Pisa, Cinque Terre

Pisa

On Sunday morning we left our neat little B&B in Palermo and flew out to Pisa. Pisa, by the way, is a tiny, tiny very hot town that has a tilted tower and thats about it. We hopped on a tourist bus but missed the stop we were hoping for. Where we got off was probably the only corner of Pisa that had absolutely no tourists. It was a little unsettling. I said if we were in a movie the song "All By Myself" would be playing in the background.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was really hot too? We wandered to the first restaurant we could find and had some really good food. Bethany thought she was ordering some fruit punch but it turned out to be a shot of some kind of red liquor.

We eventually wandered over to the tower, which was infact, leaning. Snapped a few pics, then moved on to La Spezia.

La Spezia (Borghetto)

So we were hot and tired and hopped off the train in La Spezia where we thought our hotel was. But infact, our hotel was in the same county, but a different town.

Oh yeah, and we missed the last bus out to the tiny town. As we were walking around La Spezia trying to figure out where we were staying people were like "Borghetto? Why would you stay there?"

But honestly, I really like it. Its about a 40 minute bus ride from the main town and its way up in the mountains. Its really really quiet but very scenic, like staying in a country town in Colorado. Lots of green mountains. And we are actually getting a lot of sleep for the first time in out trip because 1) even though our window is open there are no sounds on the street to wake us up at night and 2) there is absolutely nothing to do after 930 pm anyway. And the church bells go off at 7 am so we figure we might as well get to bed early.

Cinque Terre

Yesterday we made the treck to the famous Cinque Terre. Its five towns stretched rooted in cliffs. The hike from town to town was very scenic. The first town, Riomaggiore, was very quiet. We actually returned today and are planning on hitting up the rocky beach soon.

The walk to the first town, Via Dell Amore (walk of love), is a nice little stroll. The next walk is longer but then you hit about 300 stairs so we decided to take advantage of the free bus.

Then I did pretty much the stupidest thing ever. The walk to the third town was about a 90 minute treck according to Rick Steves (author of the travel book we are using). So I said, "I wonder how fast we can do it?"

And of course Jess, the triathlete, was immediately speed walking through the trail. Keep in mind, the trail was very rocky, very steep, and it was a very long way down to the ocean below. So Jess led the way, passing people like the were standing still and hopping from rock to rock. I followed, desperately trying to stay on her heels. Stivo and Bethany took a much more pleasant stroll which was probably a lot safer and smarter. But Jess and I made it in 50 minutes, so weve got that going for us.

Each of the five towns are all very picturesque. But there were A LOT of tourists, mostly Americans clutching the Rick Steves book. It was a bit of a turnoff. I enjoyed the hiking and scenery more than the actual towns which had mostly little touristy shops. Dont get me wrong, the views were STUNNING and Im so glad we decided to visit.

Portovenere

Today we went to Porto Venere, which is kind of like the 6th town in the cliffs, but Rick Steves didnt cover it so there were not nearly as many tourists. It was just as beautiful though.

I think everyone has enjoyed this part of the trip. Its been a chance to recharge before we hit the final leg of the journey in Florence and Rome.