The Last Week - A Cliff Notes Version

Day ? - Well, this is officially the time in the trip where we loose track of the days. They all start running together and it becomes harder to keep up with the blog on a daily basis. But for now know that we are all well. We have spent the last week in the Bordeaux region of France in a little house we rented through VRBO. Ironically the person who owns the house lives in California, so after contacting them online  with some initial questions about the rental Tim was able to contact the owner directly via phone. About 2 hours later we had a rental for this week. Once we made the confirmation we read articles about some rentals in foreign countries being a scam and people showing up having rented a house that did not exist. So being able to call someone in the states was a bit of a relief, although we suppose it could still have been a scam.

Our Bordeaux adventure started with a quick plane flight from Milan, Italy to Bordeaux France. We said goodbye to Italian and delicious cappuccinos and prepared ourselves for cafe au lait and crepes. The flight went well and we were able to pick up our rental car with only minor hiccups. Brenda and Greg both had international drivers licenses so that they could switch off the driving duties as needed. Brenda started as the navigator with Greg behind the wheel. Just getting out of airports sometimes required a PhD to do it right, so after one wrong turn in the parking lot we were off. It had started raining as we arrived, so Michelle was a little nervous about the car ride. It is hard enough to know where you are going when it is not raining, add in the rain, the foreign city, the stick shift (which Greg had not driven in a while) and it could have been a recipe for disaster. Plus, our house was 3.5 hours outside of Bordeaux. The GPS system in the car was a life saver. Brenda would double check the car's suggested directions as we went and Greg was an excellent driver. Thankfully, once outside of the city we were able to navigate easily without impatient drivers around us. And during the entire week we were only honked at once and yelled at once. Success!

When we arrived at the house we were instructed to meet the neighbors, Rinnie and Ton who were Dutch transplants to the area and the caretakers for the house. They were a sweet couple who invited us into their home for a drink. Their home was the old parish for the church next door. They had renovated much of it during their time there and were happy to give us the tour. The house was originally built in the 1600's and had various parts added on over the years. The stone steps up to the second floor had deep wear marks where many feet had walked up before. When they bought the house they said it was a mess. It certainly isn't a mess now! They quickly became friends over a glass of wine and had some great suggestions for wine tasting and restaurants in the region.

After drinks Ton took us over to the house. It was a charming property, perfectly suited to our needs. The main house had a small kitchen and dining room attached to a larger living room. There were also a set of stairs that lead up to the second floor where there was a large bedroom, full bath and toilette. There was no door to the upper floor though, which was not an issue for us. There was a porch off of the dining room that offered a wonderful view of the valley and plenty of chairs to use for the 4 of us. Outside there is also a separate room from the house called the chambres des amis (bedroom for the friends) that had its own shower and toilette. Michelle and Tim were in the main house and Brenda and Greg were outside. One of the other amenities was the fast wireless internet and the phone which made free international calls. The latter were especially nice for Tim and Michelle who enjoyed many good FaceTime calls with Alexander.

The week was spent with various drives through the region and seeing the local attractions. We spent one whole day doing nothing but reading (the house had a great library with lots of English books) watching movies on our ipads, napping and eating good food we had purchased from the local grocery store and bakery. It was the perfect lazy day.

Another day we took a 28km canoe/kayak ride down the Dordogne river. From the river you could hop out and explore some of the local villages and see 5 great castles. It was a fun and exhausting day.

Another day was for wine tasting. Ton and Rinnie had a few recommendations in the area which were excellent. If anyone ever sees wine from the Clos des Verdots label or Montballziac type wine buy it for Michelle. She will pay you back. It was delicious.   We were able to make it to 4 wineries, which was great since we didn't leave until around 1 in the afternoon. The French still often do close up shop around lunchtime, so it is hard to find places that are open between 1-3. And since we were in such small towns, they often closed by 5 or 6. The kitchens of two of the dinner recommendations we tried were closed when we came around 8pm. And the grocery store also closes from 1-2:30. So hitting things when they were open was always a bit of a challenge.

