La Spezia to Florence. Thursday, March 30

We awake in a gloomy morning in Fezzano Marina. We pack up and prepare to head out. Walking over to the caffe (Italian spelling) to have breakfast, we find it closed. Odd, we think! So we load the car and head out towards Pisa. We find a service area on the highway that has a caffe and we get coffee and meat and cheese sandwiches. Tummies full, we move on along. The total drive to Pisa is just over an hour and the biggest problem we face is where to park the car. We find a neighborhood with a parking space and start walking. It becomes obvious after about a mile that we chose the wrong parking space! we also see what looks like newly built gates through the old wall of the city!

So we go back to the car and re-navigate to the entrance of Cathedral Square, the location of the Leaning Tower and Duomo as well as the Baptismal building (the other building of note here). We find a parking lot labeled Tower and Duomo and all is good! Now, for the record, we have been here before, albeit with Elee’s mom in a wheelchair which limited our mobility.

Today we purchase tickets for Elee to visit the Baptismal and Duomo, and for me to visit the Duomo and Climb the Tower of Pisa! So Elee heads off to the Baptismal and I head for the Leaning Tower. We meet up in a half hour and visit the Duomo together.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa… Quite the building and I get to climb it! When I am allowed in, I am immediately shocked! Did you know that the Tower is hollow? Really! It’s a hollow shaft in the middle which makes up most of the building! The outside diameter consists of another marble wall with steps about 3 feet wide that you climb in circles all the way to the top! The occasional window lets you know where you are. There are windows about every two floors, one window per floor!

But here’s where it gets interesting! Because of how the tower leans, you lean with it as you climb! So the walls change from leaning right to leaning left as you go around and around! The wear on the steps changes from side to side also, depending on which side you are on! There are no railings at all on the entire climb so you find yourself bracing your hands on the walls all the way. Now also keep in mind that up and down traffic uses the same stairs so when you pass people you have to let go of that wall, LOL. The following photo is taken with a correctly straight horizon! The fence is not straight because that is the lean of the Tower!

But the end result is worth it! Stepping out on the top and walking around the Tower, seeing the Duomo roof looking down, and the rooftops of the surrounding city is a sight for sore camera eyes! My cameras threw me kisses all the way around! Wait! What is this? I find another doorway with even narrower steps! And they go up! Yes, up! Okay then, don’t call me late for dinner! So I go up these 2 foot wide steps. Oh, right, people come down these too! So it’s a bit of a challenge but what’s an adventure without a challenge? Right? So on up I go, squeezing tight to the side as others come down! I don’t know if the bells in the Tower are ever rang anymore. They weren’t while we were there.

I come out at an even higher level and my cameras are even happier! Then I spot another spiral staircase that goes up even further! Oh bummer, this one is closed off! Oh well, it is a fantastic view from here! So I let my cameras play and they are like little kids in a water park! I tell them enough, it is time to go and if they could wail out loud, they would! But since I am the boss they have to listen and I have a date with my one true love somewhere down below!

So down I go, another challenge in itself as many more tourists want to come up! At least the tickets are limited and timed to restrict the crowds and I make it to the bottom unscathed. As I walk out to finish getting the photos of the best lean shots, I hear a familiar voice call my name and there my date stands, getting her own shots! So meeting up is easy and we head off together to visit the Duomo!

Tickets are necessary to all 3 important building here and I love it! It means the crowds are limited (and the crowds in the place are huge, much larger than I remember in the last visit in October of a year) and it helps with getting good photos! We assess the crowds and a vast majority seem to be Spring Breakers. Even though we are more than a week away from Easter! So, I digress but we go into the Duomo and it it again spectacular in it’s own right! Altars and ceilings galore assault our cameras lenses!

I have espoused my opinions before of the grandiose spending of wealth that it took (takes?) to build such marvels and what that wealth would have done for the betterment of society directly, but I will leave that on the table as I am a hypocrite like many as I see these places and all I want to do is see more. So we take the obligatory photos of our attempt to support the Tower!

Tower of Pisa History:

Did you ever know that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is empty from the inside and not a multi-story residential tower?!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

It is a cathedral bell tower in the Italian city of Pisa, built in the Field of Miracles.

