March 29, 2011 - Tuesday

We left beautiful Cinque Terre in a cool pre-dawn.  We boarded the commuter train, again at no cost, at 7:14 a.m.  We made it La Spezia in time to catch the 8:06 to Pisa, where we caught yet another train to Florence, and then yet another to Venice, arriving at a respectable 12:30 p.m.  We bought a 1-way water bus ticket, somehow found the right dock, and were soon on the Grand Canal.  How exciting!  We stopped at Ca' D'Oro, per the instructions given by the hotel.  We found our street, Calle delle Vele, that had the look of a dingy, deserted alley.  I've come to learn is not a sign of a bad neighborhood in Italy.  When we buzzed to enter the hotel, Ca' le Vele, we weren't disappointed.  We entered into a small, open courtyard, then up some red-carpeted stairs and into a charming interior.  Our room, opened by a skeleton key, has cloth covered walls, red-orange with a gold pattern.  The furniture is ivory with painted flowers and gold trim.  It's lovely, with a window that opens into the courtyard.  At the entry, the bathroom was on the left, and down the hall is the bedroom.  I feel as though we are in a suite of sorts.

At the recommendation of Evan (eevan), our host, we went to a neighborhood pizzeria, La Perla.  The list of pizzas was extensive, at least as long or longer than the list for Le Pioli, in Arlington, VA (for those of you who are familiar).  We each ordered one, which might have been overkill.  I had one with spinach and ricotta.  Tenar had tomato and cheese.  Our waitress was friendly and the wine good.  After lunch, we took our city map, also complements of Evan, and headed for St. Mark's Square.  This map had the same lilliputian sized printing that our Rome map had, so I was pretty much out of the running for finding our way.  Guide books say to get lost, and we did that plenty, once ending up back on the main street near our hotel, in the opposite direction of St. Mark's.  We finally happened upon the square because I could see the enormous white marble facade at the end of an alley.  The plazza itself is enormous and was full of people.  We went into St. Mark's upper level, walked out on the terrace, then went through the museum.  I was particularly impressed with the mosaics.  We were able to see them at a very close distance and they weren't beautiful.  I stepped back, and they were amazing.  Then we went down into the sanctuary.  It is indeed a beautiful church.

After a long day, I was ready for some downtime.  We left the plazza, made a few turns, and were back on the plazza.  I decided we had to go east to get northwest, as going directly north hadn't worked.  Even with reading glasses, none of the street names matched the streets we were seeing.  We were in the Twilight Zone.  I asked a shopkeeper where we were on the map and showed where we wanted to go.  He pointed to our current location, then pointed us in the opposite direction of our goal.  I knew enough to know he was wrong (or just plain mean?), so we went the opposite way that he said, and we did end up where we wanted to be, back at our hotel.  Whew!

We spent a couple of hours catching up on journals and blogs, then went out to find a place for dinner.  We found a lovely place one block over that was very busy, but they had one 2-person tiny table, so we were in.  Tenar had small shrimps with polenta.  The shrimp were extremely small a a little rubbery, a specialty of Venice.  I had linguini with squid ink, a very black dish.  It was good, and I soon became tired of it.  I think it was the whole pizza a short 5 hours before, that shortened our interest in our meals.  Or perhaps we're not rubbery shrimp and squid ink people.  But we persevered and ate most of our meals.  Then home to our venetian palace and bed.

March 28, 2011 - Monday

Today we had a quick breakfast of granola bars, then headed out to explore.  We went on one side of the harbor for a close look at a small waterfall, then did a little climbing up around a church.  We entered quietly, noticing the old stones and commenting how wonderful to be in this church for a service and look out large arched windows to the harbor below.  We then walked around the seawall on the other side, and went back to the beach in the middle, in front of our hotel, where we touched the Ligurian Sea.  We walked down main street and stopped at a few shops before proceeding under the train station where we found the beginning of the hiking path to Corniglia.  Up, up, up we went, seeing great views of Vernazza from above, going until we could see the village no longer, and still with a full view of the water below. 

Corniglia

Eventually we could see the next village of Corniglia, high on a hill.  The greatest distance between villages seems to be between Vernazza and Corniglia, and that is less than 2 miles.  Corniglia is the only village that is not at the water's edge.  Up, up, and up some more on a sometimes narrow, rocky path.  As we neared Corniglia, the path descended somewhat, and we traveled through more than one mud puddle.  Still some distance from the village, we came across two cats who were very friendly and seemed hungry.  There were 3-4 bowls around, none with food, most with rain water.  Someone has been taking care of them, and I hope they come back.   On the way, Tenar gave me a lesson in huckleberries, salmon berries and prickly pears, none of which we found.  We did find shamrocks, which he taught me were edible, tasting much like a green, sour apple.