One whole day was just spent driving, which was so much fun. We are sure that Michelle's mom is just dying laughing at that since their family used to go on "drives" all of the time. The parents thought it was the best thing in the world. The kids thought it was SO boring. My how the tables have turned. What made it to enjoyable were all of the hidden surprises around every corner. In this area of France there are a lot of random roads that weave you in and out of the various small towns. None of the roads are named, they are only numbered, and there are signs for the towns that are coming up. But you could take 15 different roads to get to a specific little town. Some of the roads look like the driveway to a house, but around the curve you see that it skirts by the house and continues on. Again, love the GPS, have no idea how people lived without it. Add to the roads all of the houses (new, old, old refurbished, old falling down, houses for sale) and you have a veritable candyland for the house lover. Brenda joked about buying something. At least I think she was joking. I did see her looking at places online . . .

One of our final days was spent touring two castles. The first was famous because within the last hundred years it was Josephine Bakers former residence. Before that it was the second castle for a number of former French kings and queens. Josephine Baker was an American born entertainer who came over to France and became a huge superstar. She fell in love with the castle she bought when a friend of hers (the former owner) described the residence. When he decided to sell it she bought it, sight unseen. She and her 3rd husband adopted 12 children from all over the world (eat your heart out Angelina Jolie) and they all lived at the house. Towards the end of her life she ran into money troubles, lost the house and was taken in by Brigitte Bardot. The current owners turned it into a museum complete with 15-20 of her original stage costumes. It was quite the collection!

The second castle was one that was not taken care of, so many of the walls had fallen in, there was no furniture or stories of life in the castle. This castles main purpose at the time it was built was for defense, and you could see that in its placement on a high hill, the high walls and the small spaces for archers to shoot arrows at any who would attack it from below. On one side was a sheer cliff with the Dordogne river below. In the various rooms of the castle they presented the tools of war and described how it was made and used. Arrows, hatchets, swords, cleavers, trebuchetts, battering rams, you name something used in war it was likely there. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

On our last day we had drinks again at Ton and Rinnie's house. It was a great place to visit and rest for a time. We would definitely come back to this area if we were looking for rest, relaxation and a more intimate time with the French people and culture than a big city can bring. Our next stop is Paris, which will be a very different experience than we have had. Next is Paris, last is Brussels and then we are headed home. Looking forward to our last week, it seems like it has gone too fast!

One day more in Como (aka Milan becomes a day trip)

Today was the day we were supposed to go to Milan for one day and night, then catch a flight to Bordeaux France the following afternoon. But Brenda and Greg were so in love with the Lake Como region that we decided to stay one extra day. But since there was a science museam in Milan that Greg and Brenda also wanted to see we opted to make Milan a day trip instead. And it all worked out, kind of. . .

The first hurdle was where we would stay the extra night. We tried to book another room at the hotel we were at, but they were not sure if they would have two doubles available. They had one, but another was booked by a couple who gave a bad credit card number to confirm their room. According to Italian law, the hotel owner has to notify the couple that they have until 9am the following day to supply a valid credit card to keep the room. So we decided to roll the dice and wait until 9am.

The only issue was that the train to Milan that we wanted left at 8:30am. Since Tim and Michelle really don't like Milan (it is our least favorite city of everywhere we have traveled) Tim opted to stay and figure out the room situation, and Michelle went with Greg and Brenda to Milan. But finding Tim once we got back (which hotel, a new or the old?) and getting our bags all in one place was still a bit of a mystery. We had faith though that it would all work out.

Brenda, Greg and Michelle easily made the train into Milan. The train was pretty full though with other commuters making their way into the city. Once on the ground again they found a little cafe to enjoy a cup of cappuccino and a sweet treat before the science museaum opened. This museaum is actually pretty cool, housing a history of a number of different technological inventions. Once inside the museam a lovely docent proceeded to tell us all of the areas of the museaum we should see and estimated it would take 2 hours total to work through the exhibits. We thought this sounded great as we had about 3 hours before we needed to head back to catch the right train home in time to meet Tim.  About an hour later we had only walked through one small part of the museaum. We had not even started on the small real life models of some of Michaelangelo's most famous inventions. There was no way we could make our way through the rest of the museaum in 1 hour, let alone the 2 hours we had remaining. So we had to prioritize and probably only covered about 1/3 of all of the offerings.

