In to Tuscany – Lucca and Pisa

We left La Spezia and continued down the coastal road to just before Viareggio, before going on a small stretch of the autostrada to reach Lucca.  Most of the way we had the sea on one side and the backdrop of the mountains, Alpi Apuane on the other side, which are quarried for their marble.

The beach resorts looked overdeveloped and touristy and all the way down it has small sections of privately owned by hotels, who charge between €20 and €25 for a deckchair and umbrella. No such thing as ‘free beaches’ here!

Parked up on the Sosta (N43.84028 E10.48878), it was a 5 minute walk to the old town, which is encircled by an imposing ring of Renaissance walls crammed full of Romanesque churches.  Today it is one of the wealthiest cities in Tuscany, gained largely though silk and high-quality olive oil.

It was lovely to wander around randomly down the narrow streets and not have to avoid crowds of tourists or tour guides!  

The church of San Michele in Foro, although unfinished as the money ran out, has a beautiful façade.

San Michele in Foro

The San Martino Cathedral

Lucca is famous for being the birth place of the composer Puccini, born in 1858. 

Puccini monument on the left, and his birth house (now a museum) centre right

Piazza Anfiteatro is a circuit of medieval buildings that was built on the foundations of a Roman amphitheatre.  We sat and had a drink and people watched for a while. 

Piazza Anfiteatro

We then walked the city walls, which are quite wide and popular with cyclists but they are shaded with lots of trees, which was a welcome break from the 32°C heat.

Porto San Pietro - a main gateway through the walls

We moved on today from today from Lucca to Pisa, a short journey of only 18kms and we are parked at a Sosta at Via di Pratali (N43.72104 E10.42064) 1.5kms walk from the town.  It's €12 a night for all the usual, an extra €3 if you have electric.

Mel having a little doze at the Pisa Sosta

The last time we were here was in 1987 and we remember parking close by to the leaning Tower of Pisa, getting a ticket straight away (can't remember how much), and apart from another couple were the only ones to climb up it.  Since then a lot of restoration work has been carried to counterbalance the leaning stonework, costing millions. and was closed from 1990 until 2001.  Things are a lot different today!  Parking is difficult and tickets are extortionate - €18 per person.  You get issued an allocated time and then get in a long queue – making sure you don’t miss your time slot, as they won’t let you up.  They only allow 30 people up at a time, for a maximum of 30 minutes and unlike when we went up it, you can’t walk on the outside until you get to the top.  Needless to say we didn’t go up – just did the tourist photos!

I bought a ticket for entry into the Duomo (Cathedral) and Baptistry for €5. Mel didn’t fancy going in (he doesn’t agree with paying to go in churches!) so took himself off to lay on the grass in the shade, after treating himself to some imitation Ray Ban’s from a street seller.  Since being in Italy we have noticed a lot of immigrant sellers here, who are just trying to earn a living, and there are also a lot of beggars.  We gave money to one man outside Lidl in Lucca in return for taking our trolley back, but unfortunately, we can’t give to them all.

Work to build the cathedral started in 1064 and took about a century to complete. 

Cattedrale di Santa Maria

A fire in 1595 meant a large part of the interior was redecorated and parts remodelled.

They have been carrying out further restoration work since 2015 and plan to complete in 2018.  Inside was really ornate.

The original pulpit, which was sculptured by Giovanni Pisani in 1302 

The Baptistry

Battistero di San Giovanni

Inside is quite plain, apart from a pulpit sculptured in 1260 by Nicola Pisano (Giovanni’s father)

A lot of tourists don’t venture further than the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles), just coming to visit the Leaning Tower, Duomo and Baptistry.  We were no different in 1987, so this time round we got a map from the Tourist Information and did the ‘walking routes’.  But not before Mel got his photo taken with this 1951 Vespa - it is the one used in the 1953 film 'Roman holiday' with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn

Walking around all the little back streets was great to get away from the masses!

Piazza dei Cavlieri – the central civic square of medieval Pisa.

Down to the river and Ponte di Mezzo

The town is full of old churches and building, with information in English/Italian outside on a plaque but they are all shut up as I guess they cost too much to keep open and get few visitors to them.

Today has been an expensive day for us today. We had our first diesel fill-up in Italy today - €1.40 per litre!  The cheapest fuel we have found so far had been in Morocco and Andorra at €0.90, and mostly €1.12 in France/Spain - so a big difference. We also had to buy a litre of oil for the motorhome at €16, so with fuel, oil, sun glasses, overnight accommodation, a day out in Pisa, we have spent 2 ½ days budget in one – ouch!  Tomorrow we need to stock up on food – looks like it might be bread and cheese for a few days ha! Ha!