Let’s get acquainted with the Leaning Tower of Pisa from a structural point of view:

Its construction began in 1173 AD and they began to establish the bases and then the walls, and after the building reached the third floor, it was noticed that there was a slope.

Can you imagine that a tower weighing 14,500 tons is built on foundations 3 m deep and installed on sand and silt?!!

After discovering the slope, the engineers built the rest of the floors (external walls) so that the height of the floor in the inclined direction is greater than its height in the other direction.

Which increased the inclination of the tower due to the sinking of the foundations in a greater proportion in the soil, due to the increase in the weight of the floors.

Among the reasons why the tower did not collapse:

The construction continued for 199 years, and the construction halt in it for a long time is one of the reasons that allowed the soil to compact, which reduced the rate of inclination, and thus the tower did not collapse completely.

The clay soil helped and the main reason for the tower’s tendency not to collapse and its resilience in front of 4 earthquakes.

The engineers calculated the center of gravity of the tower, and it was concluded from the calculations that the tower collapsed completely upon reaching a slope of 5.44 degrees. The tower was closed in 1990 at a tilt of 5.5 degrees, yet the tower did not collapse.

Attempts made to stop the tilt of the tower and not collapse:

Digging deep holes in the ground at a depth of 40 m, and installing the tower with iron cables through the holes. Liquid nitrogen was pumped, which led to the freezing of water in the soil and its expansion and contraction again, which led to the subsidence of the soil and the subsidence of the foundations, and consequently the slope of the tower at the rate of its inclination throughout these years.

They dug 361 holes and injected the soil with 90 tons of cement, which led to the tower’s tilt strongly.

And finally, Soil Extraction was used in 1990:

The soil was removed from the non-slanted side so that the tower tilts in that direction, then iron cables were used to fix the tower bases in the ground and the slope was reduced to 4 bikes, and this was what it was at the beginning.

The engineers could have made it vertical, but they didn’t want to lose its fame and tourist value because of its tilt.

And after that was completed, the tower was opened.

And it was confirmed that the tower could endure without any collapse for 300 years.

So we walk away, not unchanged, and move on to our destination tonight in Firenze (Florence). Another hour plus of driving and we pull into Firenze again marveling at the ancient architecture! The cars GPS gets us to Firenze, but is not able to find our actual destination. But my iPhone with an Italian sim card works like a dream! We only use it for fine navigation as we did not pay for Unlimited Data Usage.

We locate our building but now the problems begin. We rented an apartment on AirBnB and the communication on AirBnB is less than stellar. Probably won’t use that company a lot in the future especially because of this issue. We spend over 2 hours trying to contact the owner and AirBnB much to no avail. Finally, AirBnB helps us fix the issues and we get access into the apartment, a 6th story walk up! Now those of you who know us know that Elee needs knee replacement surgery and has it scheduled in May and July. But in the meantime, we trudge up 6 flights of stairs!

We decide to minimize our needing to go up and down stairs and we find a restaurant for dinner and I have a pasta dish with Lamb Ragu Sauce. Great taste but I’m unimpressed with the cook of the noodles. Having experienced good Italian ‘Al Dente’ pasta, this is a bit overcooked. Flavorful yes! Elee has prawns and calimari steak and is also unimpressed. Okay, but just that. But okay we have a place to stay and dinner was not that bad.

We ask our waiter to help us get a taxi to our car because it is almost a 15 minute walk one way and we are tired. (Got 13000 steps in today! LOL) So he calls a taxi and he takes us to our car and loads up our luggage for us and takes us back to our apartment. I tip him well and he is happy! But now we have the 6 floor walk up, LOL

Lucky for us that we are traveling light with only carry on luggage! I carry our luggage up while Elee manages to carry up our portable cooler with the salami and wine! LOL The apartment has a washing machine, which we knew of in advance and we planned this as a laundry stop. Too bad it took several hours to get into the unit for we had planned to immediately get laundry started. But it’s going now and the “One Hour” washing machine label takes almost three! So 11PM and one load is done. But there is no dryer! So wet laundry is spread out on radiators and a couch to dry. There are clotheslines out a window but we are reserving those for shirts and pants. What we have done so far is all our underwear!

