Cinque Terre trip was over and I couldnt say if I liked it. The 5 villages werent as nice as I've expected probably due to the over crowding by tourists or because we didnt really had enough time to really explore each town. This trip was mostly for hiking. The hikes that I did, I did enjoyed them all except for the last one around Bonassola as it was nothing special. What I've enjoyed most was the ferries and specially the 3 meals I had in Bonassola, the seafood trofie a la napolitana, the pasta with porcini mushrooms and the seafood ravioli with langostini (and I dont even like ravioli). The trofie al pesto con fagioli e patata at cavour 21 was excellent and I felt triumphant to be able to manage genova on my own and hit all the places I've wanted to visit. Porto Venere I really liked but that's not part of the cinque terre. both levanto and santa margherita were nice and I liked them. portofino i didnt. So all and all, the cinque terre trip was a bit disappointing.
Left luggage at the pisa airport. The bags had to be scanned first and we had to walk our luggage to the scanning area. PisaMover to stazione centrale was only 5 minutes. Again (what else is new) I've missed the train to lucca. Had to wait another hour. Again the train to lucca was just sitting there on the track waiting to depart. Lucca was only 30 mins away with 4 stops. The day was cloudy with a bit of rain. Instead of finding the Porta san pietro, I've followed some people who went around the city wall and found stairs to the wall and the first sight was the San martino cathedral. It was magnificent in marble. The façade was intricate with statues and arches. the bell tower was partially in marble and partially in red bricks. Paid the entrance fee and the inside wasnt worth the 7 euros. Trying to remember the path I had to take to cover the next 2 churches but within a 2-3 mins walk meandering in typical italian narrow cobble stoned alleys, I found the chiesa de san michelle in foro, with almost the same architecture as san martino. the inside was not so elaborate. Then the rain started to pour and I was in heaven. The basilica di San Frediano was next after another 2-3 mins of walk through the same narrow streets. didnt go inside as it was closed but the mosaic facade was quite stunning. next to it, there's a path up to the mura and I've spent the remaining time walking on the city wall in intermittent rain. Satisfied again to have covered all that I set out to see.
back at the station, this time I had some time before the 3:40 train back to pisa. had a gelato in front of the station. got back to pisa centrale a little after 4 and decided to have a mickey dee burger and fries. You can order through the machine and use a credit card or pay at the counter. pisaMover back to the galileo galilei and saw Jim waiting for me in front of the left luggage. We waited for the Tuscany group and Frederica to pick us up. There was a canadian couple, a US girl from Georgia and a girl from UK.
So I was done with trenItalia. Well, not until next time I come to Italy again. No more waiting on trains that didnt come. No more switching trains at sestri levante. no more figuring out what trains and when.
By the time we got to Castellina in Chianti, it was already dark and I didnt go to dinner.
Lucca photos:
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