Florence, Cinque Terre and Pisa

Our caravan site was a great base for visits to the above. We drove to Florence via a back road and were rewarded by this great view of the city. The cathedral really stands out.

Closer it is hard to appreciate how large it is but it is wonderfully decorated with its tower and adjoining buildings.

The contrasting black and white was both simple and very decorative.

Some of the close up detail was glorious.

However, once past the cathedral the other attractions were a little disappointing. This is the famous Ponte Vechio and although historic it is not particularly attractive or with Architectural merit and when on the bridge was just full of small outlets selling jewelry and the like with hundreds of people tramping through. In short none of us were attracted to the idea of returning to Florence.

So saying the following day we had a very early start and caught the train into Florence to join a tour to Cinque Terre. On the bus down to the coast we passed the vast Cararra quarries.

This is the centre of marble production for Italy (and probably the world). There were numerous factories along the way.

Cinque Terre comprises five towns all perched on steep hillsides that are prone to slips and overlooking the sea. Although visitor numbers are controlled some parts got quite crowded but the towns are nonetheless colourful and extremely photogenic. Our first stop was Manarola. The boats were many colours and seemed to be competing with the buildings as to which had the greatest colour range. 

Fortunately our first walk from the bus was downhill as it was both steep, quite long and the day was already well into the 30s. The church was as close to the top of the hill as was possible with only the terraces with their vines able to cling to the upper even steeper slopes. Tending the vines must be very hard, labour intensive work.

Views from the sea or nearby headlands while stunning also underpin how precarious life must have been before tourism. With a little shaking (it does happen in Italy…) you could see much of this being sea bound. The Civil Engineer in me noted that there was a large column supporting the centre of the arch holding up the main quay area seen in this shot. What is not visible are the two inch vertical cracks in the column so it may not need an earthquake…

We then took a short train ride to the Eastern most town called Riomaggiore. (It is interesting that although the five towns are world heritage there is a main railway line with passenger and goods trains constantly rumbling through.)

The town is similarly colourful and precarious.

On the quay it is quite clear that the sea still plays a major part in the life of the towns and those without a mooring 

have the task of dragging their boats ashore and then stacking them.

Transport to the third village was via a ferry. This have a great vantage point as we made our way over a crystal clear blue sea.

The town of Corniglia was too difficult to get to and we only viewed it from the sea.

Vernazza was the next stop for the ferry however we stayed on and would call back here later in the afternoon. It is perhaps the town with the most natural beauty with its headland castle supported on a sea worn arch. Great location for the restaurant perched on top.

Our lunch stop was at the last and largest village called Monterossa. This has an old part and thanks to a tunnel a larger new township with a big beach for those sea worshippers. We opted for some lunch in the old town and then called in at the local church where the black and white pedestrian theme continued.

This one was unusual with some of the decoration to its capitals. On the door to the church was "Mortis et orations confraternitus".. a purgatorial society. (Rather how you would imaging a devils church!)

The last village of Vernazza had a church on the headland the interior of which, although continuing with the pedestrian crossing theme, was much more subdued. However it did continue a major attraction of visiting churches escaping the heat and benefitting from their (literally) cool interiors. 

The harbour was perhaps the largest and most attractive of all the villages with quite a few boats coming and going not just for fishing but also visitor rides.

This rather summarises the area. Despite the hot weather and bustle of fellow tourists we really enjoyed Cinque Terre. My only complaint would be that despite the revenue the influx of tourists must provide many of the buildings are pretty tatty and in dire need of a good lick of paint.

Our third bucket list item for this area was Pisa. We took the train from Florence and immediately felt that the city had an attractive feel to it. It was well laid out with numerous pedestrian ways. Certainly the girls enjoyed the walk across the river Arno.

Although there was a clear pedestrian way from the station to the far side of the city centre (where the tower was located) there were numerous distractions from the main route. First was the best lunch to date at a small restaurant off the main drag that we came across quite by accident. The menu was not large but it was still difficult to decide as everything looked good. When it arrived the presentation, colour, textures not to mention flavour were fabulous. All washed down with a bottle (OK two) of great wine. Our waitress and her husband chef did a wonderful job and stayed open an extra half hour as I suspect they also enjoyed the Aussie gregariousness. (We were so impressed here is the address in case your passing  - San Domenico Corso Italia, 139 Pisa)

After lunch this square rather drew us in.

And immediately on the left were three drainers with their own version of spaghetti. Trying to arrange storm water for the buildings from this maze was a real challenge. No design drawings here. Not sure there would be as built drawings either!

All the activity was overlooked by this remarkable lamp

After some three hours of distractions we eventually arrived at the main attraction. What a spectacle. 

I had not appreciated that the tower was set amongst a range of buildings including a cathedral and huge grounds which fortunately easily held the tourist crowd so there was not too much bustle.

The tower took some 175 years to build and I suspect this may have been because it would have started to lean from the “get go”. At 58 metres high it is misaligned by over 5 metres from top to bottom. It is really remarkable that it is still standing but some great and expensive ground works over recent years have stabilised it so all should be good for quite a few more years. The vertical flagpole at the top helps to emphasise the extent of the lean.

We encountered another quite remarkable building on our walk back to the station. This little church is perched on the top of the river bank wall and seems to have been just dropped into the wrong place when the planners weren’t looking!

So three major bucket items off the list. We saw them in the right order definitely saving the best to last.