For the first time in a while, today we really didn't do much. Given how far we walked yesterday, it wasn't really surprising. We did try to see some stuff though, by going for a drive.
Our first stop was McDonalds, to do some internet catchup, before we headed off on a drive into the hinterland behind La Spezia. There were a couple of maps that gave us indicators of castles and churches, so we figured there might be a couple worth seeing.
Before we even got to the first town, we realised that we were basically retracing our path to La Spezia. It seemed a bit of a waste, so we went via a second town and saw a little bit of scenery before arriving at a local supermarket. We hadn't really had much luck with supermarkets in La Spezia, so I googled a larger supermarket where we were able to do a bit of grocery shopping.
After that we headed home! Not a lot got done today, but hopefully we will thus be recharged by the time we get to Grenoble in two days. Bye for now!
Showing posts with label la spezia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label la spezia. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Spectacular, but exhausting: Cinque Terre
Today was our first, and it turns out, only, day in Cinque Terre! We were determined to make the most of it, having found out that two out of the four coastal trails were open, not just one as we originally thought.
Cinque Terre photos on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645364177188/
Turns out that there is WiFi access in the park as well - well, only at the train stations of the five towns plus La Spezia - and you get free access to it if you buy a day pass to the park. So that turned out to be of some use.
We crammed ourselves onto the train along with bucketloads of other tourists. We already knew sort of what to expect, having already been to see the Calanques National Park. That means that we sat there and watched while all the other tourists gasped and gawked as we got our first glimpse of the aqua water.
After arriving in Monterosso, the northern most of the five towns, we hung around for a while applying sunscreen before setting off along the coastal trail towards Vernazza. Of the four sections of trail, this was the second-longest, but it also hugged the coastline for the most part, with a little bit of a stretch inland.
Mum was originally planning on walking parts of the Cinque Terre trail - we came to the concensus that she might struggle! There were many, many steps up and down, and rather treacherous portions of trail with narrow dirt paths. According to Wikivoyage it has over 750 steps!
After walking the second part of the coastal trail, from Vernazza to Corniglia, it began to feel like the hikes were simply means to an end. The scenery was clearly the best on the first part of the trail, after that it began to drag out longer.
Here's my favourites from the first part of the trail:
The path from Corniglia to Manarola was always going to be the most difficult. Because the coastal trail was closed, and there was no clear alternative, we basically traversed up the entire height of the hills above Corniglia, and took multiple different paths in order to get there.
There were a couple of people selling wares and performing along the trail, but someone had set up a lemonade stall on the inland trail just before Manarola. It was self-service and 'pay as much as you want' - so when I dropped some coin into the box it sounded very, very hollow, given that the jug was almost empty. It wasn't bad lemonade either.
We decided to skip going into Manarola proper and headed to the last part of the trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore. The route path looked fairly benign, but I could see that it was proposing one hour to walk 1.25 kilometres. And it proved to be true - of all the four paths we took, this was clearly the steepest, as we had to basically go straight up the hill then all the way back down.
By the time we got to Riomaggiore, we were well and truly buggered. We decided to skip Riomaggiore as well and get the train straight back to La Spezia. In true Italian style, we just missed an on-time train, then proceeded to wait 45 minutes for two cancelled trains before one showed up. Yay.
Here are my favourite photos from the rest of the day:
Turns out that, according to my GPS logging app, we walked 23.64 kilometres today, with a total climb of 1,971 metres and total calories burned of 2,981. When we got back we got stuck into some homemade pasta before calling it a night.
Doesn't feel like we'll want to do anything tomorrow, we had originally planned to walk north of Monterosso into the other part of the park, I doubt that's going to happen!
Cinque Terre photos on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645364177188/
Turns out that there is WiFi access in the park as well - well, only at the train stations of the five towns plus La Spezia - and you get free access to it if you buy a day pass to the park. So that turned out to be of some use.
We crammed ourselves onto the train along with bucketloads of other tourists. We already knew sort of what to expect, having already been to see the Calanques National Park. That means that we sat there and watched while all the other tourists gasped and gawked as we got our first glimpse of the aqua water.
After arriving in Monterosso, the northern most of the five towns, we hung around for a while applying sunscreen before setting off along the coastal trail towards Vernazza. Of the four sections of trail, this was the second-longest, but it also hugged the coastline for the most part, with a little bit of a stretch inland.