But all is working out and we are not stressing. This is an adventure, after all! And it’s time to turn in! Photos are loaded! Text is typed! I’ll get it all put together soon! And laundry is moving along! Good night all!

La Spezia & Cinque Terre, Wed, Mar 29

Today we sleep in a bit because we are staying in La Spezia another night. Actually, we are in Fezzano for another night at the Marina Del Fezzano. We wake at 9AM. I take a short walk out into the marina for some morning photos and my camera cheers! I also walk into the village and find a prospective restaurant for breakfast. When I arrive back at our bungalow, I inform Elee that I have found breakfast for us. We leave the room shortly and get coffees and cappuccinos at Caffe Luigi along with some delicious savory pastries.

When we are finished, we get our cameras and bundle up for the day as it looks like rain. I even put on thermals and am glad I packed them! We head off in search of the boat ferry in Porto Veneri. We locate it and try to park but alas, the pay machine won’t work for us. So we find other parking and head for the ferry but because I get a bit lost (Elee does not) and we miss the early ferry.

All things happen for a reason and we spend a couple hours in Porto Veneri and find the old town with a church that is at lease 1000 years old. Quite the photogenic town and my camera agrees! So we walk around and end up at a local seaside restaurant for a glass of wine and some lunch consisting of Minestrone Soup and “Stuffed Mussels” which were a real treat! Never had them ‘stuffed’ before. Quite good! We also chat with another couple at the table next to us that are fun to talk to!

So then we make it to the ferry for the 2:50 ferry and it is quite the sea ride. It is rainy and stormy and the seas are strong! Grab every handhold you can on the boat! But Elee and I HAVE to take photos so we need to move around! Grab on and hang tight!

The coast of Italy in this area is quite stunning and our cameras are thrilled we took them along, even in the rain! Our cameras are professional grade and can withstand the water! I will have them cleaned professionally this summer with my Canon Pro Account and all will be well! Meantime, they work hard for us!

We want to visit the Village of Manerolo but we are told the ferry can no longer dock there due to maintenance issues. So we get off in Vernazza instead and ride the train back to Manerolo. Quite the picturesque place like all of them! So now we have to figure out how to get back to the ferry for our ride home! We are briefly worried for the timetables don’t align for our ferry ride (last ferry of the day), but then I look at the train and ferry schedules and see that if we grab a train to Riomaggiore, then we can make the time work. But the ironic thing is that when we visited there yesterday, Elee couldn’t climb the steps to get the post card shot. And that is exactly where we have to go to get to the ferry!

So, Elee being the trooper she always is, we make the climb and she gets the post card shot, albeit in the ran and fog. We make it to the ferry with several minutes to spare! The ferry is almost empty for the last ride of the day and we figure that people are tired of the weather! We chat amicably with a chap from the UK and the time passes on the ride back.

This is how restaurants tell you they are closed! LOL

My hats off to the pilot of the ferry as it is amazing to me how they hold the boat within 15 feet of the rocks with the seas tossing them about in ALL directions! And the gangplank stays where it should be! We questioned the pilot when things were calm and congratulated him on a job well done! He shrugged it off and told us that is his favorite part of the job and what he loves most!

So we make it back to Porto Veneri and all is well! Cameras are satiated and satisfied, not to speak of wet! But they will survive! We find our car and program my phone’s GPS and find our way back to our bungalow to kick back and get this Blog typed! Photos are in the computer and we will post later!

We have a towel heater in the bathroom (a common appliance in Europe) and we put it to good use drying our jackets and sweaters!

Time to call it a night. See you all in the morning!

Genova to La Spezia

Today we awaken excitedly as this should be a highlight day for us! We pack up and leave the hotel REX to find breakfast a few blocks away and there is a parking spot right in front! Right? Must be a good luck omen! So we order coffees and ham and cheese sandwiches because we still can’t find egg dishes for breakfast in this country!

Breakfast done, we choose to drive the highway today as opposed to the coast route as the destination today is more important than the journey! We want all the time possible at the destination! So we drive the highway and the journey is just over an hour! We arrive in La Spezia before noon and find our way to Porto Venere and Fezzano where our rented apartment is. We can’t find it so we call them. Their English is better than our Italian but it is a marginal help. But we get a friendly lady on the phone and I ask her to stay on the phone with me and she does. Finally, with broken English and broken Italian, we see a lady waving! We wave back and we are here!

