Assisi, Pisa and beyond...

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On day 4 of our trip (June 5), we took a day trip to Assisi. What an enchanting little hill town! As our train pulled into the station, we saw the prominent town, nestled into the hill...very green and pretty. Not only is it a major pilgrimage site, but it's such a serene and friendly town, surrounded by scenic countryside.

From the station, we took a bus that went up the hill and into town. After visiting several basilicas and walking around town on the quaint cobble stoned streets, we had a lunch break in a pizzeria. The food was noticeably more fresh and tasty than in Rome... or we were just high on our beautiful surroundings...whatever it was, lunch was great. We meandered through town visiting more basilicas and stopping off here and there to enjoy the views of town and the countryside. We eventually made our way to the basilica that crowns the hill town... St. Fransis' Basilica. The basilica was impressive, both inside and out. The area outside the church entrance is picturesque and the views of the town and countryside below are stunning. What more can I say... it really deserves a visit!

We were sorry to leave, and wished we had planned on spending the night there, but were all happy we were at least able to visit and get out of the chaos of Rome. Back in Rome, we packed and called it an early night to prep for more travel the next morning.

The next day, we left Rome for good, and took a train up North towards Cinque Terre. While we were getting situated in our assigned compartment on the train, we had a little encounter with some gypsy pickpockets. Two young women, a baby and a little child pushed their way into our small compartment (even while we were standing in the doorway) and started causing confusion. They were speaking in Italian, but were basically telling us to leave as it was their compartment! They even started pushing and trying to pull our bags off the the luggage racks telling us to get out... the nerve! Then my mom caught them opening her purse up and dad said he caught the little girl's hand in his pocket trying to reach for his wallet! We eventually got rid of them, but that was a bizarre episode... but apparently not too bizarre, as thieves like them are pretty common in Rome. Just glad they didn't manage to steal anything!

On our way we stopped off in Pisa for a few hours. Honestly, the town really only deserves an hour, but the way the train schedule worked out, our stop over was about 3-4 hours. The main attraction is of course, the Leaning Tower, which is located in the old town area, behind a stone city wall. Some people walk it, but we took a bus from the station to this area, known as the Field of Miracles. Not only is the Leaning Tower included in this Field of Miracles, but so is a Basilica and a couple of other ornate buildings. Since we had so much time, we just relaxed and wandered about. We watched all the silly tourists standing in various creative poses, trying to either hold up or knock down the tower. It was quite a spectacle 😊 We ate lunch on the grass next to the tower, and then posed for our own goofy pictures by the tower. Cheesy, yes, but when in Pisa, it's a must do! 😱

The street next to these landmarks is lined with market stalls, eager to sell to all the bright-eyed tourists. We must all have "sucker" written on our faces... since even when you intend not to buy anything, you always walk away with something. We all ended up buying something... whether it was a post card or pashmina or other trinket.

Back at the train station, we collected our bags from the bag check desk and boarded our train. Little did we know what was in store for us... We were supposed to leave Pisa around 5pm and reach Vernazza by 7ish. 5 o'clock came and went, then 6 o'clock, then 7 o'clock... you get the picture. We ended up being delayed by 4-5 hours due to a stuck train on our tracks a few miles outside of Pisa. We never really got the full story, which was the truly frustrating part. The language barrier didn't help, but luckily there was a friendly Italian passenger who helped translate the issue to us. He even offered to call our rental manager for our apartments in Vernazza (Camere Nicolina) to let them know of our late arrival, which was super helpful. It was getting late, and since we had no idea how much longer we'd be waiting, we broke down and got some dinner at the station... Mc Donald's of all things! There was one other option, but by that point, we just wanted something familiar and greasy to satisfy our stomachs. El entertained us with some of his antics, but other than that, we were bored out of our minds 😊

Hours later, after having changed trains a couple of times (dragging our bags around with us), we finally were on our way to La Spezia! Once there, we had one last train change before we got to Vernazza. Whew! What a day... we didn't get there until just past midnight. Luckily someone (Tulio) was there to greet us and take us to our apartments. Shel, El and dad were especially tired since they did most of the heavy lifting of the bags on our multiple train changes. Since Vernazza is a hilly town with lots of stairs, they had a little more lifting to do before they called it a day.

The small town was practically deserted by that time of the night, so we walked down the main street to our apartments in near seclusion. The apartment that Shel, my mom and I stayed in was right on the main street, so with the windows open, we heard a group of late nighters walk by, singing and obviously enjoying their Saturday night. We could also hear waves nearby, which was surprising since I didn't think we were so close to the water... it was too dark to tell. El and parents had another room tucked behind the main street... up more windy stairs in a residential corridor. What a difference from our apartment in Rome, which was on a very busy large street.

We were excited for what awaited us in the morning, but for now, we were just happy to finally be there, and have a bed to sleep in!

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Photos

Leaving Rome...
waiting for a tram