Mum was originally planning on walking parts of the Cinque Terre trail - we came to the concensus that she might struggle! There were many, many steps up and down, and rather treacherous portions of trail with narrow dirt paths. According to Wikivoyage it has over 750 steps!
After walking the second part of the coastal trail, from Vernazza to Corniglia, it began to feel like the hikes were simply means to an end. The scenery was clearly the best on the first part of the trail, after that it began to drag out longer.
Here's my favourites from the first part of the trail:
The highlights from the coastal trail
The path from Corniglia to Manarola was always going to be the most difficult. Because the coastal trail was closed, and there was no clear alternative, we basically traversed up the entire height of the hills above Corniglia, and took multiple different paths in order to get there.
There were a couple of people selling wares and performing along the trail, but someone had set up a lemonade stall on the inland trail just before Manarola. It was self-service and 'pay as much as you want' - so when I dropped some coin into the box it sounded very, very hollow, given that the jug was almost empty. It wasn't bad lemonade either.
We decided to skip going into Manarola proper and headed to the last part of the trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore. The route path looked fairly benign, but I could see that it was proposing one hour to walk 1.25 kilometres. And it proved to be true - of all the four paths we took, this was clearly the steepest, as we had to basically go straight up the hill then all the way back down.
By the time we got to Riomaggiore, we were well and truly buggered. We decided to skip Riomaggiore as well and get the train straight back to La Spezia. In true Italian style, we just missed an on-time train, then proceeded to wait 45 minutes for two cancelled trains before one showed up. Yay.
Here are my favourite photos from the rest of the day:
The highlights from the rest of Cinque Terre
Turns out that, according to my GPS logging app, we walked 23.64 kilometres today, with a total climb of 1,971 metres and total calories burned of 2,981. When we got back we got stuck into some homemade pasta before calling it a night.
Doesn't feel like we'll want to do anything tomorrow, we had originally planned to walk north of Monterosso into the other part of the park, I doubt that's going to happen!
Monday, 14 July 2014
Catchup, plus some coastline
Today was the first of our three days in the La Spezia/Cinque Terre area. We'd come up with a plan for the three days, which involves visiting Cinque Terre on the second day, and maybe again on the third day. Our plan also included visiting Portovenere, which is a hidden jewel just to the south of the main Cinque Terre area, on the first day (today).
Day one of the area is now up on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645364177188/
Firstly we needed to find somewhere with internet. We had a wander through where the market, which was recommended to us, should have been, only to find it was closed. We then headed back to the main route and spotted a sign towards McDonalds. It turned out to be a fairly long way down on the main drag along the waterfront.
After signing up to Italy's McDonalds WiFi system, I used the internet for a couple of hours while dad walked back to the supermarke and then back to the apartment. I power-walked back along the waterfront and waited for dad a little while at the apartment, before we packed up and headed out again to Portovenere. It's in a straight line along the coast from La Spezia, and has some really nice scenery.
We drove around for a while looking for a place to park, which wasn't easy because it was fairly packed. Not that you would know it from looking around - there were certainly a few people there but nothing like the volume of people I expected for so little parking.
We then set off from where we parked all the way to Chiesa di San Pietro, which is a spectacular church set right into the cliff face at 'Land's End'. As we arrived the church had just been vacated after a wedding, so we were able to go inside and have a look. It was quite a simple-looking church, so we continued to explore the area and take more fabulous photos of the cliffs, including from the castle just next to the church:
After dad left to go back to the car, I hurried back along the waterfront of Portovenere. It's also quite nice, and it was during the 'golden hour' as I walked back, with really good lighting on the water:
After I got back to the car we turned around and headed back home again. Tomorrow will be our first day in Cinque Terre!
Day one of the area is now up on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645364177188/
Firstly we needed to find somewhere with internet. We had a wander through where the market, which was recommended to us, should have been, only to find it was closed. We then headed back to the main route and spotted a sign towards McDonalds. It turned out to be a fairly long way down on the main drag along the waterfront.
After signing up to Italy's McDonalds WiFi system, I used the internet for a couple of hours while dad walked back to the supermarke and then back to the apartment. I power-walked back along the waterfront and waited for dad a little while at the apartment, before we packed up and headed out again to Portovenere. It's in a straight line along the coast from La Spezia, and has some really nice scenery.