Sally x

The dramatic coastal scenery of Cinque Terre and picturesque Portovenere

Leaving San Rocco, we decided to take the autostrada to La Spezia, a journey of 58 miles, and there must have been over 20 tunnels (cut into the rock) to go through!

We have been staying on a Sosta in La Spezia for a couple of nights (N44.10417 E9.85917), at only €6 a night for all the usual except electric, which we don't need as we have plenty of on-board gas and the bright sunshine is keeping our batteries charged via the solar panel on top of the motorhome.  The Sosta is voluntarily operated by the town’s ambulance men, who have their ambulances parked up on one side of the barriered costa and small ticket office the other.  First appearances at the entrance made us wonder if we wanted to stop, but once inside the little grass plots are fine, it’s nice and quiet and has everything we need.  It even has a ‘self-cleaning’ toilet!

Barbeque time!

First place to explore was Cinque Terre - a coastline that stretches between La Spezia and the beach resort of Levanto.  It’s named after the 5 tiny villages/hamlets – Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso – that are wedged into coves between sheer cliffs and their remoteness makes them only accessible by foot or by train.  The area is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site (since 1997) and acquired the status of National Park in 1999.  It is a popular hiking route and you can buy a Cinque Terre Card to walk the ‘blue routes’, or there are some free very steep ‘red routes’, although due to flooding and recent landslides some of these are closed.

We thought about taking the train from La Spezia, and getting on and off at all the little villages but the downside is that most of the train journey goes through tunnels cut into the rock, and therefore you don’t get to enjoy the beautiful coastline scenery. So, we decided to do it on the scooter – a round trip of 85 kms and really scenic from start to finish!

Riomaggiore is the first of the villages from La Spezia, With its vivid multicolour houses piling up the steep slopes above the romantic little harbour.

Riomaggiore

Then around to Manarola, with its pastel-shaded houses squeezed into the cliffs and up the side of the headland, looking down on the pretty harbour.  We had read that you need to avoid visiting these villages during the busy months of July and August but this was the end of May and you couldn’t move for people!

Manarola

On to Corniglia, which is the smallest and remotest of the 5 villages, clinging to a high cliff 90m above sea.  The cliffs are used to grow olives, grapes and other fruits.  Across the villages a network of dry-stone walls was built by local farmers over the centuries and zigzags up and down the terraced hillsides for thousands of kilometres, over a distance estimated by some to exceed that of the Great Wall of China.

Corniglia, seen from the tops of Manarola

Looking back to Manarola from Corniglia.

The fourth village, Vernazza, sits behind the only natural harbour on this coast and was our favourite of all them.  The village was hit by a massive mudslide in October 2011, which wiped out the beach and many houses, killing 3 people and since then there has been a massive relief effort since then to restore it.  

 Vernazza - set in a fairy-tale bay

We couldn’t resist paddling our feet and wished we had brought our swimming costumes!

Monterosso is the largest of the villages, tucked into a bay of the headland of Punta Mesco.

Mel was in his element riding around the hilly and winding roads and not too many sheer drops for me to panic over!

Heading back from Cinque Terre we got a fabulous view over La Spezia, with its dramatic mountain range backdrop.

La Spezia port and marina

It’s a massive port and the largest naval base in the country but there is a nice little marina that is lined with palm trees, that all sits in a bay known as the Gulf of the Poets.

With the temperature reaching 30°c by 10.30am this morning, we decided another scooter ride would be a good way of keeping cool.  A 10km ride from La Spezia on the coastal road took us to Portovenere, a beautiful old town that sits at the very tip of the Gulf of the Poets.  The town’s rose and yellow painted houses sit along the picturesque harbourfront.

Portovenere

San Pietro, the 13^th century church that sits at the end of the town was built over the ruins of a Roman temple to Venus and gives lovely views overlooking the sea and bay.

Nearby there is the rocky cove of Grotto Arpai.  It was a favourite spot of the poet Lord Byron, who swam across the bay to Lerici to visit the poet Shelly and to this day the gulf has the nickname of ‘Bai di Byron’.

Looking across the bay that Byron swam

Tomorrow we are moving on to Lucca.

Sally x

The beautiful Italian Riviera Ligure di Levante

As it was my birthday, Mel took me out for the day on a boat trip, before he wined and dined me!

