Pisa and La Spetzia
At circa 9pm last night, local time, we touched down at Pisa airport after a pleasant enough two hour flight across Europe. Things got a little bumpy as we crossed the alps, but soon afterwards the tyres kissed the tarmac, we taxied in, hopped off the jet, whizzed through passport control (being the 2nd and 3rd brits to Border Control helped – I’m sure those at the back of the queue would have taken significantly longer. Blummin’ brexit) onto the Pisa Mova, a driver-less train that whisked us into the city centre, a quick check of the map, and a five minute walk to our apartment. It was dark, you couldn’t see a lot, but you knew you were in a different country – the warmth, the smell (the delightful perfume of blossoming trees); it felt good to be on our travels again.
We did little that night, but unpack our necessities, and head to bed, dreaming of the adventures to come, although those dreams were interrupted by the sound of torrential rainfall and the high pitched buzz of a couple of mozzies (that took delight in feasting on Becky’s English blood.) The rain stopped, morning came, and we headed out into the Pisa, still some clouds scudding across the blue sky, warm, but not hot (t-shirt & fleece weather) to see what we could see.
We were looking for the mural by Kieth Haring, but before we saw that, we saw this:
Galileo Galilei gazing through the skies, with the leaning tower as his telescope.
It wasn’t long, though, before we found the Haring:
Then it was time for breakfast – the first Italian coffee of the trip, and some delizosio cakes.
Refreshed, and reminded of the wonders of Italian food and drink ( a theme to be repeated throughout the day) we headed off through charming streets, in the vague direction of the famous leaning tower, pausing to admire the architecture, fruit and veg stalls, and men’s tailoring we encountered along the way.
The leaning tower was impressive, and well worth a visit, and the surrounding building equally impressive and the space able to accommodate the multitude of tourists (all trying to get the shot of them holding up the tower), although I do wonder if in height of summer tourist season the hordes might be a little overwhelming.
Then lunch – nothing fancy, simply a salad, a bruschetta and a sandwich, but those few words do not do the deliciousness justice. I love Spain, since learning the language I’ve become increasingly interested in its history and culture, but its food is – dare I say it – nothing special (tapas is really just snacks, after all) . But Italy? Italian food is delicious, a highlight of day two (today) has been the food. All vegetarian, basically bread, tomato, basil, mozzarella and olive oil – it tastes so good. A battle for number one spot is going on in my head (stomach?) – Greek food has long sat at the top of the table for me, but the Italians are making a strong case to be numero uno (although, should they lose their crown, the Greeks will have the opportunity to reclaim it come the summer when we embark on our Greek Odyssey.)
After lunch, we took a train (about 1hr 30 mins) to La Spetzia, our base for the next few days , from which we will explore the Cinque Terre. We journeyed through coastal plain to our left and mountains to our right, and, as we got closer to our destination, the clouds sunk lower across the mountains and we arrived in La Spetzia to rain. Rather than head out into the rain, we popped in to the Cinque Terre information office – a good job we did as they told us that tomorrow there was to be a train strike, and would be no trains between 9am and 1pm. We hatched various different plans, before realising, we could get a train into Cinque Terre before 9am, and our day would not be too disrupted. We’ll see how that plan works out tomorrow …
After dropping our bags in our room, we headed out into late afternoon sunshine to explore the city. I was impressed, not a particularly touristy place, it has a big harbour and is a naval base, again the buildings were stylish, the avenues broad and tree-lined and the water front provided a pretty backdrop as we ambled along the harbourside. The city is fringed by mountains, felt fresh and looked a verdant green. I would happily explore a little more, but the charm of the five villages of Cinque Terre awaits ….
