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Well....it is now the 6th July as I write this entry in front of a roaring fire in a farmhouse built in 1881 in the south west Dordogne province, near the world famous Bordeaux region of France (yes, its early July and its still cold enough for a fire). We have been traveling in Europe for over two months and it is only now that I have some time to sit down and try and get this blog up to date. Our time here has been action packed as we have covered fourteen countries and traversed most of the continent during the last 75 days. We've traveled by planes, trains, automobiles as well as various forms of ferries, including one that could carry two entire trains in it's hold!
We had decided from the outset of our world-wide wanderings that we would travel through Europe "independently"; it is only now after spending innumerable hours studying train timetables, booking hostel accommodation and reading guidebooks that I've really begun to understand what independent travel means. Sure, it has it's good points - you have much more flexibility and can change your plans on the spur of the moment either because you decide
to stay longer somewhere you like (or leave somewhere you don't like) or because circumstances dictate that you change your destination. Obviously the downside is that you must take care of all your plans and arrangements yourself and shoulder the stress that comes along with not knowing whether you're going to have a place to sleep when you arrive at your next destination.
In Europe, train travel is the way to go so we had bought a Eurail pass that allowed us to travel in 20 countries across Europe for a total of 15 days during a sixty day period - as the pass wasn't cheap we wanted to get maximum value for money so in a way it was this choice that led to our decision to make this trip a "Taste of Europe" where we would spend short periods in many places across the continent with the goal of getting back to the places we liked at some point in the future. Up until a few days before we left Sydney, we had planned to spend a week driving around Scotland and Ireland, but as it had been raining most of our time in Australia we couldn't
stand the thought of spending more time in the rain, so we decided to go directly to Italy.
After a good, but hectic ten days back home in Sydney we once again shouldered our backpacks and headed off to the airport to begin the next leg of our round the world journey. Arriving in London, we spent a few days catching up with friends and family before heading out to Stansted airport to catch a "bargain" flight to the city of Pisa in central Italy. A word of warning - while the cheap flights offered by airlines like RyanAir sound great in theory, they don't work so well when you're carrying enough luggage to last for a ten month journey - our flight ended up costing an extra $120 US just because my bag was a couple of kilograms "overweight" and that was after we had left a bag of stuff in London!
Once in Pisa, we made our way to the hotel and headed out to visit the city's number one attraction - the Leaning Tower. After walking in the wrong direction for about 40 minutes we finally hailed a cab who took us directly to the
Campo del Miracoli (Field of Miracles) home to the strikingly striped Cathedral, Baptistry and Leaning Tower. Built in 1173, the tower began leaning almost immediately and was in danger of toppling over until 1990 when an elaborate mechanism of weights and cables was erected to keep the tower in a safe position. As we had been here before (on our honeymoon), we only stayed long enough to take a brief walk around the sights along with a few photos before heading back to the hotel and dinner in a very local restaurant (we were the only foreigners, the menu had no English and we had almost no idea what we were getting - a perfect start to our European dining experience!)
The next morning we boarded the train for the first time and headed towards the Italian coastline to the area known as Cinque Terre or "Five Lands". This amazingly beautiful stretch of coastline is home to the five fishing villages of Riomaggiore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. At short notice, we had been able to book an apartment for a couple of days in the village of Riomaggiore; a town where the pastel coloured buildings literally cling to
Tuscany Wine Fields
Out walking with "Gerry, the Stupid Dog"the cliff face like periwinkles. The houses, stacked one upon the other, are all distinctly coloured - pastel yellows, apricot, russet red, sky blue and several shades of green and hug the cliff face so much that you can barely tell where the houses end and the coastline begins.
The place we had secured in Riomaggiore was outstanding - two bedrooms and a kitchen on two levels with a balcony overlooking the ocean - although it was a little hard to get to the apartment with our backpacks up the steep, narrow alleyways of the village we really couldn't have asked for more. Arriving at the apartment sweaty and exhausted, we rested awhile before making our way down the maze of alleys to the village where we picked up a few slices of pizza a'taglio (pizza by the slice) and set off for a walk along the famous Via dell A'more (Lovers Walk) - a breathtakingly beautiful stretch of coastline between Riomaggiore and Manarola. After our walk we headed back to the village and called in at the local deli for supplies - dinner that night was a delicious meal of prosciutto, gorgonzola, walnut cheese dip and a local
red wine eaten while watching the sun set from our balcony - it was a perfect end to a great day in Italy!
The next morning we set off to undertake the Cinque Terre walk - a twelve kilometre hike along the coastline that would take us through each of the five villages. Unfortunately, our timing was off as a train arrived and disgorged hundreds of passengers all intent on walking the same path as us exactly at the time we were leaving. Luckily, we already had our tickets and were able to surge ahead of the "day trippers" as they 'oohed' and aahed' at the sights we had seen the day before. Forty five minutes later we had made it to the second town and were beginning to think that the five hour estimate we had heard for the walk was assuming that you were slow and unfit; unfortunately this turned out to be untrue and the further we walked the harder the trail became and soon we were climbing and descending steep hills and valleys as the trail made its way around the rocky coast.