We took a scooter ride around to Rapallo from San Rocco (8kms) to get on a boat trip that takes you on the Riviera Ligure.  It’s a hop off and on boat, that calls in to Santa Margherita Ligure, Portofino and San Fruttuoso and back again.   This time of year, they run about every 1/2 hour from 10:00-18:00.

Leaving Rapallo

We decided to get off at San Fruttuoso first.  It’s a tiny fishing hamlet that is only accessible by boat or on foot (a 2 ½ hour walk from our Sosta at San Rocco).  The San Fruttuoso Abbey sits on the front of a picturesque little bay.It was originally built to house the relics of the Christian martyr Saint Fruttuoso’s, brought here from Spain after the Moorish invasion in 711. It was rebuilt in 984 and later became a Benedictine abbey.  The Doria family took over in the 16th century adding the defensive Torre dei Doria nearby.

San Fruttuoso Abbey and Torre dei Doria

It was well worth the €6.50 to go in and wonder around and to understand the history around it, but unfortunately so much restoration work has had to be carried out on the abbey that a lot of the original parts no longer exist.  Leaving San Fruttuoso for Portofino we saw some people out on a private boat swimming near some Dolphins.  Our boat driver stopped for a short while to let us watch them – a fantastic sight to see.

Dolphins swimming around the boat - hard to capture them on camera!

Next stop was pretty and luxurious Portofino, that’s tucked in to a protected inlet surrounded by cypress and olive-clad slopes.  It attracts a lot of the rich and famous, which is evident by the giant yachts anchored nearby! 

Portofino from the hill by San Giorgio church

We thought we might have something to eat here, until we saw the prices!  So, we decided to just have a lunch-time birthday drink in a little café/bar.  However, when the menu came and Mel saw the prices, I thought I was going to have to give him CPR!  It was €9 for a pint of beer, so we opted for a glass of wine each at €6.  The only thing was they forgot to fill up the glass and we ended up getting about a third-full small glass of wine!  It was a nice place to sit though and people watch.

So, back on the boat again...

... next stop was Santa Margherita Ligure.  A lovely palm-laden resort, tucked into an inlet.  We watched the fisherman bring in their catch (it had just turned 5pm), where they took it to market and a queue of people waiting to buy from them.

One fascinating feature of Santa Margherita is the town’s painted houses.  It is said that the local custom of decorating houses’ facades with trompe-l’oeil images came about when the Maritime Republic of Genoa started taxing windows. In order to avoid paying up, the Genoese began to paint on non-existent windows, for purely decorative purposes. The art has been honed over time and these decorated houses are now a renowned feature of Liguria’s landscape.  Trompe-l’oeil images (meaning to fool the eyes) is a naturalistic painting technique making what two-dimensional images appear three-dimensional

We then walked up to Villa Durazzo and the gardens, where we found this unusual sight - turtles swimming around in a fountain!

From here we walked back into the town and in to Santa Margherita church, which was really ornate. 

Santa Margherita Church

Boat trip finished, it was back on the scooter around to the pretty fishing village of Camogli where we enjoyed a lovely meal and watched the sun go down.  

Camogli

A perfect end to a lovely day.

Sally x

Into Italy and ready to explore the ‘Boot’! First stop San Remo.

Leaving St Aygulf, we followed the coastal road around Cannes, where we stopped to stock up on food and fuel.  We then headed on to the beautiful towns of Nice, Monaco and Monte-Carlo.  We had visited these 3 places a couple of years ago, and as lovely as they are we decided not to stop but head all the way into Italy. Plus, Monaco was gearing up for the Monaco Grand Prix and it was going to be tricky getting in and out, so another reason to avoid.  En route, we passed this pub – much to Mel’s delight!

Mel's Pub - he wishes!

As we approached the border, we were not anticipating getting stopped; however, as we approached 3 French policemen pulled us over.  Having checked our passports, they asked us where we had come from, where we were going and how long we were on holiday for.  We told them we were on a year-long holiday and they whistled loudly and expressed how envious they were. They wished us a good holiday and we slowly moved forward into the Italian side where 2 Italian soldiers stood in our way with guns. They just gave us a ‘hard stare’ and moved the barriers to one side to let us pass.  We figured they were stepping up security considering all the troubles, but we could have been smuggling in some immigrants for all they knew, as they didn’t bother checking the motorhome at either side.  We weren’t smuggling anything, by the way!