And we find that our apartment find is a bargain at twice the price as it directly overlooks a marina full of boats! The downside is it is on the 3rd floor and the way up is via very steep steps and Elee’s knees scream! So I reluctantly go ask for a lower unit and they give a first floor unit that is very nice but they point out it doesn’t have the full kitchen and laundry room and we tell them not to worry about it. It has it’s own private patio where we sit and have lunch, consisting of take away meals from the last couple restaurants we have eaten at! Add a couple glasses of Italian Vino and Ecco (Voila)! Who cares where we are!

They tell us they can’t discount the price for us and we tell them all is good! We never had any intention of using the kitchen or laundry room anyway. We have laundry planned for the next city anyway! So we need to get our afternoon started and get to the good part of the day! We head off for the 15 minute drive to the La Spezia Train Station, also known as La Spezia Centrale. We park underground as we have been given a tip about that.

We trudge up the stairs and of course we find the elevator for Elee after we get to the top! We purchase our day tickets for Cinque Terre (pronounced Chen-qua Ter-Ray) and board the train. Over 70% of the ride is in black tunnels so there is nothing to see for the most part. The train stops at all five little cities on the coast that make up Cinque Terre. Now some of you are saying, Chen-qua What? But trust me when I tell you that all of you have seen photos of Cinque Terre. And when you see these photos, you will understand. This area of the Italian coast are some of the most photographed places in the world! And now we will have our own photos of the region!

This place is, at first, underwhelming as we decide to ride the train to the furthermost village of 5 and then work our way back, village by village. So we get to the far end in Monterosso and debark the train. We are not impressed as we think we would be. This is least spectacular village but interesting in its own right! It is a beach town and the beaches were photogenic! We met a lovely Brazilian lady who now lives in Dublin (Don’t ask me why, I never got that story) before we ever boarded the train and we chatted while waiting to board. But I digress, this lady meets us on the train and tells us she is intent on swimming at the beach and wants to take photos to show her boyfriend that she went swimming!

So here we are walking the boardwalks and street of the village and Elee looks over and says, “There’s our Brazilian friend about to go swimming!” So I quickly focus my fun zoom camera and there she is, setting up a camera at beach level and running into the surf. I don’t miss a shot and start shooting as she runs into the surf and back out, even doing the famous “Hair Flip”!

We move along as we feel we have seen this place and head back to the train. Our tickets are good for the entire day, as many trips as we want. The Villages in order are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. We went to Montorosso first and want to work our way back, one by one. We board the train and find it doesn’t stop until Riomaggiore and we discover we need to pay closer attention to the train schedule. But okay, we have seen Village five, now we’re back to Village one. So we will check this one out!

Riomaggiore is a much more picturesque village and we walk uphill through the steep town, taking photos along the way. But we see post card stands along the way with some iconic photos that everybody has seen of this place and wonder where they were taken. Elee take a post card into a store and asks where the picture is. She is told it is taken at the “Marina”. We spotted signs for the Marina at the train station and we head back that way. Sure enough, we see arrows pointing us to the Marina!

The Marina. Stairs. Down. Lots of Stairs. Lots of stairs down! Elee’s knees. Not good. But she’s a trooper! We make it down to the Marina. I see the path from here leads back up to the left for the iconic shot! I head up. And Up, and up, and up, and up! I get to the top and the view is amazing! I snap off photos and await Elee’s arrival. She is a no show. So I wait, she will get here. But she doesn’t. I wait some more and try to watch the path. Don’t see her. I hear a shout, it says, “DON!” I look to find the voice and there she is, across the way in the iconic shot! It was much less steps to climb over there. So I make eye contact with her and hold up my hand to indicate, “Stay There!”

I make my way down and back up to Elee and I take some shots that she has of the other side. Then we work our way out of the Marina and back to the train station. We have the schedule figured out by now and we ride the train to Vernazza next. This is another Village that we are told has good views. We disembark and the trail is clear. Walk downhill. Picturesque buildings all the way! The views are fabulous as we walk down. We take our time to try and help Elee’s knees. I see Tylenol in both of our future evenings!