Navigating back to the metro we made our way easily back to the train station and onto the right train. Once back in Como we headed over to our old hotel, figuring that we would either see Tim along the way or we could see if our bags were still at the old hotel. If he had found a new one he may have also moved our things. We could also still connect to the internet at the old hotel and see if he had messaged us. We did not see him along the way, but we did find him sitting at the cafe in front of the old hotel when we walked up. We had a new space for the night, it was just down the road. We grabbed our bags and made the trek to our new home.

It turns out that Tim had quite a day as well. In between figuring out the hotel issue, he also walked around the lake quite a way and managed to talk his way into a beautiful house along the water that was housing a museaum exhibit. He took pictures of the beautiful chandelier and some of the grounds before making his way back to our old hotel. It was good for him to have a bit of time to explore the area.
 
Our new space was comfortable and close to the downtown area. Hungry, we asked the person at the front desk for recommendations on places to eat. She asked if we wanted traditional Italian or modern Italian. We went with the traditional recommendation and were very pleased. There were no menus in this restaurant, only the waitress letting you know what the chef was cooking that evening. So there were 3-4 starters, 4-5 main plates and 4 different desserts. That was all. And their food changes every day. We were amazed, so different than how we do things in the states. We opted for a cheese filled crepe to start (Oh. My. Goodness. it was good). Michelle had the ravioli and Tim had some meat on a stick. It was all so delicious that we decided to go for dessert as well. There was a blueberry tart, a strawberry mousse and an apple pie. All of them were delicious.

Tomorrow we are headed out to catch a train to the Bordeaux region of France where we will spend a week relaxing at a house we rented through VRBO. The owner actually lives in California ironically enough. We are looking forward to renting a car so we can jet around wherever we want and seeing some more rural areas then we are used to. And sleeping in. :) Au demain!

Our life on the boat and the bus in Como

On day 2 of Como we weere successful in our quest to get out of the room at a decent hour. We stopped off at a local cafe to fuel up for the morning. Tim and Michelle had their usual cappuccino and sweet treat. Greg ordered a small pizza and Brenda had a cappuccino and a sweet treat as well. At the boat dock we bought tickets for the slow boat that would take 2 hours to get to Bellagio. The nice part of the slow boat is that it makes more stops to the small villages and you can really see the lake houses from the boat. Michelle is facinated by these little houses that are built so close to the shore and have the boat equivalent of a garage on the shorline. So you can open your boat door and pull right in underneath the house. We assume there are steps up to the house from inside the slip. All of the houses and the slips have their own character, there are no track homes, which makes it even more fun.

On th boat Brenda and Greg wanted to sit outside. Michelle and Tim opted to stay inside. Being outside with the wind constantly in your face is a bit draining, and Michelle already felt wind beaten enough after her experience on the boats in Venice. To be inside with the same beautiful views was good enough for her. Once inside Tim and Michelle met two women from Ohio. They were traveling minimally (3 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, wash your clothes at the end of each day in the sink) and were enjoying their trip for the most part. They were having the most trouble with figuring out the train system, so Tim tried to give them a heads up on how to navigate it. It was fun to feel like we could make someone elses trip a little easier. 

Once at Bellagio we got off of the boat. Bellagio is a cute small town where the streets are a bit like a checkerboard but it is all uphill. So you have some streets that are flat, but they intersect with streets that are basically stairs going up, up, up. There is some shopping to be had, but most of it is too expensive for our tastes (600 euro leather shoes anyone?). Brenda and Greg did buy a cool wine bottle opener made of olive wood and we did have a nice lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking one of the steep streets. 