Thankfully the swarm of tourists slowed to a trickle and soon
it was just us and a few other walkers on the path - stopping briefly in each village for a look around we noted that each town has its own distinct look and almost every village was full of tourists. Despite this, it was clear that the townspeople still preserved their "traditional" way of life as there were fishing boats moored at the wharves and several times we saw old men making repairs to their boats in the narrow streets.
After walking for many miles and scrambling up and down hills we finally arrived at the fourth village and set about finding somewhere for lunch. Vernazza is particularly picturesque with a headland jutting out into the sea covered with the remains of a medieval castle, including a still functioning watch tower. Unfortunately, the beauty of the place, it nice rock pools for sunbathing and swimming and the ease of of access by train meant that the place was completely packed. Wandering from one overpriced restaurant to another, we finally selected a place with a nice view over the ocean and sat down to a lunch of lasagna, pesto pasta and a bottle of white wine. After lunch, we managed
to get ourselves to the top of the tower for a look at the surrounding panorama before setting off on the trail to walk the final stretch to the village of Monterosso.
After almost five hours of walking along a coastline of rocky outcrops and steep cliff faces we finally arrived at the final village and rewarded ourselves with a gelato before heading to the train to go back to Riomaggiore. The next morning we spent a few hours relaxing at the apartment before catching the train to Lucca, a small, medieval town in the Tuscan countryside. At the station we were met by Claudio, the owner of the B&B we had booked who took us into town. As we had booked with short notice, all his rooms in town were full, but he offered to let us stay in his farmhouse just outside of town on the first night and then move into town on the second night. This turned out great as we were able to wander around Lucca that afternoon before heading out to a performance of Puccini highlights. We then had dinner at an Enoteca we had first visited five years before (where they prepared
a dish I'd had on our last visit, but that was no longer on the menu).
The next day we went for a long walk in the countryside surrounding the farmhouse with the B&B owners dog - the vineyards planted up the hillside and the fields of brightly coloured wildflowers were like something taken from an artist's easel. Once back in town, we set out to explore and to take a walk around the medieval walls surrounding the old town. The tree lined boulevard above the city was lovely; young families and couples hand-in-hand strolled along enjoying the warm sun and light breeze. Occasionally we would descend from the wall into the town to look around and at one point we entered a small Cathedral and saw the glass coffin encased body of Saint Zita on display - it happened that it was the feast day of the Saint, a young woman who had served a cruel, noble Lucchesian family, but who was so good and pious that eventually she converted not only the family, but also the entire community into god fearing Christians. Now she is the patron Saint of servants and the entire town brings flowers on
Cinque Terre Sunset
The sunsets at Cinque Terre were amazing! her feast day. Amazingly her body is very well preserved, although according to tradition she was not mummified.........Continuing our circumnavigation of the wall we wandered through the rest of Lucca's sights and had a very pleasant time - although it was our second visit to the town it was very beautiful, though seemed a lot more touristy than it had previously.
The next day we shouldered our packs and headed off to the eternal city, Rome. On arrival, we walked several blocks carrying our heavy packs and were relieved to arrive at the "Yellow Hostel" (which had nothing yellow about it), but after seeing our room the stark reality of being in a dorm started to sink in. After dinner and a quick drink, we decided to go out on the hostel's "Rome by Night Tour and Pub Crawl" - it started off ok; a few drinks at the bar and then an entertaining tour of the Spanish Steps, Piazza Bellini and the Trevi Fountain - afterwards we visited a number of bars and it is then that things got a bit hazy. The next day we got up feeling quite the worse for wear and wandered around looking
at the city's major sights (which we had seen on a previous visit) - while Rome is an amazing city which we both really enjoy it fell foul of the phenomenon that sometimes occurs when you visit somewhere for the second time and it doesn't meet your expectations based on a fantastic first visit.
The next day we visited the Catacombs of San Domitilla on the outskirts of the city. The oldest of the catacombs, the tunnels were dug around the 1st Century AD and were used to house the bodies of early Christians hiding their earthly remains from Roman persecution. Descending into the maze of tunnels 15 kilometres long and viewing the rectangular slits that once housed the bones of early Christian families was a spooky experience. Unfortunately most of the bones have long since been removed, but the most outstanding sight was a 2nd Century fresco of the Last Supper on the wall of one of the larger tombs.
We also managed to find a section of the Appian Way - the road in the "all roads lead to Rome" saying for 2,300 years. The rest of the day was spent wandering around ancient sites -
Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon - and viewing Renaissance works of art in the public gallery that is Rome.
The following day we left the ancient capital and headed for another city of historical significance, Naples, capital of the Campania region in Southern Italy.
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