Two and a half weeks have passed since I last made an entry because we have been so busy! We had a wonderful 2 weeks in our apartment in Lucca and now we are enjoying our last full day in Monterosso al Mare, the biggest town of the five in Cinque Terre.
Lucca was relaxing, interesting, charming and healthy for us! Our apartment was within the walls of the old city. The town was founded in about 1000 BC and the Romans constructed an amphitheater, defensive embankments and arched entries ("portas"), among other things. We were just inside the San Pietro gate; our windows from the living/dining room looked down on the comings and goings of the cars and people there. Our building was in need of some work on the outside and we had 4 flights of stairs to climb to get to our gated hallway, but it was worth it. Our large living space was newly redone and very comfortable. Our landlord, Stefano, did all he could to help us feel at home and to answer questions. A short list of our activities while staying there include two performances of arias (Easter evening featured favorites sung by three different tenors and was in honor of Luciano Pavorotti - so included "O Sole Mio" and "Nessun Dorma" and the second evening a bass and soprano sang Pucci and Mozart pieces), visiting Puccini's home, a beautiful villa's garden, a huge Saturday market, the old amphitheater where we saw the Los Gatos CA band perform!, shopping (I finally bought a pair of jeans and some sandals), getting my hair cut and colored and a pedicure, strolling the streets and just looking in shops and watching people, "walking the wall" almost every morning, side trips to Viareggio (a nearby beach town), Pisa, Siena and San Gimignano, and hiring a taxi for an afternoon of exploring the hills and towns around Lucca. We visited three wineries, one while on our tour of San Gimignano from Siena and two while exploring the Lucca area. We also just relaxed, read, took care of internet business and went at a slower pace, especially in the mornings. By the way, "walking the wall" is an important part of life in Lucca. Everyone, including babies, grandparents, physically and mentally challenged people on crutches or needing assistance in other ways, students, tourists, groups of men, boys, girls, couples - everyone walks the wall! It is a social event, as well as good exercise. Napoleon gave the city to his sister Eliza when he conquered Italy and she improved the ancient wall and its top to make it a circular park, lined with trees and now paved. There are benches placed along the sides and where it is wide there are picnic tables and play equipment for children. It is 4 kilometers - about 2.5 miles - around. We set ourselves a good pace and took about 45 minutes to cover the distance. Of course we also ate wonderful Italian food - the pasta was the best thing, although many pizzas and excellent seafood were consumed too!
Our journeys to the other towns were great. They allowed us to see more of Tuscany and it's lovely landscape as well as more incredible human creations. I am reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and so every chance I get to see a Michaelangelo work, I take it with a passion. What a genius! We saw his work in the Duomo in Siena, but there were so many amazing pieces done by many different masters there and in Pisa that we continue to take the time to see as many as we can.
Last Thursday we sadly left our apartment and got onto the train to come to Cinque Terre. Our hotel here offers us a great view of the beach and old town area of Monterosso. We have visited all the towns, as of yesterday afternoon. On Friday we took the boat from our town which is at one end of the string of towns along the water to the town at the other end. We explored that area and then took an easy walk to the next village. From there we caught the boat back. Yesterday we took the train to the middle town (the boat doesn't stop there - no beach), wandered through the market and had lunch and then hiked 4 kilometers to Vernazza, the next town and last one for us to see. The hike was not easy; lots of ups and downs on rocky footing. There were beautiful views and we just took our time and stopped to rest and talk to others whenever we wanted to. Today we are staying in our own village and are finally going to sit on the beach and read, as well as put our feet in the water!
Tomorrow we take the train to Rome. We have plane tickets to visit former Rotary exchange student Ida in her home town of Zagrb, Croatia for two nights, beginning on Tuesday. Then we are supposed to meet our Moses Lake friends Judy and Fred in Rome for two nights. They however are still stuck in London due to the volcanic eruption so who knows? Our tour of Greece and Turkey with OAT is supposed to begin on Saturday in Athens...we'll see what happens there too.
Here are some photos: from top left: walking the wall in Lucca; one of Lucca's many towers through the blossoms; Michaelangelo's St. Paul in the duomo in Siena; Jon and our landlord Stefano; the town of Corniglia from the hiking trail in Cinque Terre; and the town of Vernazza as we approached it from the trail.
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