View September 18th - 30th in a larger map
The Cinque Terre (literally meaning five lands) are five tiny villages on the north west coast of Italy. Wedged into a series of coves between sheer cliffs, the villages are only really accessible by train. The line from the nearby town of La Spezia runs through miles of tunnel, emerging occasionally at a village station before disappearing underground again.
We spent a lovely, if not rather busy day hopping on and off trains, enjoying the fabulous scenery and the ice cream! A number of footpaths run between the villages, and it’s customary to leave a padlock somewhere along the Via dell’Amore (Lover’s Path). The area is an essential destination for Australian and American backpackers and there were quite literally thousands of them about. Unfortunately, many of the paths were closed due to heavy rain which meant that the trains and villages were extremely busy.
Just beyond the Cinque Terre is the beautiful little town of Portovenere. Even prettier than the Cinque Terre, it’s a bit further off the beaten track so not as busy, but it’s a delightful place with great views of the surrounding coast.
From Portovenere we moved on to one of the most striking sites of our tour; the extraordinary looking marble quarries at Carrara. Huge slabs of marble have been cut from the mountains here since Roman times and everyone from Michelangelo to Henry Moore has trekked up here in search of the perfect stone. Carrara is still the world’s largest marble producer and exporter.
We spent a couple of nights at the excellent motorhome site in Lucca, which was very handy for the city centre. Lucca is one of several northern Italian towns brimming with amazing architecture and impressive works of art. One of the great things about wandering round these towns is coming across a plain looking church and peering inside to see huge paintings by someone like Caravaggio or Titan.
Charlie attracted a lot of attention in Italy. We couldn’t step outside without people cooing over her or saying ‘ah piccolo’ or ‘ah bello’ (that’s ‘ah small’ or ‘ah beautiful’!). Some wanted their photos taken with her, and a conductor on one of the vaporetti in Venice even picked her up and cuddled her for the duration of the journey!
Pisa is of course famous for a certain tower with dodgy foundations, but we were more impressed by the buildings alongside it in the Campo dei Miracoli (the field of miracles). The cathedral and baptistery, which also lean slightly due to the sandy earth below, are both stunning, even more so when you consider that building began in the 11th and 12th centuries.
We were amused by the line of tourists taking the obligatory photo which appears to show you holding up the tower. We are, of course, above such things…
We were even more amused by the hilarious boxer shorts that featured a leaning tower, but that’s another story!
After a couple of days in the sun we hit Florence in time for David’s birthday (24 again!). The birthday cakes sent over by Alex’s mum disappeared within minutes, and we then set off for lunch!
Celebrated by many as the most beautiful city in Italy, Florence is a mecca for art lovers as it’s home to several major galleries. You can see Michelangelo’s David here, and the Piazza della Signoria is full of impressive statues. The city’s vast duomo is one of the most impressive and colourful we’ve seen, due to the different types of marble used in its construction.
We enjoyed a wander through the maze of mediaeval streets, had a good lunch, and followed it up with a great night out. We ran into a couple from Glasgow and it was great to have some English speaking company to compare travel notes with.
Florence has to be the tour guide capital of Europe. They’re everywhere; marching around waving telescopic car aerials with tassels attached, as groups of slightly confused looking tourists struggle to keep up and understand a word of what’s being said. It seems the current trend is for the guide to have a Madonna style headset on and a small loudspeaker attached to their chest, which does make them look a little like C3PO!
While in Lucca we managed to blow up the in-car charger for our laptop - disaster! We ordered another from the UK and had this delivered to David’s Dad who rerouted it to a colleague of his based in Florence. Our thanks to Lorenzo for doing us a huge favour and our apologies that we didn’t have time to stop for a coffee.
Everywhere in Italy seemed to be full of stylish, good looking people (so obviously we felt right at home!). This is unsurprising as even the smallest towns are full of boutiques selling expensive designer clothes – not a Pri-Mark or Bon Marche in sight!! It did make us feel a little sad about the state of the British high street with the huge chains dominating every one, and small business being in decline. It certainly appears that the small independents are going strong in Italy.
After a couple of days in the Brit filled hill towns of Tuscany we arrived at one of its most spectacular.
San Gimignano is famed for its mediaeval towers and the church which is filled with amazing 13th century frescoes. The towers were built by feuding nobles in aristocratic rivalry in the 12th and 13th centuries. Set in spectacular countryside and with a beautiful centre with many interesting buildings, San Gimignano is definitely worth a visit, especially in the early evening as the sun starts to set and the crowds disperse.
After a lovely overnight stop in the little walled town of Montereggioni where we awoke to find a classic car rally passing through, it was on to Sienna. Famed for its huge scallop shaped piazza, and the bareback horse races that take place there every summer, it really is a beautiful place.
The cathedral is striking; its black and white striped walls give it the look of a giant liquorice allsort!
Sienna also resulted in another visit to a gelateria! Even the smallest town in Italy has several gelateria, where homemade ice cream is displayed in colourful mounds waiting for the evening ‘pasagieta’ when everyone heads out for a stroll and a couple of scoops of their favourite flavours. When in Rome! ... or any other city for that matter!
Rome was our next destination but arriving during the Friday evening rush hour wasn’t the best idea we’ve ever had!
No comments:
Post a Comment