Lucca

13/5 Lucca/Cinque Terre
Early start so too early for breakfast, Giacomo had packed a bag for us with apples, water, some snacks, and we walked across town to the gate for our pickup to go to Cinque Terre. Met up with two Aussies from Emerald, Queensland also waiting and when the minibus came from Pisa with guide Luigi we met a couple from San Francisco and two Scottish women. Nice small group, Luigi was great, lots of information including the fact that he would be getting married on Monday, he was pretty excited!

It was a 90 minute drive to the first village and I had to stop myself taking photos of little villages on top of hills or up mountainsides, they’re so pretty but enough is enough! There was a bit of snow on the mountains, very high and grey craggy-looking. We drove about 1km away from the sea but could see it along the way. Passed through Carrara and on either side of the highway were big piles of Carrara marble blocks, bright white streaked with a little grey, waiting to be worked. The blocks would have been the size of a small car.

We drove through La Spezia which has a naval base and as we got higher got a great view of the bay and the naval basin with a couple of grey ships, a couple of submarines and the tall ship Amerigo Vespucci which is used as a training ship for new recruits so they can see how ‘real’ ships work. It’s visible in the photo, lower left where there’s a square piece of water , it’s about one third from the bottom to the right. Quite a sight close up.

I’m not going to write a lot about the villages, this website gives a pretty good overview if you click on it https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/it/ We’re both pleased we went because it was a good day out, nice and sunny, and we were lucky that the ferries were running because it had been too rough the day before, we were told. If they’re not running you go by very quick train trips, just a few minutes each, costing 5 Euro per trip. And many people walk from village to village which would also be a nice way to do it – if you were that way inclined, which, honestly, I’m not. Also, even at mid-May, they were quite crowded so must be diabolical as the season goes on.

That said, we thought the first three were very pretty, the colours are lovely and the sea is a beautiful colour. Going by ferry you do get a great view and we saw the train on the track going into Vernazza, several tunnels along the way. They’re not very far apart and the ferry only takes a few minutes, had good toilets on board (which is a must for me) but my goodness, they pile the people in – Pete said he saw one man with a counter so perhaps they do have a limit though they seemed crowded.

The whole of Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage site from 1997. It’s a national park as well. Going towards the villages we noticed the terracing, much of it dry-stone walling but some with concrete now, and there were lots of grapes growing all over them . We first went to Riomaggiore which is where the photo of me and Pete was taken, very pretty, a very steep walk down from where the driver Alessandro dropped us. Would not fancy pulling suitcases up that hill. Didn’t wander very far but took a couple of photos looking down onto the fishing jetty and had a fresh orange juice just sitting people-watching.

Second village was Manarola, this is the famous one that’s mostly seen on promotional photos and it does look very pretty as you can see. Claim to fame here, according to Luigi, is very special focaccia which none of us needed any encouragement to try after we’d had a walk along the path to the ‘famous photo site’ looking across to the village, and Pete went up higher along the hillside while I walked further along the cliff path (the flat one!) which was nice and peaceful. They have stone seating at regular intervals, good to look out to sea and watch the ferries and fishing boats.

And yes, we did try the delicious focaccia, hot from the oven, tomato and basil flavoured. Had to have a custard cannoli as well, why not?

The trips don’t go to Corniglia because it’s hard to get to, so carried on to Vernazza which was more of the same though we did go into the big church on the waterfront and……the ‘must have’ at this village is gelato/sorbet so all of us indulged in that and a some had the equally famous fish and chips, but as the Aussie man said, ‘it’s not what we’re used to’ and it didn’t look great. I’ll stick to lemon sorbet. That place was famous for its BASIL gelato, sounds odd but Pete had some and I had a taste, it was sweetish and not savoury like you’d think basil would be. I took the photo of the crowds in Vernazza, it was pretty tight when we wandered up the street for a look. Each of the four villages had exactly the same tourist stuff: magnets, hats, cheap clothes, postcards, bags of all sorts, linen stuff……and the occasional ‘real’ shop.

The last stop was Monterosso and it doesn’t have the steep, attractive town, it’s in two parts with the old town on one side and around the point is a long and extremely popular beach – the easiest town to get to and of course a jumping-off place for tours. Luigi took us up the main street to a shop selling limoncello and all sorts of pasta, flavoured salts, jam, pesto (which this town is famous for), and the owner gave us all a shot of limoncello, we weren’t going to turn that down. Pete and I had lunch down near the waterfront, Luigi got us in fairly promptly and we appeared to get a discount. We tried the famous trofie al pesto which is a kind of rolled pasta with a pesto sauce, green beans and potatoes – delicious!

Had a wander round the tourist traps for a few minutes after that, Pete chatted to the American man who was Filipino-born and they discussed the Philippines and working conditions there for expats, and then it was up the hill to the van and drive back to Lucca, and yes, I did have a sleep.

We ate at the same La Tosca restaurant because it was the easy option and tasty again, packed up our bags except essentials, and that was the visit to Lucca finished.

We would definitely recommend Lucca, and a stay of a few days rather than just the two that we had. It’s a good jumping off point for Pisa DIY (30 minutes on the train), Florence isn’t far for the day, and I think the Cinque Terre tour we did was a good option, expensive, but in the grand scheme of being away for as long as we are, it was the best idea.

And now, on we go to Venice.Read more