Anchovy Pizza for 2!

We stopped at the edge of Corniglia for pizza to eat while  overlooking the ocean:  mine with anchovies soaked in lemon and olive oil, Tenar with salty anchovies.  Both were quite tasty.  I tried an Italian beer and Tenar had a lemon soda. 














Then we explored the quaint streets, following steps that seemed to be private entrances and which actually turned out to be legitimate public passageways.  In not too long a time, we went down the 400 steps to the train station, where we caught a train heading to the next village, Manorola.  The ticket master said we'd buy our ticket on the train, and there was no way to do that, so we rode for free.

400 steps down to the Train Station

Manorola is the village where the most common "postcard photo" view can be found.  We bought some gelato and explored the village, finding again some stairways up and down that appeared to be private and were really the way out.  At the harbor there was a natural 'swimming hole', nearly surrounded by large boulders so the the water there was calm.  The water was crystal clear and looked so inviting.

Satisfied that we'd seen all we wanted, we went to the train station, where we again boarded for free.  We got back to Vernazza about 6:00 p.m. and explored our 'own' village.  Once off the main street, there were agan the stairways.  I noticed they had their own 'Via' names, proving they were indeed public passageways, even though not wide enough for two people to walk side by side.  What a lovely substitute for the car-centric cities in Italy (and of course, the U.S.). 

Vernazza (our hotel is in the middle of the harbor-red building)

We climbed up, up, up and saw the village from the southeast.  We climbed down, then up the path which would have gone to the 5th village, Montarosso, and saw Vernazza from the northeast.  Had the castle been open, we would have had a tower view from the west.  I was kind of relieved that we were too late for the castle.  I wonder how hard it's going to be to replace the cartilage in my knees?  This kind of day was a nice break for Tenar from the museums.  Well, okay, a nice break for me too.  We stopped at Trattoria de Gianni for dinner:  macaroni with prawns for Tenar and stuffed mussels for me.

Back in our room, we agreed to get up in time to catch the 7:14 a.m. train to La Spezia, and then on to Venice.  It's now after 11:00 p.m.  Tomorrow will come too quickly, I fear.

March 27, 2011 - Sunday

We said goodbye go Florence today, catching a train first to Pisa.  At Pisa, a short bus ride took us to the Leaning Tower.  What a beautiful structure.  I had thought it would be in an open space at a large intersection.  I don't know why.  It was behind a wall, so I couldn't find it at first, and started following signs that were directing people toward parking for the tower, not the tower itself.  A descendent of Lewis or Clark, I am not.  A kindly sunglasses vendor led us to the proper place.  We, of course, climbed to the top.  There were only 294 steps, and the tilt gave an odd feeling when climbing.  I was surprised that the tilt began when only 3 tiers of the tower had been completed after 10 years of construction.  They did stop work then, but began again 79 years later, with corrections to straighten.  Still, the tilt continued to progress, though they believe they have stopped it now, thinking it will be stable for the next 300 years.



















After that excursion we hopped the bus and went back to the train station to continue to Vernazza, our village in Cinque Terre.  It was a little confusing finding the proper train, and one station attendant tried to send us to Rome on Track 3, when we thought we wanted Track 6.  She corrected herself and we boarded the train on Track 6.  I was relieved when I saw the station for the 1st village of the Cinque Terre (we are in the 4th), glad to know we had made the right choice.

View from our hotel window

Vernazza is utterly charming, with a length of what might be two city blocks.  We'll see tomorrow how high up the cliffs it goes.  We had a lovely dinner at Trattoria da Sandro.  Our hotel is basic and meager.  It's the top floor (5th?) of a building which houses apartments and perhaps another hotel and has no amenities like our apartments in Rome and Florence.  No elevator either.  The next morning found me making coffee with my camping filter, using hot tap water, drinking from the one plastic drinking glass supplied with the room.  Surprisingly not bad.

