We woke to a beautiful, clear Italian morning. Blue skies and not a cloud to be seen.
11 degrees, so it was cool but not cold.
I feel bad when the weather report every day is the same. Maybe I should say nothing and let you assume it is another perfect day. If it’s a lousy day, I’ll let you know.
Today is a “no fixed plans” kind of day. I’d like to think that “no fixed plans” means a lazy day, but we all know that’s never going to work out that way.
We wanted to go back to Portovenere. We drove down there on Sunday afternoon, but it was madness and we couldn’t park anywhere.
Then we saw it again yesterday from the ferry as we were doing the Cinque Terre, but we only saw it for 5 minutes, and only from the boat.
So today we are seeing Portovenere.
We had an idea that we’d like to go down to Pisa to see if the tower is still leaning, but it was becoming a logistical nightmare trying to figure out how to get there.
Driving was an option, but not a good one. We haven’t yet encountered a ZTL (limited access zone) – well not that we know of, anyway. I’m sure that there will be a fine in the mail sometime in the next year if we did … and that will be an unpleasant surprise.
There are buses, regional trains, intercity trains … argh. Too many options.
We got a message from Monica – our AirBNB host here about out checkout tomorrow, so I asked her for an opinion.
“Train, absolutely.”
OK, that’s all I need to know.
They don’t have 50 cent fares here in La Spezia. They have a seriously antiquated system where you have to find a tobacconist (tabaccheria) and buy a paper ticket, then you validate it when you get on the bus.
But you also have to know how many zones you are planning to travel, and the ticket is only valid for one trip … so if you catch a bus across 3 regions and then swap to a second bus to complete your journey, you need two tickets.
And when I say “validate” your ticket, you poke it into a little machine on the bus that stamps a time on your ticket, and you only have 60 minutes to complete your trip.
A local trip ticket is €1.50 and a longer journey is €2.50.
To get to Portovenere, we needed to find a tobacconist and there was one about 5 minutes walk away. We set off, found the shop and walked in.
There were two elderly (maybe in their 80s) men behind the counter and I whispered to MBW, “I think we’re in trouble here.”
In her very best Italian, with her very best smile, MBW asked the younger of the two, “Lei parla Inglese?” (Do you speak English?)
To which he replied in clear English, “Do you speak Italiano?”
MBW: “No”
“Ai ai ai ai ai.”
So Google translate it is.
We got our two tickets, plus instructions for where to get the bus, and off we went.
We had to get the “P” bus, and it came along with absolutely no regard for when the timetable suggested it should turn up.
There is obviously a large degree of randomness to the bus timetable, but it worked in our favour this time.
It took about 40 minutes to get to Portovenere on the bus, and I have a whole new respect for the nerves of steel that these bus drivers must have.
Narrow, winding roads with cars parked badly, and sometimes only a few inches of free space either side.
Portovenere is a very pretty little seaside township that is not part of the Cinque Terre, but the ferry to the Cinque Terre stops there anyway.
Despite being a pretty township, it also has a spectacular duomo (cathedral) built onto the side of the cliff.
Portovenere only has a population of about 3,200 people, but they have 2 duomos. These small Italian townships seem to have cathedrals like tiny Australian townships have pubs.
We had a nice walk around and admired the spectacular views from the top of the structure, then climbed the hill to look at some other medieval buildings there.
You only need to see a certain number of medieval buildings, churches and castles in your lifetime, and I think we are getting close.
We wandered around the pretty, narrow streets noting that they were also pretty narrow.
Before heading out this morning, we checked the train timetable just so we had an idea of when the intercity train to Pisa was scheduled to leave La Spezia.
We also checked the bus timetable – just for fun – to see when a “P” bus might, or might not come along and take us to the train station.
We had about 30 minutes to kill before the bus came, so we found a busy little cafe and ordered a couple of cappuccinos and something called a “brioche”.
While I acknowledge that I can be a bit of an uneducated Philistine when it comes to all things culinary, the 2 day old croissant full of apricot jam probably wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.
The bus scheduling gods decided to laugh at us, because as soon as our coffee arrived, so did the “P” bus … the one not due for another 25 minutes.
But that’s OK … coffee can’t be rushed, so we finished our brew and wandered over to the bus stop wondering if or when another bus would come along.
Not the best coffee I’ve ever had, but not the worst either.
Another one did, as it happened, and not too long after we arrived at the bus stop, so I’m not entirely sure what was going on.
We headed back to La Spezia train station and purchased a couple of tickets on the Intercity train to Pisa.
There are lots and lots of citrus trees growing around the city in La Spezia, which is both unusual and very pretty.
They looked like mandarins.
We did a bit of damage to our boys’ inheritance today I think. Train tickets to Pisa were €33 one way, and that was in the 2nd class carriage.
