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Published: June 11th 2010
Cute Oriveto township
Nothing but a rock on a hill really, but cuteFLORENCE, PISA & CINQUE TERRE
The rest of my Italy experience all wrapped into one blog so here goes people.
I last left you guys after a busy time in Rome, and I kept up the same hectic pace for a bit longer. I caught the bus from Rome to Florence with a couple of short stops along the way. The first place to explore was the tiny town of Orvieto which is only accessibly via a funicular (hillside tram thing - which was fun) since it is basically a large volcanic rock and has these old caves to explore. A 1hr guided tour showed us through some of the caves, of which 400 are known to be beneath the town and were spared by bombings during the wars as via a written agreement with the Allies. Pretty cool, but that’s all there is to the town. The next short stop was through the Tuscany area of Siena - and the scenery was just gorgeous and a reminder to come to this place when I have someone special to share it with. But enough of that, it was just to drop off and pick up passengers.
Next stop
- FLORENCE.
As soon as we hit Florence I was out the front door of the cool city hostel, and onto a walking tour of the town. A view of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, a stroll into the main square, past the fake ‘David’ statue outside The Academia museum, and the gothic Duomo Cathedral (one of the world’s largest) many an artist had a go at completing over many centuries. Next I hit a leather demonstration and shop, and went out for a 4 course dinner before partaking in some Karoke at the Red Garter - as one does in Florence on a Friday night. While I did not really scratch the surface of all the art and attractions Venice has to offer, I had a great night out with some friends made on Busabout, and how can you go wrong with cocktails, 3 litre flaming beer table kegs, and good old fashioned Karaoke in downtown Florence. Although I didn’t really take advantage of the comfy double bed given the late night and early departure, but that’s just me lately.
Next morning and it was the weekend and I left Florence, took a short drive to the obligatory
obligatory tacky pose
I feel bad I resorted to such tackyness - but when in Pisa... photo stop of Pisa for numerous tacky photographs (disappointingly I didn’t win the prize for the tackiest photo by trying to prop up the leaning tower with my boobs). But that over and done with it was not long before I got dropped off in La Spezia, said goodbye to the convenience of Busabout for a while and made my own way to the cute villages of Cinque Terre which have been highly recommended to me by several people. Of course arriving there by train I was now aware of what these people had been talking about - coastal sunny town heaven!
For those not in the know, Cinque Terre is 5 small coastal towns only accessible by train and walking tracks and just so god damned cute and contain only the best basics of Italian life - food, wine, swimming, fishing, and tourism. I started off in the first town Rio Maggiore, sampled the local cold beer and gelato (it was a hot day) and then made my way to the next town Manarola where I checked into my hostel at the very (hilly) top of the town (but the view made up for that sweaty trek with
Vernazza
Our visual reward from a challenging part of the hike the backpack).
A quick change and it was down to the water for a swim and sunbake for the afternoon and some Julia time, before strolling down the walking path back to Rio Maggiore through Lover’s Tunnel (where those in love leave a padlock of their love or some crap like that) for a poke around. I tried to find somewhere to view the women’s French Open Tennis final to cheer on Sam Stosur, but negative on tv’s in this town (even though she was playing an Italian). After the chaos of Rome and Florence, this town made you feel instantly calm with nothing to do but chill out, so I did just that with dinner for 1 at a local restaurant followed by watching the sun set on the beach. I was in love with this town and lifestyle.
Sunday, and all that relaxing went out the window when I left early to catch the train to the 5th town of Monterosso to start the challenging coastal walk back to the 1st town. I met up with Stuart who was also doing the walk that day and it was one of those hot sunny days where you
nearly melted in the heat without doing a 9km cliff walk up and down thousands of stairs and rocks. Stu and I chose to do the hardest leg first going from Monterosso to Vernazza up stairs that seemed to never end, but the views were worth it (although not worth the Bradley rolled ankle up the top - thanks Mum for that genetical defect). But continue I did/had to, and by the time we got to Vernazza after 1.5 hours I had damn well earned that swim and Gelato.
Next town was Corniglia, which was another decent hike and the lunch of foccacia (a region specialty) and beer was in order, before strolling down to my town of Manarola and quickly to the 1st town for a further swim and gelato. We did the walk (including swims, drinks, gelato & rolled ankle stops) in about 5 hours, and it was a great accomplishment. Stu and I treated ourselves to a huge dinner of marinated anchovies (another region special), pasta, cheese, dessert and wine before taking in my last sea side sunset for a while. I absolutely loved this area and its pace of life, and recommend it to anyone
my last sunset
check out the mess the planes made in the sky heading to Italy as a must-see! But continue on I shall.........
Next stop - SWITZERLAND.
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