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Published: March 13th 2010
Pushing Pisa
Corny, but you just have to do itI'm back in the land of the internet, having been starved of it for a few days. I have to keep all this stuff in my head till the next time I can catch up with a computer, but in the meantime so much is going on. We have spent a memorable week in Chianni, Tuscany in a house built about 600 years ago. It was small, but we had everything we needed - a kitchen living room, a bedroom and a bathroom - spread over three levels- sounds impressive, but it was a very humble little home. The village streets were quite steep and paved with cobble stones, which was fine for us (just), but I felt sorry for the residents, most of whom were elderly. Must say that I probably huffed and puffed a lot more than they did though. We were very obviously the new kids in town and so we got a few curious looks as the locals checked us out. We really wanted to absorb the local feel of the village and I think we were very successful. We picked out a favourite local grocery store, whose owners were a youngish husband and wife. The husband
And he said he
Oh, but he did, didn't he didn't speak any English, but we fumbled through between hand signals, my poor grasp of the Italian language, his wife who spoke a little English and the pictures on packets. We spent time just simply walking around the village and the surrounding roads, taking in the glorious views. You see these magical views in pictures and on the television, but to see if for yourself is something else. The life in the village was very slow and quiet, so we really couldn't see ourselves 'absorbing' all day everyday for a week, so we made good use of the very good local bus service. From Chianni we took the bus to a town called Pontedera, then a train to Pisa to see yet another famous monument. I think I have said it in a previous blog, but it is so surreal to be walking down a street and then suddenly something like the leaning tower of Pisa just appears in your view. I was surprised at just how pretty the tower was and it is just sitting there for you to view for free. I passed up the chance to climb another 400 steps to catch the view, but Ron couldn't
And so it started
This was the start of something big resist. We were warned about the hawkers surrounding the tower, but to be honest we were probably let off lightly. We only had one persistent fella trying to show us his wares and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He followed us for some time, thinking that this trick might just land him a deal. He was sadly mistaken. Ron promised his boys that there was no way he was going to take the typical leaning on the Pisa photo, but had to concede that a photo of HIM leaning on the tower would be acceptable. When in Rome.... OK, this is Pisa, but the same rules applies - you just can't help yourself. We had lunch in a little cafe after a walk around town, then made our way back to Chianni. The bus and train fares are so reasonable that this was a really cheap day out and we thoroughly enjoyed adding another stamp to our book. The following day we woke on a freezing morning to the surprising sight of snow! Ron was the first to spot the light sprinkling coming down and we were very excited to get outside quickly before we missed
out. Little did we know that it was going to snow all day long and into the night. By late afternoon our beautiful Tuscan hills had turned into our winter wonderland. We rugged up and ventured out again so we could have a play and take in the views which were changing regularly. The cars quickly covered in around six inches of snow, but this didn't seem to bother the locals - they just cleaned off the windscreens and waited for the rest to fall off, which of course it eventually would do. We made our very own snowman whom we named 'Chianni' and he stood proudly outside out front door, for a whole night. By the next day the snow had stopped and Chianni the Snowman started to wilt - a sad sight as tiem went by and all that was left was our listing snowman and his carrot nose laying in the gutter. The local authoriities were out in force first thing the next morning, starting the clean up process. The snow ploughs cleared the wider streets so cars could pass safely and the townsfolk were cleaning the snow off their window sills and steps. We felt very
lucky to have experienced this apparently very unusual occurance in the spring. Thanks Chianni!
Another day trip was out to the north to the village of Lucca. We got the special treat of sharing the Pontedera - Lucca bus with a load of high school kids, which was kind of funny. Ron commented how the kids are just the say as home. Funny about that. The behaviours were pretty much the same, boys talkiing out loud, girls sending SMS after SMS, just the language was totally different. I have to say I thought Lucca would be a bit more vibrant, but maybe I am just getting a bit blase by now (after all, I've been travelling overseas now for a whole two weeks). It was also set up in the hills and was a pretty little village, much bigger than Chianni, but very very quiet. We had lunch in a rather posh restaurant which we didn't really plan on doing and we certainly weren't dressed for the occasion in our matching brown polar fleece jackets, me in my track pants and Ron in his cargo pants, but they weren't about to turn us away from the door. After all, we
were their ONLY customers! We had a now familiar meal of pasta followed by a meat dish. Daniel will be very jealous to hear that I had a plate of chicken cacciatora because that is a favourite dish of his. We again walked around the village and made the now familiar journey back to Chianni. On one of our bus trips out Ron noticed that a town along the bus route holds a market every Thursday, so of course Thursday came along and were were off to market in Casciane Terme. It was just a small affair, but we enjoyed buying vegetables grown locally and taking them home to cook. We nade a point of cooking nice meals each night and regularly had fresh bread, ham and cheese for lunch, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Ron made a couple of great risottos (sorry Shaz), made from very ad hoc ingredients. We were quite limited in what we could buy in Chianni, so he made do with a packet of frozen vegetables, but boy did he do good. It was one of the best risottos he has made, and Ron has made some great risottos. Yesterday I had the misfortune of falling
Chianni
Our very own snowman ill, and knew I had to see a doctor - great! Chianni has a little (and I mean little) clinic which is open for three hours a day. We were there just after opening time, to be greeting by ten pairs of curious eyes already in the waiting room. It was difficult to work out what the system was because there was no clinic staff in sight, only the slight murmerings coming from another door. I sat there feeling very vulnerable as I hoped and hoped that this doctor spoke at least a little English so I could get what I needed to get better again. At one stage the local ladies tried asking me a question, but I had no idea what they were asking me. So they talked about me for a few seconds and then settled down again. I was later to work out that they were trying to tell me where I stood in the 'queue'. They were actually being very nice to me because I thought another lady was before me, but they all insisted that my turn was coming up. After a wait of about an hour and a half, I finally got to
meet the voice behind the door. I just about held my breath as I walked in and muttered the words 'parla Inglese?' "a little" was his glorious response. Thank you! We got through my problem just fine, then he started asking me about where I was from. He was delighted to learn I was an Aussie (not as delighted as I was to learn his could communicate with me with more than just sign language). After some pleasant small talk, I went to pay him, in the absence of any other staff, but he refused my money. His response to me was "no, no money - Australia is good". So now god can bless Australia as well. Anyway, a couple of packets of the right drugs later, all is well with the world and I am on the mend, so no need to worry mother. So, yesterday was our last day in Chianni and today it was time to leave. We were up bright and early this morning to catch the 8.15am bus. Had we waited any longer we would have to get the 11.15am bus, which would have been a bit too late given the ground we had to
cover today. We caught a train from Pontedera to Florence, we we partook in some shopping at it's outdoor market, then lunch at our favourite Firenze restaurant. I had another plate of my spaghetti I enjoyed so much last time and Ron had the same pasta of the house he loved. We made our way back to the station and caught a 2.30 train to Venice. As soon as we boarded the train we started chatting with the American couple sitting with us and that was our train trip. We talked to them for the whole three hour trip on Eurostar till we passed over the water to Venice. Another surreal experience is walking out of Venice's main train station, down the steps and there is the Grand Canal, gondolas and all. That is where I leave you for today blog. We have only ventured out for a short time this afternoon, but I'm sure we will take lots of photos and fill you in next time. Bye and love to everyone for now. xxx
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Heather
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Hey Sue, Loved reading about your time in Italy. It reminded me of my trip there. My blog is looking for photos to post. If you have time check us out at: www.dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your trip! Heather