We decided that instead of taking the slow boat back to Como we would opt for the bus. This is something we did with Tim's parents the last time we were in the city. For roughly $4 per person you can go on the wildest bus ride of your life. Drop off cliffs, quick corners, head on traffic and a bus driver who is not afraid of it all makes for a better ride than anything you can find at Disneyland. :) And if you can get on the right side of the bus when you sit down you can see some amazing feats of engineering as you try to figure out how the Italians were able to build that house on that cliff without it all falling into the lake. This time Tim and Michelle were on the left side, Brenda and Greg were on the right. Which was a good thing, because the view would have been wasted on Tim and Michelle since they shortly fell asleep on the bus. They woke up back in town when Brenda said "Hey guys, isn't this our stop?". "Yes!" we jumped up saying, a bit to loudly and with too much panic in our voices for fear of missing the stop. Only to discover that about half the bus was also getting off, and there was no need to rush.

Back in town we opted to go to the same restaurant downstairs from our hotel again. Tim had a different pizza this time, Michelle had the same salad but with slightly different toppings. It is rare to find a big salad in Europe, so she was not going to miss out on the second opportunity. Once our bellys were full we went back to the room. The original plan for the next day was to pack up and go to Milan overnight so that we could go to the Science museam there. The Milan Science museam is actually a really cool one with replicas of Michealangelo's inventions so that you can see what they would have looked like and how they worked. It also has other exhibits on science and the history of various technologies (phones, electricity, musical instruments, energy, trains, planes, boats etc.). Since Tim and Michelle are not fond of Milan, and Brenda and Greg really liked Como, and the museam was the only real reason we were going to Milan we decided to make it a day trip from Como instead. So Tim would stay in Como and work to find us another place to stay (since our current hotel could not accommodate us for one more night) and Greg, Brenda and Michelle would go to Milan to see the museaum. When Tim was able to find logging then he would email with its location and we would head over that way. Splitting up is always an adventure, so we will see how it goes!

A slow meandering to Como

Well we are happy to report after 3 days of no posts we are alive and well. Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. We have hit the mid point of our trip, which means decompression time.  In every trip we have been on there is usually a small town we end up in for the midpoint. In that city the main goal is to do very little except rest and recharge. Como was that city for us on this trip. It was also helpful that Como is on a lake (Lake Como) and the Smiths are in love with all things boat and water.  :)

The train from Venice to Milan, then Milan to Como was uneventful. For those of you who know Michelle this is a good thing. We made all of our connections with enough time and went in the right direction on each train. We are taking more regional trains this time, which is fine, but not nearly as luxurious as the high speed rails. Ah the beauty of the Eurorail pass. Small added fees for supreme luxury, but not a practical expense for our trip this year.

Como is another city that Tim and Michelle have been to before, once to stay overnight in a little B and B on the hill portion of the city and once as a day trip with Tim's parents. It makes it a little easier  to navigate and find hotel rooms faster since our packs are getting a little heavier with each city. Packing all of your things on your back sounds like a great idea to avoid the problem of the rolly suitcases on the cobblestones but it is also hard once you decide to buy souvenirs and bottles of wine. And since we tend to like glass souvenirs, our packs can get really heavy really fast. We are getting a little smarter though, we are at least waiting to buy most of our heavy things towards the end of the trip. We both have carriers in our back pack for two bottles of wine, which can add some considerable weight, so the longer we wait to buy them the better.

In Como we rented a 2 bedroom one bath apartment with a small kitchen. When we arrived we were told we couldn't use the kitchen but we could use the refrigerator, which was great. In fact, the "kitchen" wasn't really a kitchen at all. It was a sink and a fridge. No matter, it was clean and bright a
and one of the rooms had a view of the lake. The irony is, on our city guide (a 2-3 page document we create to highlight recommendations from friends and things to do) this hotel was recommended as a place to stay. And we enjoyed it immensely.