This is a fun time for our cameras and they all thank us profusely for bringing them along. There is a restaurant at the end of the walk and we take seats there. The head waiter has quite the sense of humor and he kids us and we kid him. Such things as when I try to pronounce something in Italian, he’d say, “You speak Italian!” And I’d come back with, “In your dreams!” We laugh and laugh and laugh!

Sunset arrives and departs quickly. I thought I had the timing set to get shots of the buildings at sunset and at the exact moment the lighting was perfect, I found myself paying the bill. And just like that, the good light was gone. We’re here tomorrow also, so maybe I’ll do better!

We meet these two vivacious women from Turkey who have fantastic smiles! They are Ezei and Yeelva and they are a couple of beauties! I don’t think I’ve seen a smile that big in a very long time! Hey Ezei and Yeelva, stay beautiful! Also take note of the two waiters who were totally fun with us American Tourists!

Once the sun goes down here at this time of year, so goes the temperature. The chill set in and we make it back to the train for the ride back to La Spezia. We disembark the train and find that we need the parking ticket number to access the parking garage! What? The ticket is in the car down in the parking garage!

So in trying to find another way into the garage, wouldn’t you know that we bump into our Brazilian friend again and we tell her we saw her swimming and that we took photos of her? She is so happy and wants our photos to show her boyfriend! I pull up the photos on my camera and show her and she glows with excitement! I give her my Blog address and she can’t wait to see them! I told her she was sexy (she was) and she blushed. A fun ending to her evening!

We go back up to try to find someone who could help us into the parking garage and what do you know? There were people going in that had access! So we hustle and go in while the door was open! We get to our car and pay the parking and drive away! Back to our apartment and we have misplaced the code to the free parking! What an adventure we are having! So we park semi illegally and all of a sudden the card with the parking code appears! We are good!

We retire to or apartment and write these Blogs! At a later date we will marry the photos up and get this posted!

Monaco to Genova, Monday, March 27

We wake up in Monte Carlo and pack up. We hit the road in search of the Princes Palace. After taking a few wrong turns, we finally stumble upon the parking garage for the Palace. We get a spot right next to the elevators, how convenient! We ride the elevator up 5 floors and it puts us out into the sunshine and our cameras start chirping happily!

We then climb several sets of steps, not realizing there are other elevators! So we are walking around this small picturesque city on a hill looking at the buildings. Is that the Palace? No I think this one is! Nope, wrong again! We finally ask a person that speaks English and he identifies as a Monacoan who is showing a couple of Texas visitors around. He chuckles at our question and informs us that if we keep walking, we will arrive in a plaza and the Palace will be obvious!

So we keep walking and sure enough, there we are in front of the Palace! We find a small restaurant in the plaza and have breakfast. Then, our cameras satisfied for the moment, we head out, even knowing the Changing of the Guards is about to occur. We have a long drive today, made longer by our desire to drive the coast road to Genova (Genoa).

We drive among small picturesque towns along the coast. I wish I had more photos to post but I am doing the driving. Tomorrow we will switch drivers and my cameras will be happier! But the drive is fun and we work our way along the coast. This slow driving, while fun, get’s old after 150 kilometers so I head back up to the highway, only to get stuck in two construction traffic jams. We finally roll into Genova shortly before 6PM.

We have a room booked at the Hotel REX Residence hotel and to our delight, they have a parking garage 50 feet away! So we park the car and go up to our room and take a much appreciated nap! We don’t plan to do much sightseeing in Genova as it is just a stopping point on our way to La Spezia tomorrow.

We wake up at 8PM and seek out dinner. Have I mentioned that in all Italy, most restaurants don’t even open until 7PM? So tonight it’s gourmet Pizza for dinner from Pizzeria Del Ponte, right next door to our hotel. And gourmet it certainly is! Fabulous cheeses and cured meats adorn our pies! I don’t manage to completely finish mine and take a couple slices to go! A glass of Aglianico red wine tops off the meal!

So we call in a night after stopping into a market between the pizzeria and the hotel to stock up on water and a couple more bottles of wine for our hotel rooms! Got this blog written and my photos into the computer for editing and I’ll call it a night!