We drove around for a while looking for a place to park, which wasn't easy because it was fairly packed. Not that you would know it from looking around - there were certainly a few people there but nothing like the volume of people I expected for so little parking.
We then set off from where we parked all the way to Chiesa di San Pietro, which is a spectacular church set right into the cliff face at 'Land's End'. As we arrived the church had just been vacated after a wedding, so we were able to go inside and have a look. It was quite a simple-looking church, so we continued to explore the area and take more fabulous photos of the cliffs, including from the castle just next to the church:
Views of the cliffs of Portovenere
After dad left to go back to the car, I hurried back along the waterfront of Portovenere. It's also quite nice, and it was during the 'golden hour' as I walked back, with really good lighting on the water:
Portovenere's waterfront
After I got back to the car we turned around and headed back home again. Tomorrow will be our first day in Cinque Terre!
Sunday, 13 July 2014
The marble mountains route
After our couple of days in Lucca, we've got one day to get from there to La Spezia. Our plan for our three days there is flexible for the time being; obviously we want to spend one day at least in Cinque Terre.
I've added a few photos to my 'on the road' Flickr set:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645709737341/
Dad wanted to make a couple of stops today - the first of which was at Ponte della Maddalena. It's an old bridge that was part of a medieval pilgrimage route from Rome to France. It's feature is its high arches. While I was there, I also saw a nice photo opportunity with an old VW beetle:
After that, we continued to a small old town called Barga. There was a church with a particular structure inside that dad wanted to look at. But first, we sat and watched a game of... well, I don't know what it's called. It's a cross between high school handball, tennis, and volleyball. I think. There was some form of championship going on, and there were very animated discussions over line calls. As dad said, this is the type of thing that starts family feuds.
We eventually went up to the church and saw the old structure inside the church, stopping a couple of times to take photos:
From there, we took the 'scenic route' to La Spezia, which took us through the marble mountains. Yes, these are mountains actually made of marble. Italy has been harvesting the marble for ages, and the results are quite spectacular:
That was basically it for the travelling part, with one notable additional stop to take a photo of this rustic old building frame:
After arriving late into La Spezia, we got into the apartment and then raced off to meet our relatives from Canberra, who happened to be in La Spezia at the same time as us, for dinner. I was meeting them for the first time this trip, but dad had already met them and travelled with them for a couple of weeks before they left to do their own thing.
After we had finished dinner, full to bursting, we took a wander down to the La Spezia waterfront before heading back to the apartment. There's no WiFi in the apartment, so we'll look to visit a McDonalds or somewhere similar tomorrow.
I've added a few photos to my 'on the road' Flickr set:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645709737341/
Dad wanted to make a couple of stops today - the first of which was at Ponte della Maddalena. It's an old bridge that was part of a medieval pilgrimage route from Rome to France. It's feature is its high arches. While I was there, I also saw a nice photo opportunity with an old VW beetle:
Around the Ponte della Maddalena
After that, we continued to a small old town called Barga. There was a church with a particular structure inside that dad wanted to look at. But first, we sat and watched a game of... well, I don't know what it's called. It's a cross between high school handball, tennis, and volleyball. I think. There was some form of championship going on, and there were very animated discussions over line calls. As dad said, this is the type of thing that starts family feuds.
We eventually went up to the church and saw the old structure inside the church, stopping a couple of times to take photos:
The town of Barga
From there, we took the 'scenic route' to La Spezia, which took us through the marble mountains. Yes, these are mountains actually made of marble. Italy has been harvesting the marble for ages, and the results are quite spectacular:
Marble mountains
That was basically it for the travelling part, with one notable additional stop to take a photo of this rustic old building frame:
Rustic old building frame
After arriving late into La Spezia, we got into the apartment and then raced off to meet our relatives from Canberra, who happened to be in La Spezia at the same time as us, for dinner. I was meeting them for the first time this trip, but dad had already met them and travelled with them for a couple of weeks before they left to do their own thing.
After we had finished dinner, full to bursting, we took a wander down to the La Spezia waterfront before heading back to the apartment. There's no WiFi in the apartment, so we'll look to visit a McDonalds or somewhere similar tomorrow.
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