Volterra and San Gimignano

After doing our laundry, we had a full day, visiting two villages, Volterra and San Gimignano.  Volterra's roots go back to Etruscan times and it has a Roman theater.  It has been inhabited continuously since the 8th century BC.  Its Piazza dei Priori is beautiful and the views in every direction are breathtaking.

We drove from Volterra, through the hills of Tuscany to San Gimignano, with its many towers.  We can see San Gimignano from our B&B in San Donato, so we particularly were interested to see it close up.  It is the "creme de la creme" of the small villages we have visited so far, and we are not alone in our assessment, as there were thousands of tourists in San Gimignano.  It is quite special.

 

Firenze

Roberto gave us good driving advice to get from the B&B to Firenze.  We easily found parking and began touring Firenze by 10:30 AM.  I rarely go by a church without going in, so we were treated to a choir practice in one and a mass in another.  We enjoyed the architecture of the Uffizi Galleries as much as the art.  The architecture of Firenze is exquisite at every turn and in the small details.  The Duomo complex is incredibly beautiful with it stripes of marble.  We walked across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace and through the Boboli Gardens.  We had a wonderful day!

Chianti

We took the advice of our B&B owners, and made a loop through the Chianti region, with our first stop in Badia a Passignano, an ancient monastery dating back to 395.  Our next stop was in Montefioralle, considered one of the most beautiful hilltop villages in Tuscany, and claimed to be the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci. We were greeted with much enthusiasm by a docent at the tiny church on top of the village hill.  Then on to Greve in Chianti and Panzano in Chianti, Radda in Chianti, and Castellina in Chianti.  A highlight of the day was our visit to Castelo di Brolio, under the Ricasoli family's ownership since 1141.  We visited their winery for a tasting.

So much history, narrow streets, beautiful stone walls and buildings, the fragrance of jasmine and roses, and vineyards in every direction.  Chianti is beautiful!

Pisa

Papa and I left Riomaggiore on the 9:02 train, then hopped onto a train in La Spezia, to arrive in Pisa by 10:30 AM.  We checked our bags at the train station and walked across the Arno River, through Piazza dei Cavalieri, with the beautiful Scuola Normale Superiore, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and on to the Campo dei Miracoli, where the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, and the Baptistery are located.  The Leaning Tower was built as a bell tower for the Duomo, started in 1173, and it started to settle (lean) by the time construction reached the third story.  Construction continued even into 2000, trying to prop it up and then trying to restore it to its original tilt.  The whole complex is built of bright white marble and sits on a grassy lawn, surrounded by thousands of tourists.  We joined them and had a great time!

We spent about two hours in Pisa, then caught a train to Florence, where we rented a car, and drove to  San Donato in Poggio to stay in B&B Del Giglio for the next week.  Beatrice and her mother showed us around and gave us travel advice when we arrived.  They treated us to a bottle of Chianti wine, which we enjoyed on the patio with jasmine blooming on the posts.  We couldn't be happier and our views of the Tuscan hills couldn't be better!

Hiking the Cinque Terre

We stopped by a Cinque Terre National Park office yesterday afternoon and learned that there are still two sections of the trail closed after the major storms of 2011.  It seems there were massive mud slides that damaged the trail and the village of Manarola.  The National Park rep was full of insights and options that we had not considered.  With all the information, we made a plan last evening and stuck to it today!

We were up and on the 7:14 a.m. train from Riomaggiore to Corniglia, the first village north of Riomaggiore where the trail is open.  We began our Cinque Terre hike at Corniglia and had the trail mostly to ourselves the first two hours of the morning.  As we got near to Vernazza, foot traffic started to pick up.  Vernazza is stunningly beautiful, with a natural harbor, two tall stone towers, and very colorful houses.  The trail from Vernazza to Monterossa del Mare was about a 8.5 on a 10 point scale of difficulty.  The trail is not well maintained, is narrow, and has probably 2000+ stair steps, quite uneven.  There were so many people on that section of the trail, coming toward us from Monterossa, that we had to go slowly just to pass.  It took us close to 2 hours to go 2 miles.  All that being said, the views were spectacular and we had a wonderful hike!  We treated ourselves to big servings of freshly made focaccia afterward and of course, stopped for gelato.  What a day!

Arrival on the Cinque Terre

After breakfast at the convent, we took our time getting to Termini Rail Station in Rome, and took the 10 AM train toward Torino.  After four scenic hours on the train, skirting the Mediterranean coastline over and over, we arrived in La Spezia, then took a quick eight minute train ride to Riomaggiore.  Riomaggiore is the southernmost village of the Cinque Terre.  We quickly found our accomodations, a recently renovated one bedroom apartment with a small patio overlooking the sea, up the hill from the rail station.  After depositing our bags, we walked to the primary commercial area, one street with restaurants and shops, that continues downhill to a small harbor.  We had a wonderful freshly made pasta lunch topped off with gelato.  After a bit of a rest, we walked about again and found our way to the street of shops and had another gelato.  Riomaggiore is a beautiful village clinging to the cliffs above the Mediterranean Sea.  Doesn't get better than this!  We're turning in early tonight, in anticipation of our hike of the Cinque Terre tomorrow.

Last Day in Rome

Papa and I went to the Pantheon first thing this morning.  It is an amazing building, built between 14 BC and 24 AD, during the reign of Augustus, and its still standing with a perfect ceiling!  

We crossed the river into Trastevere, and visited three churches.  The first church, San Crisogono, had a gold encrusted ceiling and a mosaic floor.  The second church, Basilica of Our Lady in  Trastevere, is known for its mosaic facade, but it was covered in cloth, so we didn't see it.  The last church, Basilica of St. Cecelia, had beautiful mosaics above the pulpit from the 9th century, and a crypt below, housing a church built between 200 and 300 AD to honor a martyred woman, Cecelia.  We had one of those OMG moments when we walked into the colorful columned room in the crypt.  

We walked back across the Palatine Hill, by the Colosseum, and toward our hotel.  While waiting for Papa to get cash at an ATM, music came closer and closer, and a parade of 50+ Local Filipino teenage girls, dressed in their finest, each with an entourage carrying banners, passed us.  It was beautiful and so happy.  We loved it!  We had pasta for lunch, gelato for dessert, and went to the train station to buy our tickets for the Cinque Terre tomorrow.  All good!