Advertisement
Published: April 27th 2008
Hello all-
Well it has been a couple of crazy days. Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days, I am sure many of you were waiting for the Friday afternoon installment. The title of the blog pretty much sums up the last few days both in scenery and emotions. Ill give a quick recap of our events and I am such Lyndsay will backfill!!!
Friday AM-Woke up in our Florence hostel with no place to spend the night, spent a few hours looking for something in the hostel and found a campground about 30 miles from Florence (peak). As it was the only reasonable priced option, that was our choice. And when I say reasonable I mean anything under $400 per night. Feeling good about our selves we thought we would venture out to the one museum in Florence we both wanted to see...the science musuem filled with a bunch of Gaelio and Da Vinci stuff. Well after walking through the old town of florence (more walking!) we stumbled upon a closed musuem. We soon realized that Friday was a national holiday and thus the museum was closed (valley). So then we thought lets just
get on a train and head out to the campground early. It had a pool and the pictures showed some great views. Luckily our accomodations at the campground were in an apartment. We had no idea what that meant, but it had a kitchen and no international delights as the apratment was private. We thought we would pick up some food from the grocery store in Florence and head out to the campground. Oh yeah, its a holiday, all stores are closed. So we hop on a train destined for some random city in the middle of Tuscany. After 45 minutes of train travel through mountains, vineyards, and cypress trees we came upon our destination of Figline. We hopped off the train and looked for a way up to the campground (4 miles away up a very steep hill). Looking around it dawned on us that once again it was a holiday, the town was a ghost town, not a soul in sight and no taxi, no bus, no open stores. For some reason we thought everything would get better if we hauled our 30 pound packs in 75 degree sun a mile down the road. A lengthy trek but
we found a cafe, grabbed a slice of pizza and contimplated our next couple of hours. Finally we decided to trek back to the train station in hopes that we would find a taxi. To fast forward, we tracked down a taxi back at the train station, got a ride up to the campground and then suddenly our mostly wasted and valley day quickly turned into a gigantic peak. The campground was like a Jellysone park. Tons of kids, huge pools, hundreds of tents and campers, thousands of mobile homes and villas hidden up on the hillside. Oddly enough the apartment we rented was actualy a reali-life authentic Tuscan villa (and the cheapest option out of all of the camp options!) We were far away from the kids and other 'commons' and we were very near the campground market. We grabbed some vino and other dinner options, toured the grounds and enjoyed a bottle of vino watching the sunset. I am not sure what is wrong with the campground, but like I said the 'villa' was the cheapest option and by far the nicest. For $65 a night as well! I was more than impressed. After a couple of botlles
of vino, we hit the sack in hopes to tour Greve in Chianti country on Saturday.
Saturday-Refreshed we woke up thinking we would rent some scooters and tour the Tuscan countryside. Ironically in Italiy things dont work like that. Scooters or cars require several days notice so no go for that. Since we were up at the campground there was nothing around and we had a day to waste. We ended up walking to town (much easier and quicker to go downhill!) stopped at a grocery store (which are open on Saturdays, luckily), grabbed some salami, vino, etc and hoped a train to Arezzo. Want to know what I did in Arezzo? I took a nap. Thats right I sat on a train for 25 minutes to Arezzo, walked toa park overlooking the city and napped on the grass in the sun. It was the best nap I have taken in 10 years and one of the most relaxing days yet. After I awoke, we jumped on a train back to Figline, hopped the campground shuttle back tot he villa and had a couple more bottles of vino with our homecooked dinner of scambled eggs, onion, tomato, noodles, and
some ham type italian meat. It sounds wierd, but was quite tasty. I know Lyndsay is a good cook when she can whip up something random with limited supplies.
Sunday-Time to check out of the villa and head to Lucca (about 100 miles northwest from our campground). Somehow the italian gods felt bad for our transportation struggles over the last few days and we hit perfect connections to Lucca. We arrived around noon with no hotel (again), but quickly found a guest house in the old city of Lucca. Lucca is surrounded by a 25 foot high walk and very few cars enter the old city. Lots of winding brick paths, some churches, and various towers. Once again we found a gemstone of a hotel with a private room, very quiet, and very close to the action. After checking in we headed out to the old city and headed up a couple of old towers (250 stairs each) to look out over the city. One of the towers was an old clock from 1754 that still worked and we could watch the mechanics of the clock tick. Being the dork I am, I watched the gears and pulls tick
and tock and was very excited when 15 minutes when by and suddenly the gears pulled a lever to ring the bell which can be heard throughout the city. Lots of fun. After wandering some more we thought it was time to rent some bikes and tour the wall of the city. The walls around the city are wide enough to have a nice walking-biking trail so we rode along the wall looking into the old city, very interesting.
