we were early, so it all worked out. That meant, head to the "take away" pizza place, and head to the apartment. We sat on our terrace eating pizza, and enjoying the view. What a nice end to a great day.

Off to Florence

We took a 2-hour train ride over to Florence to go to the Galleria Academia. The big reason to go there is to see Michael Angelo's "David." It was worth the trip! He is magnificent. I have seen many photos and drawings of this sculpture, but nothing does it justice. No...not even the one in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The fact the artist could get such detail with the tools of that time is amazing. The veins and muscles in the statue are so lifelike. I kept waiting for David to turn his head and look at everyone.

The Galleria also had some other great works both paintings and sculptures. They were all wonderful, but David really is the showcase piece. The one thing that was really tacky was this replica in the courtyard. The same size as the original, but pink skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. It was disturbing to say the least.

After the Galleria, we set out to wander a little. Of course, we found a nice little Irish pub to stop and rehydrate. I even had some beer! It was hotter than hot in Florence and a Shanty (lager and lemonade) sounded a lot more refreshing than just water. We also grabbed some crisps and peanuts to carry us through the rest of our time in Florence.



We started heading to the famous bridge with all the gold vendors. For some reason the name escapes me right now, but it is pretty cool. Way too many people for all of us. After being in Gimmelwald and Cinque Terre, a city is just over the top. We had better get used to it. We're heading to Barcelona in a couple of days.

An afternoon in Vernazza

I took a little solo trip to Vernazza this afternoon. I'm starting to get better with understanding the train schedule and ticketing system. Today I hit things just right. I arrived at the stations just before the trains did so I didn't have to wait around for very long.

Vernazza was hit with a tremendous mudslide this year. There was a lot of damage and I believe some deaths. I didn't know what to expect when I got there. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. While a number of the shops were closed and being repaired, some were open. I left the train station and started down toward town and the harbor.



Once you reach the harbor it's easy to see why so many tourists love this area. The water looks so refreshing in the heat and the waves create a nice mist as they crash into the rocks. There were lots of swimmers and sun bathers. I took some time in the shops and enjoyed the sights and sounds before grabbing a calzone and gelato. After my snack, I headed back up to the train station.

While there is a 90 minute hike between Manarola and Vernazza, I just didn't feel like getting that tired and sweaty when I already had train tickets left from yesterday. So I took the easy way. Tomorrow we're off to Florence, so a little extra rest might do me well.