Touring Liguria to Cecina

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We all woke wondering what to expect from muscles and joints after our Cinque Terre trek yesterday. It was with great surprise we found we could move around with no ill-effect from the day before. Perhaps we’ll get a shock tomorrow or it was just a sign of our high level of fitness!
Following camp instructions we had the car packed and ready to move out by 10:00am for our next destination, Cecina, south of Pisa. We took the scenic route through the hills that surround the five little villages of the Cinque Terre coast. The road twists and turns through forested hills before dropping down to La Spezia. The journey from that point on took us through a series of connected towns. Our boot lunch today was under an orange tree on a park bench in the middle of a small grassed traffic island.
While travelling south we passed the sign to Lucca. After a quick read through the travel guides and a short committee meeting, we felt the deviation would be well worth while. Lucca is a walled town and is the birthplace of Puccini. The town is obviously proud of this fact as there are statues and information boards around the town highlighting important aspects of his life. We had a pleasant wander around the town enjoying a gelato and not having to compete for walking space with hordes of tourists.
From Lucca we continued south through Pisa. From a distance we could see the Leaning Tower and the Duomo. We had visited Pisa ten years earlier and as this trip is all about new adventures we didn’t stop for the sights.
Our hotel in Cecina is near the coast and driving through the area reminded us of many seaside communities in New Zealand, especially areas north of Wellington and around Nelson. Arriving at the hotel the reception staff were overjoyed to know we had come so far to stay one night at their hotel. Hotel is probably the wrong term. It is more like a holiday park with all the facilities you would want for a long term stay. Not only was there a pool, bar, restaurant, shop, wellness centre, laundry, various sports facilities but also an infirmary. Our hotel room was in a three storied building, surrounded by a large number of two unit bungalows, and was fully equipped for self catering. During check-in we were greeted by camp staff who demanded we wear blue bracelets during our stay. We assume this was to easily identify us as guests when making use of all the facilities.
Tomorrow we look forward to our drive to Rome and Camping Village Fabulous. From the number of this type of accommodation we have seen so far camping is big business in Italy.

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