Anyways, thats a lot ot report on. Tomorrow we are going to jump on a train to a tiny town near Lucca and search out a couple of vineyards. Were in Lucca tomorrow night and then to the Cinque Terra on Tuesday. HOpe all is well. Sorry about the snow, I wont talk about the weather here in hopes not to jinx it! Although we have been loving all of the trees-flowers in full bloom, its a nice sight after the white winter.
Cheers-
Jason
Hello - Lyndsay here. I must say, Jasons entry will be a hard one to follow. I mean, he really did a great job explaining our last few days. I am afraid
I wont have much to add. As he said, the last few days have been nice highs, and cranky lows. I am THRILLED to report that after 11 days traveling together, Jason and I have only had 2 small bickering argumnts, both lasting about 10 minutes. With all the daily unknowns, I woudl have thought we would be arguing like cats and dogs. Jason has proven to be a great traveling partner! The one argument we did have cetered around where on earth we woudl stay on Friday night. As mentioned, Friday was a national holoiday here and everything was booked. I was certain we woudl find SOMETHING and thought we could be really loose about it. Jason, with his type A personallity (like me, usually) told me that was fine, but his obvious physical tension with the prospect of NOT having a place to sleep - given the holiday and fully booked hotels and hostels, was overwhelming.
So on Friday, We ended up booking what was called a "campground" and of course, all I can think is, "great, a campground .... too bad I didnt bring a sleping bag. I was less than happy about it. But, like
Jason mentioned, it was awesome. We were toally separated from the campground area. We were in a private villa, totally authentic, red brick, tile floor, beautiful cobblestone pathways, etc ... It wasclear that it was privately owned and then rented out. I swear, people would pay $300 per night for this if it was known that it was there. I was thrilled with the accomadations! It was the best 2 nights of sleep I have had.
Speaking of sleep. I sleep like a baby here! I hit the pillow and I am out, dead to the world. I know it is because of all the miles we log in a day of course, but it is amazing that I can fall alseep in like, one minute. Very Jason-like. However, when I wake up in the morning, it feels as though someone secretly beat the ever-living daylights out of me in my sleep. I have soreness and achy muscles in places I didnt even know muscles existed. After teh two towers we climbed in Lucca today (totalling about 500 steep stairs), I am sure tomorrow morning wont be any different.
The city of Lucca that we are in tonight and tomorrow night is so absolutely picturesque! The photo and I on bikes sums it all up. The town in basically sunken inside these 25 foot tall walls, but at the top of teh walls, there are trails and parks, and benches, etc ... and people stroll around them, bke, them, etc ... It was quite a busy day up there today, being that it was Sunday, and Sundays tend to be very family oriented days here. Jason and I rented these bikes and flew around town multiple times. Inside teh city, it was the typical Italian maze of streets, and we spent a fair amoutn of time getting ourselves lost (on purpose) again today. Jason wanted us to rent a tandem bike, but we oped not to do that - too Laverne and Shirley if you ask me.
Tomorrow we are goping to try our best to find a vineyard or oil production to visit. I had images of these sorts of things being all over the place. Not so much! The wine and olive oil country is totally off the beaten path, and you bsically have to have a car to get to them. They are basically individual farmhouses on the Tuscan hillside, and of course, no train or bus goes there. Just goes to prove you CANNOT trust or belive everything you see in movies. Damn movies had me beliveing that Italy was chock full of accessible vineyards, and we could just walk up get a tour, drink smoe wine, etc ... We contemplated renting a car, but the idea of driving in Italy is too much to handle. There are little to no traffic laws, and neither of us wants to drive and take the risk. So, we take our chance tomorrow, and will take the train as far as we think we can make it, and then, either hike it, or cab it to a farmhouse. Wish us luck!
we have had a hoot watching the different types of dogs that people own over here. Probably because we miss our 2 so much. We haev seen a lot of mixed breed dogs, a dalmation, 2 bulldogs, a ton of weiner dogs, some mastifs, a ton of pit bulls, etc ... The one thing that REALLY stands out (if you know what I mean) is that people do NOT neuter their dogs here. I suppose it is considered an unnecessary expense, but the 5 year olds we are, we laugh everytime a big dog strolls by flaunting his business!
Well, I guess thi is it for me tongiht. I am beat! and, I have been resigned to writing abotu dogs private parts! Off to dinner!
Love you all and take care. we will write more soon!
Love Lyndsay
PS: Apparently my plea for comments was answered. It was glorious to log in today and see 15 new comments. Please keep them coming, it is a nice way for us to feel connected and updated with back home!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0516s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jean
non-member comment
Traveling with you!
We feel like we have been in Italy all week with you! Grandpa wants to rent a villa and park one of those neat little cars right beside it. Can't you just see him buzzing around the hills? Sure has been fun reading all your comments and with the pictures it has been great. Enjoy the last week and don't forget Minn and Wi--the places you should visit NEXT! Love you both--Grandma