There’s a lot to see in Italy, and if you are on a Rick Steves’ eleven day Heart of Italy tour, as my husband John and I were, you can bet that you are going to see most of it.
So, although we were fairly well knackered from our day and a half of touring Florence, we had the sneaking suspicion that things were going to get even more intense.
We dragged ourselves out of bed (still not un-jet-lagged enough to get a solid night’s sleep), packed up, raced down to breakfast and did the Rick Steves’ carry-and-drag of our suitcases out of the charming Hotel Accademia and down the narrow streets to a place wide enough for our bus. It was here that we met Fausto, our trusty, always cheerful bus driver, luggage handler, and beverage provider.
Thus began Day Three.
We were on the bus!
Our first stop was Lucca, a town surrounded by walls so thick that there is a wide bike/ pedestrian path around the top!
Our tour guide Karin assured us that even if we were wearing a skirt (that would be me), we should all take the opportunity to rent bicycles and ride them around the top of the walls, the better to experience Lucca.
Well, we did it. John and I did rent bikes and we did make it all the way around the wall, stopping for a brief tour through a flea market (those seem to be sadly the same wherever you are) and finishing with a delightful lunch at a sidewalk café (Insalata mista-mixed salad for me and delectable lasagna for John).
Sadly, between the biking and flea market and eating, we really didn’t get much of a chance to see the old Roman ruins of Lucca, but you can see where my priorities are. Exercise, of course, first, and food and shopping later!
After lunch, we even found another gelateria and treated ourselves to a double dip cone of Italy’s genius version of ice cream.
From there it was a long bus to the place that is at the top of my list for the title of Heaven on Earth—the Cinque Terre (Five Lands). These are five picturesque, cliff-hugging towns along the Ligurian Sea that, for centuries, were only connected by footpaths. Now there is a train (thank goodness), as well as a ferry in good weather.
We rode the bus as far as we could and then boarded a train to take us to Monterosso al Mare where we would be spending the next two nights.
As we rolled our suitcases out of the train station, we were knocked out by the view. The bluest blue sea sparkled in front of us as we made our way up the street past the flower-covered buildings to our little hotel, the Punta Mesco. We all made plans to meet at the beach, which was actually a narrow rock beach (or shingle), and soon we were merrily floating in the sea.
We enjoyed our moment’s respite and then had to scurry back to our hotel to change.
We had a date for supper and it turned out to be very memorable!
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