Turino to Monaco, Sunday, March 26

We awake in the Movie Room and it’s a new day! This has been a unique city and a unique experience! We pack up and go across the street to a restaurant that serves breakfast, albeit a Double Expresso to open my eyes, LOL. And a tuna salad sandwich. Sure would love to get an egg dish, but that is not a common meal here.

The door to our place is quite unique! One panel opens at a time like a doorway turned into driveway and there is parking inside a courtyard, but not for us!

I walk the mile to get our car and Elee sits with the luggage. I pick her up and turn the keys over to her so she can drive for a day. We head off in search of a back road across the Alps towards Monaco. The scenery is spectacular! The Alps all covered with snow as contrasted against bright green farmlands is exciting to our camera lenses! We wind our way up this route and come across the road closure that we saw on our maps but there is a way around it! We drive another mile on another road and it all comes to a halt! We are in the Alps on a spectacular road but we have been blocked.

Well, it certainly is an adventure! We have seen some beautiful scenery but we have to turn around. An hour and a half in each direction, not wasted because of the views so we’ll call it a 3 hour side trip into the Alps! And the views on the way back down are as spectacular!

We get back on the original route that our GPS suggested (okay so GPS isn’t as stupid as we accused it of! But it didn’t know how to get us up close and personal views of the Alps! So there, GPS!) and we work our way down to the coast where the GPS makes a mistake of telling us to turn left and we really needed to turn right! So it tells us to make a u-turn in 8 kilometers. Sure enough, there isn’t an exit for 8 (count them) kilometers! We make the necessary u-turn and get back on the way!

We cross the border into France and it is just a sign saying, “Welcome to France” (in French, of course!). Shortly after we see the similar sign saying “Welcome to Monaco”. Interesting that we see that sign but we are not yet in Monaco! Our GPS directs us to make a sharp turn to the left into some serious switchbacks to go down the steep hill!

As we are driving down the extremely steep switchbacks (emphasis on steep), our GPS again makes miscalculations as it is seeing us from a satellite view and the switchbacks from that perspective are difficult at best! Think a steep cliff more than a 45 degree angle, sometimes a 30 or 25 degree angle. The map on our GPS screen was crazy! But we figured out that ‘downhill’ was the key and we arrived, unscathed, in Monte Carlo, Monaco! We found our Novotel Hotel just by finding the correct Boulevard and just driving slowly (which irked the locals driving behind us to no end!). We found the hotel and Elee yells at me (did I tell you that we switched drivers 3 hours ago and I am driving now?) for I park in the hotel parking on the wrong side of the road? LOL, the most convenient place to stop the car on these narrow roads!

Have you see those James Bond movies where they race tiny cars on impossibly narrow roads? Think Monte Carlo! (or any other Italian roads in any city, for that matter!) But this is a beautiful city and we are intrigued to be here! Lucky for us, our concierge takes our keys and will park our car for us! We have no use for the car until we leave tomorrow! We will be on foot tonight and in the morning!

We get situated in our room and as we have only arrived around 5:30PM, we have limited daylight to see the city. Luckily for us, Europe has started their Daylight Savings Time this morning, only 2 weeks after the USA (Normally, they are one week behind the USA) and we still have 2 plus hours of daylight!

We check our computers and look for the “Palace of Monte Carlo” and see it is a 6 minute walk from the hotel. Sweet! We walk there to no avail. There is no Palace here. We walk down through a set of gardens towards a building that looks like a palace but it turns out to be a Hotel/Casino. Tomorrow we will try to locate the Palace. A nice lady on the street told us it is far away and we can’t walk there from here. So some more research is necessary to find it in the morning!

We find an inexpensive restaurant a block away for dinner (inexpensive is tough to find in a place like Monte Carlo!) and the food is good! Octopus salad and raviolis for me and a green salad (think just some lettuce, LOL) and eggplant parmigiana for Elee. Toss in 3 glasses of wine for a total bill of 45 Euros and it was well worth it with a take out leftover of ravioli for a snack!

It’s time to call it a night and the bottle of Barbera has dwindled to nothing as I write this blog! But that’s a good thing as it turns out that it was a bottle of “Vino Frizzante” which means it has bubbles or carbonation. Once opened, you can’t put the cork back in! Lucky me? LOL

Good Night!