After dropping our bags in the room we walked around the town. Of course, we had to try the gelato and thee seemed to be quite a number of places to choose from. Our hotel is petty near the tourist center, so there are a plethora of eateries all willing to overcharge tourists who don't go too far off of the beaten path. After our gelato fill at a hole in the wall place (delicious as always) we headed over to a brew pub we saw while walking into town. We ordered a few of the local brews and a few minutes later one of the servers walks over with 3 plates of food. It turns out, when you are just drinking in Italy the custom is for the house to provide you with some finger foods (similar to the pretzels or peanuts in American bars) to eat free of charge. But these were not your typical finger foods. These were mini sandwiches, pickle relish spears and a small bowl full of chips. When in Rome, eat their finger foods we said! It was a good way to start our time in Como.

We walked around the town a bit more looking for a grochery store. Unfortunately it was Sunday, and all of the grochery stores were closed for the day. So we switched our goal to finding a restaurant for dinner. We soon decided it was easier to simply go downstairs and eat at the bar then trying to find the ideal meal to eat. They seemed to be busy and had two or three different seating areas so we thought we would give them a go. It turned out the food prices were reasonable, the service  was great and the portion sizes were huge. Michelle ordered a salad with 7 ingredients of her choice and Tim ordered a large pizza. Greg ordered a bruschetta like meal with tuna on it and Brenda had a monster sized calzone. We went back to the room refreshed and sleepy. We decided that the next day would be a sleep in day (seeing a trend?!) and then we would hit the lake. Hopefully we are able to get up and moving!

Getting our fill of boats in Venice

Day 8 - We decided to sleep in today which was such a decadent luxury compared to the previous days on our trip. By 8:00am we were down in the hotel lobby enjoying the closest thing that we have had to an American breakfast so far. Most Italians do small breakfasts, cappuccinos or coffee plus a bread, meat or cheese. But at this hotel, where breakfast is included, we had a full spread with eggs, bacon, ham, two kinds of cheeses, two kinds of cereals, an assortment of fruits and two different kinds of fruit juices. It was delicious to have some eggs again. After breakfast we were off on the grand canal riding one of the water busses to the Plaza San Marco. We passed by the Rialto bridge on our way. The ironic thing is, Tim and I have never actually been on the Rialto bridge in our 3 trips to Venice. We have seen it every time, but we have never actually walked it. I guess that means we will be coming back for a 4th trip! In San Marco we walked around and listen to the Rick Steves audio guide on the history of the square and walked past the bridge of sighs. We took the water bus over to the island of San Giorgio as well. On this island the church has a bell tower (yes, yes I know, another tower!) with an elevator (yippee!) up to the top. From there you have a great view of the city. From the San Giorgio tower you are outside of the city entirely and can view the entire city with the surrounding islands. From there we caught another water taxi going the wrong direction back to San Marcos. So instead of it being one stop back to the mainland it was a 45 minute cruise around the island and back to San Marcos. We figured out our mistake pretty quickly but opted to stay on to see more of the city from the water and because we had the time. Once back in San Marcos we found a restaurant from the Rick Steves guidebook that looked promising. We considered it a big miss. The food was ok, but the waiter was a little rude and he also brought Michelle the wrong meal. By the time the right one came everyone else was finished eating. She ate as fast as she could but the experience was not her favorite. Tim assures her that she is reading too much into it and, knowing her, she probably is. And yes, it is Michelle typing this blog post. :) From lunch we jumped on a direct water bus to the island of Murano where we had a demonstration at a glass blowing factory and Brenda and Greg bought a few pieces of Murano glass. Murano glass can be quite elaborate and is very beautiful. Many of the chandeliers in Venice are made of Murano glass. In fact, if you are ever in Venice take a water bus down the Grand Canal at night. Many of the homes will have their lights on so you can peek in the windows as you pass by at all of the beautiful chandeliers. It was nice to catch two direct trains to Murano. A few years ago when we were here if you wanted to go to Murano you needed to allow for at least 45 minutes to and 45 minutes back because the busses had so many stops to make along the way. I think the trips there and back were 45 minutes total. Once back in the room we had an hour or so to relax before we caught a train to Padova. Tim plays a computer game online and one of the players in his group (Niccola) lives in Padova. They invited us to dinner while we were in Venice. The final dinner party was the Smiths and the Hardleys, Niccola, his wife (Ariella) and two children (ages 8 and 5) and Niccola's aunt and uncle. His aunt and uncle spoke very little English but were lively members of the conversation. It is wonderful how much simple hand gestures can communicate. And there are a number of French (Michelle studied) and Spanish (Tim studied) words that are similar in Italian. Niccola and his wife spoke English well and Google translate was a great tool to have when there was an English or Italian word that was not understood. We take great comfort in knowing that they know understand the word "Weird". Dinner was in multiple courses, starting with appetizers of ham, polenta with a fish salad (like a tuna salad) on top, blood oranges, sardines, bruschetta and italian style pretzels. The tomatoes they use in their bruschetta are amazing. Then we moved to a bean soup which was quite good. Niccola's daughter was not a fan of it, and it was funny to see her express her displeasure exactly like an American child would. . Our main was egg noodles with peas. Then we had cheeses with an assortment of jellies and honey. I would never have thought to put jelly on my cheese, but it was delicious. And some of the jellies were made with fruits found in their mountain home. And for dessert we had ice cream with locally sourced fruits. There was so much food we were all stuffed at the end. To cap off the night, there was coffee and grappa for those who wanted it. By the time we were done it was midnight and Niccola drove us back to Venice. Along the way he showed us an old river in the region that was used by the Venetians. Apparently, while living in Venice the people there wanted a home outside of town so that they could have a bigger home and more land with grass and trees. This river was connected to Venice, so it became the main place that they bought and built. And oh did they build. Even in the dark we saw some of the largest homes we have ever seen, even in Montecito where Michelle works. It was hard to imagine a single family would need such a large house, but they certainly built them. Once in Venice we all decided to sleep in a bit more in the morning before we headed to Lake Como. It is amazing what an extra 30 minutes to an hour of sleep can do for you. Hopefully we can sleep a bit more on the train as well. Ciao for now!

