Tag Archives: Traveling in Italy

Travel

Monterosso al Mare, Corniglia and Vernazza, Italy

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Finally, an internet connection to blog with!

May 16, 2010

Monterosso al Mare, Italy… arriving by train, we knew that the Agrotouristico Baranca was uphill about 10 minutes away, so we called to have our luggage carried uphill for us to our place that we were staying at for two nights. The train arrives in what they call the “new” town, divided from the “old town” by basically a small mountain. After a snack, we walked around the rocky cliff that fronts the sea. One of the more expensive restaurants Ristorante Tortuga (Turtle Restaurant) is built right into the cliff wall (under the walkway). Walking further we enter the old town, and out to the breakwater. From there we can see the two bomb hardened bunkers built by the Germans in the occupation of the town. The Allies tried to bomb the train tracks, but only succeeded in taking out the Town Hall (it has been rebuilt on the same site.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIe7V-_do3A

After wandering a bit we came to the main church in town, Church of Saint John the Baptist. It is built of black and white Italian marble in a Romanesque style, and next to it the Oratory of the Dead (also black and white) this was built by a brotherhood of good works, like a Rotary Club called “confraternities”.  The town had two, the black and the white. This building was the oratory of the Black group, and their good work consisted of arranging funerals, taking care of widows, orphans and the shipwrecked. Here is their symbol, a skull, crossbones and an hourglass…death awaits us all… (nice huh?)

We followed the suggested walk so we could explore the town and see the sights according to Rick Steves.  We went back to the waterfront to start our walk to the Church of the Capuchin Friars (a lot of steps in the “Switchbacks of the Friars”, but great views at the top. This church was also black and white, but a closer look showed no marble, just cheap 18th century stucco!! But the inside was nice and there were some nice paintings attributed to Antony Van Dyck.

Then we walked further upward, to a cemetery, built around and within an old castle. Very nice views. But lots of dead people. Following the Rick Steves map, we continued uphill, for some distance!!! Hard walking (a real hill!!) finally a sign for Buranco Agrotourismo. Down, down, down a hill. Finally, a big party (the owner is a member of Parliament and) had a big party going on. But we had wine tasting and leftover snacks, from the dinner verrry good!! Our place was very cute, sleeps three, basically a small house, over the wine room itself. Only after getting here, a strenuous walk of about an hour, did we get told that there was a 2 minute shortcut to the town!! Oh well, we got to see the sights, I guess.

The next day we visited first, the town Corniglia, high on a hill, we took the bus up (I was so glad), then walked down through the town, nice views, nice food. David hurt himself again (with his sore leg from the Heidelberg bike accident) trying to walk down the 400 stairs.

Then we took the train to Vernazza, it had a nice harbor, we walked to the top of the town, then back again, watching the stream, which in this town, has not been covered by a road. Nice town, but we were on the way back to Monterosso al Mare. A nice dinner and a night at the farm.  See the video of our experiences.

Next we move to the Hill Towns of Tuscany, see you tomorrow


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Travel

Manarola, in The Cinque Terra, Italy

I stayed up until 1 am posting Friday’s blog.  The built-in alarm woke me up at 6:30 am and I decided to sleep another 5 minutes. Well that was almost a big mistake, instead I was waking up at 7:30 and the bus leaves in 30 minutes. So we all rushed to our final packing and made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare.

Leaving Punta Ala by bus, we made it to Follonca in about 35 minutes and hopped a train to Pisa. From Pisa we transferred to La Spezia. Weather ranged between cloudy and steady rain all the way.

La Spezia is not a tourist town and we stayed there only long enough to grab a great lunch of Italian food. Then we took another train to our next vacation stop at Manarola, Town #2 in the Cinque Terra. We are staying there for two nights. The train arrives in the station, where you take a pedestrian tunnel (a two hundred foot long tunnel in which the inhabitants huddled in World War II during the bombings of Italy) to arrive at the main town.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OcSb8brztw

In Manarola, we hiked the trail that winds through parts of the many vineyards that hug the mountain sides.  Can you image the labor involved in taking care of these grapes, pruning, spraying, picking, and then finally hauling them off of the mountain? Then we went to the marina and enjoyed a drink and some coffee in the sunshine. Lots of tourists in this town.  The place we stayed, Casa Capellini, had a balcony and the most fantastic views. Some of the pictures you see in the video were taken from the balcony of our apartment. As you can see, the town is on a mountain side, and walking is either vertical up or vertical down, or at least it seemed that way.

The next morning we took the Via dell’Amore, (lovers lane) to Riomaggiore,  took the requisite picture kissing at the specified seat of love.

The town seemed smaller than Manarola, we did the Rick Steves’ walk to see the town and its churches, had a bite to eat at a Pizzaria, and took the walk back. It had started to rain, so we spent the afternoon in a bar, drinking caffe latte grande (and wine for Judy and David) and discussing David’s crazy construction ideas (among other things).

After a short nap, we went back (our second dinner in as many days) to Trattoria Dal Billy for a wonderful dinner of black pasta (made with squid ink) and assorted seafood, mussels, clams including some things that looked like they were from outer space, sort of a weird shrimp (this was for David and Judy). I had a steak, but it was sort of cooked in a sauce instead of grilled, but very good all the same. The Grapa was complementary, making a fine evening all around.

The next morning we took the train to Monterrosso al Mare… to be continued with the next blog…

By the way, we were in an area without  wifi for the last several days and I had some withdrawal problems, not having access to the internet, but now that I have a connection again, things are fine.
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Travel

Grossetto, Italy

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We awoke in time to catch the 8:00 bus to Follonica, thinking we had a train to catch at 9:30 AM. Got to town, went to the bus station and bought three tickets… checked the line and sat waiting. Trains went by on both directions at a high rate of speed… time moved on. Finally a railroad employee asked us what we were waiting for? We said to go to Grossetto… we walked him to the sign, and he showed us the 9:30 train only worked on Sundays and holidays… BUMMER.

So then we walked around, somewhat familiar with the town since we has been here the day before yesterday (that was  the day we learned to take the early train) Trip to the grocery for David to get some beer, stop for a sandwich, then down to the beach… not exactly hot, but not too cold either. So we sat on the wall and watched Italian society evolve around us, while David drank beer, and ate strawberries and sweet rolls.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69CdovqEaKE

Finally, time for the train… a quick ride, less than 50 KM (that’s what the ticket said) and we were at Grossetto.  All the shops in the train station wanted 7 Euros or more for a map… so we wandered, until we could pick up a free map (pretty bad Zerox), but we found a fantastic “Museo Archeological” and spent several hours learning about the old former city of Rocellae, an ancient town of Etruria (now Tuscany), which survived until the Middle Ages before being abandoned. The ruins are about 8 km northeast of Grosseto. There was lots of interesting pottery and other information about how life was lived in that time.

There was also information in the museum of Roman evidence in the area, statuary and pottery.

Then we wandered into the old walled city of Grossetto: The walls were begun by Francesco I de Medici in 1574, replacing those from the 12th-14th centuries, as part of his policy of making Grosseto a stronghold to protect his southern border. The construction took 19 years, the resulting walled city in the middle of the current Grossetto has a hexagonal shape, six straight walls, between each is an arrow shaped reinforcement , for defense. Until 1757 the exterior was surrounded by a ditch with an earthen moat.

After dinner, a quick trip back to the train station for the return to Follonica, and finally to Punto Ala, home until Friday and we venture on!
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