March 26, 2011 - Saturday

Last full day in Florence.  First we went to Musee Bargello.  This museum had lots of statues, including some of the young David, plus statues of John the Baptist as a toddler, child, youth and young adult.  That was fascinating.  There was also a plethora of Madonna and Child images, wither as friezes or paintings, and though all were different, all had the Madonna holding the Child with her right arm.  Why is that?  Then Tenar told me that all of Michaelangelo's statues had a tree stump in them.  We checkout a a couple of the Bacchus statues and the young David, and sure enough, there was a stump in each.  Smart kid.  We then went to the Vestri, the last gelotto place on our list.  They were making the chocolate so we settled for non-chocolate flavors and headed for the Duomo. 



















The line was a bit long to climb the dome, so I passed the time listening to the two young American women in front of us, talking about their experiences in Italy and difficulties with language.  I could relate.

The Camponile as seen from the top of the Duomo

I was concerned about my ability to make the climb after Tuesday's 'near death experience' at the Camponile, but it wasn't bad.  Perhaps I'm getting better.  My eyes are clear of gunk although my ears are still plugged.  The views from the top were spectacular, and it was fun being up there after a few days in Florence so we could spot places we'd been. After descending, touring the sanctuary and the crypts below, we wanted lunch.  We covered a lot of the city looking for a place in the guidebook, the Oil Shoppe.  When we finally found it, it was closed, so we ended up with some mediocre tourist Italian fast food.  After lunch we headed to the bank for more cash, to the open air market to see if there was anything interesting we just had to have (nope), then took the northern route to a street that would take us to the Ponte Grazie, then home.  We stopped on the way at Vestri, in case the chocolate with chile was now available.  It was!  We each got a cone and continued home.  Later was dinner at Terrazzo, our neighborhood restaurant again.  Tenar had lasagna and I had mussels in pepper and olive oil.  Lots of pepper!  Then home, a little packing, and to bed.

March 25, 2011 Friday

I woke up with my eyes practically sealed shut with crusty gunk and ears still plugged. The cold is getting worse instead of better. What's up with that?

Tenar running free in Boboli Gardens

Once out of the apartment, I tried my best to find something to buy that is significant of Florence: leather, paper, jewelry, and came up with nothing except the waste of a couple of hours. Okay, not really a waste, as we walked more blocks of the city, getting to know it. And through our wanderings, I was struck again by how many Americans are here. The local merchants aren't that friendly. Either that is their nature, or they are sick and tired of the tourists. I'm sure they love the crazy spending though. We made it to the Pitti Palace and decided not to go in. We are now saturated a bit with museums. I stead we walked to a point where we could enter the Boboli Gardens at the furthest end. These are the gardens that surround the Pitti Palace on the hillside. After exploring these, we went on to the Bardini Gardens, passing by Forte di Belvedere on the way. The fort was closed for renovation after a couple of people "fell down" and died. I have to think that means they fell off the wall, but I'm not sure. Of course, knowing that, we definitely wanted to go into the fort, but alas, couldn't. So we went on to the Bardini Gardens. These are smaller and more homey than the Bobini Gardens. Our visit was short, since they closed at 5:00 pm, and we exited at the far end, coming out of a multiple-storied building. We were surprised that the exit is on the same street as our apartment, and in a building we had passed a few times. I had seen the name, Giardino Bardini, saw children playing in one room, and thought it was a daycare!

View from Bardini Gardens...  Our apartment is out there somewhere

Before going home, we passed our own door and went to the market to get milk for our cereal the next morning. We left the market on the north side this time, and saw the restaurant Carlo had recommended, Terrazio. We had tried to go our first night here, but that was Monday, and the restaurant is closed on Mondays. We went home and waited until it opened at 7:00 pm, then walked over. It was indeed good! They had the sauteed spinach we'd had at the Osteria the night before for €3.50 instead of €5, and the same for desserts. I had a fantastic salad of hickory, arugula, parmesan and raisins, and we shared a spicy sausage pizza. I don't know where the sausage was, and the spicy was dollops of very hot chiles. We removed most of the chile paste and enjoyed it nonetheless.

March 24, 2011 Thursday

We tried to get out fairly early to go to San Gimogmano, and didn't leave until 12:30. This cold has set me back further Than I thought it would, and the coughing is terrible, in spite of the cough syrup I bought in Rome. Plus it was laundry day!

The bus was an easy way to go, except the sales person at the station said nothing about having to transfer buses at Poggibonsi. Considering that we're clearly from out of town, and didn't know how to pronounce San Gimignano, you'd think it might have occurred to him that we might benefit from that information. Perhaps it did. The bus driver did say so when I made sure with him That we were on the right bus. The only problem is that I didn't know how far Poggibonsi was, or how obvious it would be when we were there. The bus was stopping on lots of street corners before leaving Florence, then at places seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and in small villages, where those in the know got on and off with complete confidence. My anxiety was mounting and I was prepared to end up in Sienna, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Eventually I began seeing road signs for Poggibonsi and breathed easier, knowing I hadn't missed it. It turns out Poggibonsi is a fairly large city with an actual bus/train terminal, so transferring was easy.