We rest, we hike, we train

day 7 - Today started off slow (thank goodness) with all of us sleeping in. Michelle and Tim were awoken around 8 by all of the construction at a nearby residence. Greg and Brenda had a chance to sleep in a little bit. The best thing about our apartment was the outdoor balcony, so Tim and Michelle had a chance to enjoy the view. Overnight someone had decided the beach was a good place to camp, as there as a red tent on the beach.That might have been enjoyable, with the crashing waves to lull you to sleep. If it wasn't for the mosquitos. Michelle was hoping they were just a Florence thing, as there were a number of them in their apartment there that came at her in her sleep. But alas, they have found their way to Vernazza as well. Thankfully there are only 2-3 new bites and none are near where her backpack will sit. After a breakfast of pizza (hey, don't judge), yogurt milk and a chocolate cake looking pastry (again, don't judge) we were off on the last hike of the original lower hikes through the Cinque Terre. This one starts with a straight up portion, then once you crest over the hill there are small ups and downs along the way. We are still amazed at the number of older individuals (70+ years old) and young babies on the trail. Hiking the Cinque Terre would not be something we would want to do with a 4 month old. It is hard enough as it is! But we admire those who are advanced in age who did it smiling all the way, and those with wee ones who are exposing their kids to adventure early in life. After 2 hours of hiking we found ourselves in the final city, Monterosso al Mare. The ocean breezes felt pretty good, and the gelato we ate tasted even sweeter after the long hike. When you buy your ticket for the Cinque Terre (yes, you have to pay to hike the lower one AND the price has not been reduced even though 3/4 of the trails are unavailable) you also get free wifi access for 24 hours. After a few minutes we were able to connect and see the latest adventures of Alexander with his cousins. Yesterday he got a haircut from Tim's sister Susanne and he looks so handsome. He also has been enjoying their pool, waking his cousins up at 6 am and playing with their bubble maker. We miss him like crazy. Ok, back to the trip. After grabbing a take and go lunch for the train we boarded the first of 4 trains we need to take to get to Venice. Hopefully none of them are delayed. Once we arrive in Venice, which will be late in the evening, we will likely grab some dinner for back in the room and catch an early nights sleep. With all of the hiking and training the last few days we are all feeling the need to rest and relax. The rest of our trip should be a little more relaxed with some movement between cities but less on the "we must do this" list. Ciao for now! Update - after i wrote the above description of our evening we indeed had a train that was late. Because of this, our connecting train waited for 3 minutes for everyone from our train to run to the connecting train. Imagine almost an entire train running down the platform, down stairs, through a tunnel, up stairs and dashing for the next train. We were in the very last car and had the longest to run. Thankfully Tim took the stairs two at a time and yelled to the conductor to hold the train as we made our way up the stairs. As soon as we were on the doors closed and the train left. Talk about a close call! Once we made it into Florence we checked the departure board and saw that there was a train leaving for Venice in 16 minutes. That gave us only 16 minutes to collect and pay for our baggage at left luggage, then buy the ticket then get on board the train. Not a lot of time at all. We managed the first 2 in 10 minutes, then looked up the tickets but could not find the train we wanted on the options. We rushed over to one of the conductors who sold us tickets right there. Again, the train was held while the credit card was processed and we were on our way. Michelle hates to rush for trains, so this was not her favorite experience, but it all worked out well in the end. Once in Venice (around 8pm) we checked into our hotel (which was beautiful!) and had dinner at a little restaurant recommended by the man at the front desk. The food was delicious. Michelle had spaghetti with bolognaise sauce and spinach with butter and Tim had a veal steak and gnocchi. Both were amazing and tasted even better after the long day we had finished. Now we will finish out the day. Ciao!

