Cinque Terre & Chianti

I think I'm starting to get into Italy a little bit more. The first few days were a little hard, I don't know if it is the stress of transition between cultures or maybe a little too much familiarity with Italy but I just wasn't enjoying it at first.

Pisa helped, it's always special to visit a world famous monument, but Cinque Terre really impressed me. It's a group of 5 colourful villages on the Mediterranean coast. They claim to be part of the Italian Rivieria. The main port of La Spezia certainly looked like a playground for the rich and famous going by some of the boats we saw.

Unfortunately Cinque Terre also caused a bit of a meltdown in the family was well. Tan got very frustrated trying to find information about parking at La Spezia so we could catch the ferry to the villages. They are accessible by road but parking is non-existant. We gave her the rest of the night off.

Sam wandered off to the local soccer field during all this and unbeknownst to us made friends with some local lads and played soccer with them. It was nice to see him feeling so confident.

We ended up taking the plunge and drove to La Spezia next morning hoping we would find some parking. It didn't look good initially. There were blue P signs everywhere but just for limited metered street parking, we needed something for the day. We handed responsibility over to Tim who suggested a parking station not far away. We started heading up the hill a way and then I missed a crucial 'bear left!' command and we had to do a 7 min 2.5k loop back around. After we returned it turned out it wasn't much of a parking station anyway, more of a garage.

We then tried to find a street spot, which we eventually did but didn't have enough change for the meter. A kindly Italian lady, who spoke no English at all, tried to offer us some coins but it wasn't going to be enough. We didn't know how long we could stay anyway so reluctantly gave up our hard earned spot.

Plan B was to find the tourist office. We tried Tim again but alas no tourist office when he so confidently claimed that we had reached our destination. Two strikes to Tim. Fortunately Em piped up that she had seen the tourist office as we went past back down the road. There was thankfully a single (short term) parking space out the front and Tan went in to try and find out more about the parking situation.

Unhappily amidst this stress and confusion there was another toilet crisis brewing, mine this time. It's seems to be a recurrent theme for our family though. During the hour we had been searching for parking my bladder was starting to become critical. No public WC was the message from the tourist lady, find a bar or cafe. Aaargh why don't these countries have public toilets?!

Parking was sorted anyway, there was a free area on the edge of town with a shuttle bus or paid parking in the marina near where the ferry went from. We opted for the closer paid option and there was heaps of parking and it was cheaper than what we had found earlier as well.

Next problem to solve was a toilet, I thought I'd wait until we got on the boat, except we had missed the ferry by 10 minutes and the next one wasn't for a couple of hours. I was desperate so it was time to take on the bar. I walked in looked around, it was smaller than our bedroom with two bar staff and one customer so I wasn't going to be able to quietly slip in unnoticed.

I glanced at the lady behind the counter said toilet and quickly headed to the door. She didn't say anything so I assumed it was OK. There also wasn't any request for money from anyone so that was a bonus. They were a bit busier when I came out so I hurried out as inconspicuously as I could. Toilet saga one for the day was over but there was more to come that evening!

Once I could think a bit clearer we decided to go with Tan's original plan on her itinerary which had been to train it to one of the villages and catch the ferry back. The train station was at the other end of town but we would be right for when we got back.

More confusion about tickets, we tried getting them at one place but they only had combined hiking/train passes. Train tickets only we had to buy from the tobacconist on the platform, as you do.

We went to our platform where there was a train waiting (after all visiting the free 'normal' toilets) but no one was getting on. The indicator board was blank so we waited as well. Eventually everyone just got on board and we hoped it was the right train. It was.

The train mostly runs through tunnels along the coast but occasionally you come out right on the edge of the ocean with spectacular views. We got off at the stop for the last of the five villages, Monterosso. It was amazing, one side of the platform is a normal train station and the other is open overlooking the sea, literally a stone's throw away.

We had lunch in the shade before heading down to the beach for a swim. Gray sand and pebbles but still beautiful. The public toilets were closed for the lunch break so the kids and I popped back up to the station to get changed. Tan opted for the on-beach option as she had a sun dress on that was quite amenable to public undressing.

We had to endure the un-entertaining antics of an inebriated bloke throwing an inflatable cushion into the water and then dramatically diving in to rescue it, he ended up hitting a poor girl in the head before giving up.

The ferry ride back to La Spezia was very pleasant. We did it in two stages, getting off at Vernazza, the next village along, for a gelato and wander. At each village the boat just pulls up head on at the public wharf and they run a gangplank down. The boat rocks quite a bit so it's fun trying to get on and off. Ollie and I also had another swim here, the beach wasn't as nice more of a harbour (there were no public WC's again so I actually went in to go if you know what I mean).

We stayed on all the way back to La Spezia from then on, only viewing the remaining villages from the water which is actually the best way to see them. Tan recalled that apparently they were originally settled from the sea by groups of people fleeing an oppressive rule in Pisa at onetime. How they become established and survived is remarkable, hopefully the pictures show how exposed and unstable they appear.

The trip home was relatively normal, although we wanted to pick up a pizza somewhere but I waited too long (didn't want it getting cold) and we ran out of options and had to drive back into town. Being Monday there was very little open. Em started toilet saga two for the day. Once we couldn't find a pizzeria open we stopped at a supermarket for options, no hot food but a toilet! Then two minutes along the road we found a great local pizzeria open and had our first real Italian wood fired pizzas. The day hadn't worked out too bad at all.

Our plan for today had been Florence but we had left it too late to reserve tickets for the main art gallery so postponed that for tomorrow. We did a tour of the Chianti area. Unfortunately no wine tasting as we can't bring any home. We did have a delicious lunch in Greve.

Tan had a wild boar stew and I tried some local antipasto and a pasta with truffle sauce. Kids had lasagne (Ollie) and chips (Em & Sam). At least Ol was having pasta! I had wanted to try some meats after visiting a butcher that has apparently been operating since the 1700's. It was some meat shop. Cured meats hanging from the ceiling, a cheese cellar, wine shop every type of meat could imagine, with speciality being wild pork.

We also visited San Gimignano, originally a 3rd century BC Etruscan village then a medieval walled city renowned for its towers. Apparently over thirty at the height of its fame, now much less. This was our gelato stop for the day. Pineapple, passionfruit and watermelon were the choice of the day. Tan and I normally go for Hazelnut with either banana or Baci chocolate.

Ran into some more Aussies in the carpark, they've been popping up everywhere. Mostly retirees but these were two young couples from Queensland. Our accents are easily recognisable amongst all the American and British english speakers. There's quite a few of us over here at the moment.

Tuscany Day 3-4