Entrance to San Gimignano

San Gimignano is an interesting ancient town, extremely well preserved and known for it's many towers. Unfortunately, the one it is still possible to climb closed at 13:00, so there was no climbing for us this day. We explored nearly every street in the city, which didn't take long. To traverse the width took five minutes, and the length about ten. Of course, like a typical Italian town, there were many curved streets and alley-sized passages. Though people seemed to live there, it is a very touristy area with lots of shops for souvenier purchases, though at a higher quality than some of the tourist shops in Florence.









We kept ourselves busy for a few hours, found the place to buy our return bus tickets, and waited at the stop where we were dropped earlier. I saw one bus around the corner for Sienna, but none for Poggibonsi or Florence. The weather, which had been shirt-sleeve hot turned to jacket cold and windy. I didn't have my coat. Our bus didn't come. I went to an unfriendly woman at the snack shop nearby who said, yes, stop 2 in front. We were at stop 2 in front and there was no bus. Finally a bus came and we tried to get on, but were refused. He said we'd have to go around the corner. Around the corner I saw that it was also labeled "2". A bus came, and it was again for Sienna. I asked the bus driver and he said get on and change in Poggibonsi! Yes, that means we could have been on the bus that had come an hour earlier. And a lot warmer at this point than we were. Nevertheless, finally we were on the right track and heading home.

By this time I felt so ill, I didn't even want to eat, but had Tenar to consider, so on our walk home from the bus terminal, stopped at a little Osteria across the river. Sitting next to us was a man from San Francisco. On the other side of him were a mother and daughter from San Diego (tables in Italian restaurants are placed very close together). I think U.S. tourists outnumber Italians in Florence. We had a nice visit with the man from San Francisco, who had studied art history and was very excited to be in Florence. As it was his first time also, and he was going on to Rome, we had stories to share. He nicely included Tenar in his conversation also. We left together and parted company at Ponte Vecchio. Even though by this time my voice was hoarse and my ears were plugged, it was nice ending the evening with a little social interaction. Then the usual: home, tea, books in bed.

March 23, 2011 Wednesday

Today we made the trek to Galleria Dell Academia. The main draw was The David, and there were additional impressive statues by Michaelangelo and others, as well as paintings and musical instruments. I have to say, if I had seen only The David, I would have been satisfied. It is beautiful and amazing. The patience it would take to complete something so perfect is beyond my comprehension. Afterwards, being so near one of the five geleterias we were determined to experience, we stopped at Carabé on Via Ricasoli for another double picolo.

I wanted info on trains and buses, so we used our map to walk to the train station. En route, we happened on a market with clothing, leather, trinkets outdoors and food indoors, similar to the Eastern Market/flea market in Washington, D.C. on a much larger scale. The indoor market had beef, fish, chicken, plenty of tripe and boar meat, plus wine, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, candy, strings of garlic bulbs and dried pasta. Committed to my carry-on status, I ignored it all except for some hard candies to subdue my cough, and some fresh pasta for tonight's dinner, but it was tempting.

After a lunch break at one of the stands of hot pasta, we found both the train and bus station, mostly due to Tenar's map-reading ability. We got some sketchy but adequate information for our future trips, then decided to make a circular journey to see some of the remaining piazzas, beginning with San Giovanni, because it had yet another on our list of best gelato places. Because we were taking a day trip out of town the next day, we knew we would have to double up on geleterias one of our days in Florence in order to hit all five. This seemed as good a day as any. We went to Grom, on the corner of Via del Camponile and Via Dell Oche. From there, we visited Plazza dell' Repubblica, where Tenar rode on a carousel, Plazza Strazzi where we decided not to go to a Dali/Picasso exhibit, Plazza Davanzati, and the Old Market, which became the New Market, (no food at this one) near the river, also known as The Piglet (Il Porcellino), because of the bronze statue of a wild boar on the southern side. Local legend has it that rubbing the boar's snout will ensure your return to Florence, so we did.

Since I was still feeling way worse than mediocre, we went home via Ponte Grazie, where we cooked our fresh tortelini and gnocchi, then called it a day.