Stairs, stairs and more stairs

Day 6 - One small note to any readers - when we type this blog off line for some reason it will not keep the original spacing when it posts. Apologies that it appears as one big block of text. We wish there was something we could do to fix it. Spell check also appears to also work intermittently, hopefully the errors have not been too frequent. Today turned out to be an eventful day in more ways that one. The plan was to go to the train station in Florence, drop our bags in left luggage, then take a train with one days necessities in our day packs to Pisa to see the leaning tower. Then we would catch a train to Riomaggiore, the southern most town on the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is a grouping of 5 costal towns all separated by trails that were used long ago as their only method of connection between the towns. People in the town are farmers, so the hills are terraced almost all the way up. The 4 lower hikes are open to the public and, for a fee, you can hike them. If you did it all in 1 day it would be about 6 hours of hiking at a moderate pace with lots of ups and downs. There are also a number of upper hiking trails that are very difficult, literally hiking straight up a hill then some flat across the ridge then straight down the hill to the next town. One other thing to note was that in 2011 there was a severe rain storm that caused a lot of flooding and damage throughout the cities. Mud 6 feet deep covered most of the streets and entered houses and businesses. In reading the Cinque Terre website they were encouraging tourists to come back to the area as they had sufficiently rebuilt. So we were excited to get back to see the towns. The last time Tim and Michelle had been in the area in 2009 they completed the lower hikes but split it into two days. Now we were looking to repeat the same plan today, staying overnight in Vernazza, the 4th of the 5 towns. Then tomorrow the plan is to hike to the last town and make our way to Venice. As I said, this was the plan. We started our day well, getting out of Florence on the 7:53 am train to make our way to Pisa. Once there, we decided to see the leaning tower first before it got too busy. Greg and Brenda had mentioned climbing the tower, so Tim went ahead to see how long the wait would be. There are a limited number of people that are allowed to climb it (20 people every 15 minutes) and if you miss your window you are out of luck. The wait times can be very long. It turned out Tim was second in line and there was only a 30 minute wait. So he, Brenda and Greg bought tickets for the tower. When he was done buying the tickets the line behind him was 45 people deep and it seemed like 50 tour busses had just dropped off all of their passengers. It was amazing how fast the square filled with people. Had they been 10 minutes later getting in line the wait would have been 2+ hours and they would have not had the time to climb it. Michelle opted to stay with the bags down below. The tower was a little awkward to climb since it was leaning to one side, but all three said it was worth it. We were just in time to make the next train to Riomaggiore. Had we been a little bit later we would have waited an hour for the next train. It is amazing how perfect the timing was during the day. On the train Tim got to chatting with another couple who informed us that 3 of the 4 lower hikes in the Cinque Terre were still closed. The last hike, from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare was still open. Interesting how the Cinque Terre website failed to mention that little tid bit. I guess it isn't in their best interest to tell potential tourists that they can't hike the trails. We debated for a bit what to do with the afternoon. Hike an upper trail or two? Take a boat between some of the cities? Take the train straight to Vernazza and enjoy the town a bit more? In the end we opted to take an upper trail even though the lady at the tourist information desk assured us it was very difficult. Straight up the mountain and straight down. Yikes. But up we went. And she was right. Climbing straight up a mountain is not really the hard part. The hard part is that the stones are not at an even height, so you have to climb up but