So, we were in Italy and ready to explore the ‘Boot’!  Our first impression was how stunning the coastline was, and how old and ornate the buildings were as we passed through the little towns/villages.  The last time we were in Italy was in 1987 and had started our travels from Venice, so this coastline was all new to us.  We were under no illusion that a lot will have changed in this country since we last visited.

The start of the Riviera di Ponente coastline

Our first stop was an Aire (or Sosta, as they are known in Italy), 2kms outside San Remo (N43.80266 E007.74809). It’s a massive Sosta (basically just a large car park) that overlooks the sea.  It had the usual - water, chemical toilet and grey waste but no electric and cost us the princely sum of €15, which we thought rather expensive, given that the 4* campsite we had just come from in France was only €17.  We had read that it was expensive around this coastline but hope to stop on more ACSI campsites as we get further round, or find some scenic areas to do a spot of wild camping.

San Remo Sosta - with Sonny now wearing the Italian sticker on the map!

The following morning, we got on the scooter to visit San Remo.  It was 9.30am and the road was chocka with cars and loads and loads of scooters!

San Remo had its heyday as a classy resort in the 60 or so years up to the outbreak of WW2.  There was a substantial Russian community in the town then and Tchaikovsky wrote his Fourth Symphony in San Remo in 1878.  We think these large iron chairs and music stands down by the marina are representative of the music festival they hold every year.

Walking around the labyrinth of streets in the old quarter was lovely but it was evident that a lot of the buildings were crumbling and in need of restoration.  Although, in the western parts of the town they are in pristine condition and there is a long upmarket pedestrianised area (Corso Matteotti), lined with clothes stores and cocktail bars, and at the end of it is San Remo Casino - the Italian Riviera’s most famous casino built in 1905.  It is very ornate from the outside but to be honest it wasn’t as glamorous as we thought it would be inside. Unfortunately, they don't allow you take photos of the inside.  It was nice to see that they had put the red carpet out for us ha! ha!

San Remo Casino

The Romanesque Cathedral di San Siro sits near the very busy Via Palazzo.

Cathedral di San Siro

And nearby a lot of narrow streets and Kasbah-like arched passageways and alleys.

So, here is a conundrum:  how do you find your scooter in San Remo among all of these?

One of many scooter parks in San Remo

The lady in the bottom middle of the picture was sat on her scooter waiting for someone to move theirs so she could get out.  Luckily for us, we had parked ours down by the marina and easily found it!  From here we strolled along the lovely palm-laden walkway along the beach, before enjoying a lovely lunch down by the marina.

Leaving San Remo yesterday afternoon, we travelled a short distance to Loano.  We got to the Sosta, only to find it was closed so ended up parking in the car park opposite, along with a couple of French motorhomes.  We woke up to this little fella going passed our door!

It may be small, but a snake is a snake!

We continued to follow the coastal road passing through some lovely seaside towns, which we imagined would be really busy in July/August.  We decided to take the autostrada to get around Genoa's port and most of the town, and to avoid the traffic that was now getting very busy.  Nearly all of Italy’s motorways are tolled but the stretch we took only cost us €3 for about a 20km journey, so not as expensive as the French motorways.  Mel has done all the driving in Italy so far as they are, how can I say this nicely.... 'crazy drivers'.  The rules of the road, well there doesn't seem to be any!  Scooters are all around you and cars cut you up at every opportunity.  So, as the saying goes 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' and so far Mel seems to have mastered this well ha! ha!

We are now parked up on a free Sosta at San Rocco (N44.33249 E9.16613).

View from the Sosta – left on the hill is San Rocco, on the right down by the sea is Camogli

From the Sosta you have to walk into San Rocco (about 300m), as the road is very narrow and is only open to residents.  From here you can follow a labyrinth of paths to Portofino and San Frutuoso, but we plan to explore these areas on the scooter or maybe take a boat trip.  We walked the paths for about an hour and took in some lovely views.

We then took some steps down to the sea and to this early 12^th century church and adjoining convent – San Nicolò of Capodimonte.  The bell in the square bell tower was made in the 1930s from part of the material salvaged from the wreck of the English steamship, Washington, sunk by the Germans in the sea off San Nicolò during the great war.

San Nicolò of Capodimonte

There were about 800 steps down, which wasn't too bad - it was the walking back up that was hard especially in the hot sun!  So, needless to say we needed to stop for a well earned beer, at a lovely little bar/restaurant overlooking the sea.

Buona salute!

Sally x