The first pit stop of the day is at a car park which costs 109euro for the bus
to park at. That's ok because it's the official car park for the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We walk the 15minutes past the super tacky souvenir shops to see one of the most famous monuments in the world. It's pretty cool and we take the obligatory photos of us holding it up! Surprisingly it's next to a beautiful cathedral and baptistery. We only have forty minutes to get the photos, find food and pay 30eurocents for a comfort stop which involves a massive queue. Somehow we manage it all and get a tacky souvenir to take part in the competition on the bus. At the very start of this trip S
hona wanted to go to the Cinque Terre which is five little villages along the west coast of Italy. They are famous for their way of life, building up terraced walls on super steep terrain to farm grapes for wine, olives for oil and lemons for limoncello. The main income was from fishing because the Mediterranean is full of wonderful fish, namely anchovies. The Monterosso is also the birthplace of pesto. Of course we would want to stop here! To get to this fantastic part of Italy, we catch the train from La Spezia to the first village and our home for the next 4 nights - Riomaggiore. It's so picturesque with the brightly coloured terraces houses, complete with forest green shutters, the paved footpaths (no cars here) and Italians sitting on benches talking about something. We find our way to the hostel, which is just the office and the guy leads us back down the hill we have walked up with our packs (YAY - not!) and find our accommodation. Because we
are a couple and we are first he offered us a double bed. We take it because we can't remember the last time we were in the same bed! Downside is that our accommodation is like an apartment, the bedroom has 3 bunk beds in it and the lounge / kitchen / dining area has our double bed. It's ok and there are two complete bathrooms, one which we can make our own so all good :-) Plus we are super excited about having a kitchen because we believe the last time we cooked was in Lauterbrunnen 2 months ago. It's the small pleasures really... It's laundry time again and our
timing is perfect. Apparently there were thunderstorms in the region a few weeks ago and the lightening took out 3 of the 4 machines. A nice American lady is waiting for her clothes but guesstimates that she'll be ten minutes. We find some takeaway pasta spaghetti with pesto and spaghetti carbonara YUM and YUM! Our clothes go on and we eat lunch while we wait. With the washing all done we wander around Riomaggiore to check out our town. It is really rather little but we find the playground up the hill, the new lift that is being built and the road where all the cars can park. It's a big little adventure and fun just to see what is up these steps or down there. Exploring is hard work which needs feeding. Despite the kitchen we decide to eat out tonight. Our restaurant is chosen for the calamari but upon closer inspection of the menu realise that it's brought in frozen and not fresh as Shona wanted. Eventually Mike settles for the veal stew and Shona the spaghetti with anchovies, garlic and capers. It is the best pasta she has ever eaten and is in total heaven. Luckily Mike doesn't like anchovies and so doesn't want to share.
to park at. That's ok because it's the official car park for the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We walk the 15minutes past the super tacky souvenir shops to see one of the most famous monuments in the world. It's pretty cool and we take the obligatory photos of us holding it up! Surprisingly it's next to a beautiful cathedral and baptistery. We only have forty minutes to get the photos, find food and pay 30eurocents for a comfort stop which involves a massive queue. Somehow we manage it all and get a tacky souvenir to take part in the competition on the bus. At the very start of this trip S
hona wanted to go to the Cinque Terre which is five little villages along the west coast of Italy. They are famous for their way of life, building up terraced walls on super steep terrain to farm grapes for wine, olives for oil and lemons for limoncello. The main income was from fishing because the Mediterranean is full of wonderful fish, namely anchovies. The Monterosso is also the birthplace of pesto. Of course we would want to stop here! To get to this fantastic part of Italy, we catch the train from La Spezia to the first village and our home for the next 4 nights - Riomaggiore. It's so picturesque with the brightly coloured terraces houses, complete with forest green shutters, the paved footpaths (no cars here) and Italians sitting on benches talking about something. We find our way to the hostel, which is just the office and the guy leads us back down the hill we have walked up with our packs (YAY - not!) and find our accommodation. Because we 
are a couple and we are first he offered us a double bed. We take it because we can't remember the last time we were in the same bed! Downside is that our accommodation is like an apartment, the bedroom has 3 bunk beds in it and the lounge / kitchen / dining area has our double bed. It's ok and there are two complete bathrooms, one which we can make our own so all good :-) Plus we are super excited about having a kitchen because we believe the last time we cooked was in Lauterbrunnen 2 months ago. It's the small pleasures really... It's laundry time again and our 
timing is perfect. Apparently there were thunderstorms in the region a few weeks ago and the lightening took out 3 of the 4 machines. A nice American lady is waiting for her clothes but guesstimates that she'll be ten minutes. We find some takeaway pasta spaghetti with pesto and spaghetti carbonara YUM and YUM! Our clothes go on and we eat lunch while we wait. With the washing all done we wander around Riomaggiore to check out our town. It is really rather little but we find the playground up the hill, the new lift that is being built and the road where all the cars can park. It's a big little adventure and fun just to see what is up these steps or down there. Exploring is hard work which needs feeding. Despite the kitchen we decide to eat out tonight. Our restaurant is chosen for the calamari but upon closer inspection of the menu realise that it's brought in frozen and not fresh as Shona wanted. Eventually Mike settles for the veal stew and Shona the spaghetti with anchovies, garlic and capers. It is the best pasta she has ever eaten and is in total heaven. Luckily Mike doesn't like anchovies and so doesn't want to share.
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Nice hat Mike!
ReplyDeleteLove the photos of the houses on the hills - and you guys!
ReplyDelete