also take some very large steps. All the way up. The signs said it was .30 miles to the top and another .30 miles down. Luckily the weather was good. Sunny, but with a good ocean breeze and a few trees for shade and rest. We did think to ourselves that back when there was no train, cars or busses to connect the towns you really did have to think carefully about whether or not you wanted to date someone in one of the other villages. The hike between the two would show how committed you were to each other! Once down to the other side and into the town of Manrola we opted to have lunch at a place Tim and Michelle had been to before, a restaurant called Aristide. We had a fish sampler platter (with octopus, yum!), the pesto gnocchi and the pesto linguini with green beans and shrimp. The Smiths had the risotto with a variety of fish. It was all delicious. Since we had a great waiter who understood English we decided to ask him something that had been bugging us for a while. The waiters would bring bread out to your table, but no olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette to dip it in. Since this is done at most Italian restaurants in the states, we could't understand why no one had done it here. His nose wrinkled a bit and he told us grudgingly that we could, but that isn't really done in Italy. Which shocked us as we thought that was a normal part of a meal. You learn something new every day. After lunch it was back to the train station to catch a train and meet the owner of the apartment we had rented. When we arrived they were not there. Thus ensued 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to contact them. Finally another American couple renting a room two doors down from us came by and offered to let us use their phone to call. The woman arrived 3 minutes later to open the door. This apartment was interesting. It is very narrow, maybe 15 feet across with 4 floors and 7 bedrooms. We think the owners added a few additional rooms to rent because there are very small common areas on each floor and the lowest floor we were told is for the owner. When the woman opened his apartment to see if there was an additional key there was a full beautiful kitchen and living room furniture that we could see. The apartment itself had a great location. It backed right onto a little private beach so you cold hear the ocean and there was a balcony you could use to watch the waves. It was up high on the cliff, so no direct access to the water, but if we could live on that balcony we would. The inside of the apartment was a different story. Italian apartments are always a little quirky, it comes with the charm, but this place was just a little sad. Our rooms were serviceable but all of the furniture was old and lumpy. Stucco and paint were pealing off of the walls in most rooms. The kitchen needed a major overhaul and though there was a washing machine for clothes (yeah!) we were told it was broken. The oddest thing of all was that the bathroom was not actually in the house. You walked out of the back of the house to the covered veranda. If you took a right you were on the balcony. If you went straight you were in the bathroom. And the tub was not a full sized tub. It had high sides and you actually sat down in it (the tub had a seat like a spa would) and used a hand held shower head to wash. We had never seen that before, it was quite interesting. All in all it could have been a cute little place had there been a little bit of work put into it. But in its current life it looks to be a rental where the owners are more interested in maximizing rent than they are taking care of the property. Once checked into the room we headed down to the beach to catch the sunset and some dinner. It was very windy and cold so we tried to eat as fast as possible. Brenda had a clam soup that she thought was good and Greg had a well cooked veal. Tim opted for the fish ravioli which he thought was just ok and Michelle tried some linguini with a prawn sauce (also good). None of the food blew our socks off though and once back at the apartment we showered and went to bed. It is still the plan to try the final lower hike of the Cinque Terre tomorrow depending on how our bodies feel. This is certainly becoming the trip of climbing!