By this time it was about 12.30pm and the train was due to leave at 1.44pm, so we found a little shop and bought a toasted panini thing to share.
As my mate Jack Reacher says, pee when you can … so we decided to ensure our tanks were empty before catching the train.
We finally found the toilets at the far end of the station, and learned that we had to pay €1.00 each to enter. The attendant was wearing bright yellow fluorescent PPE head to toe, so I don’t know if he was just safety conscious, or in a high-risk profession.
I was a bit miffed about having to pay a whole €1.00 just to take a tinkle, so I left the toilet seat up as a silent protest.
The train turned up and we got into our assigned seats – 5C and 6C – which I found confusing. It turned out that it was 2 lots of 2 seats facing each other, and we had two aisle seats. Another young couple turned up and had the window seats facing each other, but we suggested that we were happy to sit together so that they could also.
They were very happy with that outcome as they were obviously very much in love, gazing into each other’s eyes and making cooing sounds.
Oh, to be young and in love.
Not long after setting off, they decided to engage us in conversation. I assume that they heard us talking and figured that we could be the most interesting people that they will meet today.
It turned out that they are probably the most interesting people we have met today.
They were both in their late 20s or early 30s and both from Mexico, although he has lived in a small village in Italy for the last 7 years. He has a PHD in theoretical physics but works in programming and robotics, while she is a clinical neuropsychologist.
Try saying that after you’ve been to the dentist and you’ve got a mouthful of aesthetic.
She lives in Mexico and has come over for a couple of weeks to visit him.
I felt like asking whether the village he lives in needs an idiot, but I’m not sure I’d be qualified 😞.
They met last Christmas or New Years and hit it off (more cooing sounds and fluttering of eyelids), and they are going to an island somewhere between Italy and Corsica to see some friends.
It was a nice chat and unusual to be engaged in an English conversation on a train.
We arrived in Pisa and bought some more paper bus tickets, and figured out where to catch the 1+ bus to the LToP.
I’ve decided to renounce my history as a fare evader, confess my earlier sins, and say a few “Hail Marys” for the fact I’ve never been caught.
We hadn’t been on the bus for more than 5 minutes and three ticket inspectors got on board. I must have looked guilty because my ticket was checked twice.
Most people got off at the LToP stop, and the ticket inspectors corralled all disembarking passengers into a corner and I got my ticket checked again.
Some Asian ladies without tickets got the third degree, and it wasn’t pleasant.
We walked through the sea of souvenir shops and into the square and … there it was! Leaning, just like all of the tour books say it is.
And leaning far more than I would have thought possible without falling over. In fact, I wished our train companion – Dr Theoretical Physics – was there to explain to me how that was possible.
This is one of those monuments that I’ve heard about all my life, but never thought I’d see with my own two eyes.
We had an option to climb the tower but there were a few mitigating factors. You couldn’t take anything up with you, and I wasn’t leaving my passport anywhere that I couldn’t see it.
There was also a pat down before you went in, plus a long line of people waiting.
But the main reason was – with that lean – I expected that climbing it would be a high risk activity that would rank up there with bungie jumping or skydiving, and I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be covered on our travel insurance if it fell.
We wandered around taking photos from all different angles, then looked at yet another church with impossibly high ceilings.
We wandered around Pisa for about an hour and a half, and ate more gelato.
When in Rome …
Time to head back to the train station for our 5.44pm train home, which would get us back to La Spezia around 6.40pm. We bought more bus tickets and hopped on the bus, and guess what?
The same three tickets inspectors got on and we did it all again. They caught another fare evader and were threatening her with a €43 fine. We would have loved to see how that worked out, but we had a train to catch.
We decided to use more of the boys inheritance to use the toilets again, but MBW only had €1.96 in change, so only one of us could go.
I wasn’t using my credit card to go to the loo.
The train trip home was a repeat of the trip down – the guy sitting opposite engaged us in conversation. He is from Bangladesh but has been in Italy working in the shipyards as a plumber for the last 7 years.
Sadly he has a wife and 4 year old son still living in Bangladesh, but happily they are moving to live in Italy with him in a few months.
He insisted on buying us coffee when we arrived in La Spezia, and while my “possible scam” alarm was going crazy, I think he just appreciated the opportunity to speak English with someone and practice his skills.
We got home late after ensuring we had bus tickets before boarding the bus, and had a late dinner and more coffee.
So for a “no fixed plans” kind of day, we did >17,000 steps and climbed 16 flights of stairs.
More steps than yesterday. And drank too much coffee.
Tomorrow we leave La Spezia and head towards San Gimignano.
It’s late, I’m tired, and Geoff is a grumpy boy without enough sleep, so that’s a wrap for today.
Ciao
#Europe2025