May 18th - Monticatini Terme

And so we say goodbye to Barga with this last shot of the olf town gates (from inside), drive south to Lucca and head east toward Firenza to the spa town of Monticatini Terme (and its higher sibling Alto).

Penny found this town and the Astoria Hotel where we stayed. When I balked at the price (How much is that?), Penny reminded me of Venice (Not even close to what we are paying in Venice!). Good point!

So, these are a few of the old spas.


The spas are lovely. Each has its own niche - waters, massage, baths, quiet and serenity, cures, special treatments. There are many spas around a large park area. There are only two hotels within the park area, one is ours.

Monticatini Alto is the old town up the mountain above M. Terme. There is a fenicular (cable-drawn railway) up to the old town. Also a road for the Philistines. More on Alto tomorrow.

M. Terme is quite a chi chi place. Nice to have been there once.

Some stuff is just impossible to make up; this poster for example. I had to take this picture to share with a good friend who has a lovely male Westie named Jack. I can just see Jack in a little muscle shirt, maybe a butch leather cap and all. She thinks the white tux would be better, maybe with the candle sticks, piano, brither George ...

May 17th - Cinque Terra

Penny in town 1. We had "breakfast" and started the easy trail.

Today we went down the valley to Lucca, picked up the big roads to La Spezzia (almost) and on to Cinque Terra. There was a traffic tie-up at Carrera, so we went to the back roads. That took us past the marble yards with the huge and small blocks of marble in browns and whites and greys. Each yard seemed to be graded.

La Spezzia is a busy seaport city and we hit it in the morning rush. Not my most pleasant memory, nor the road from there to CT. Very hilly and dangerous, but really beautiful.





Town 2.

The Five Lands are 5 villages along the Mediterranean coast of Italy just south of Portofino and the Italian Riviera. They are connected by a whole series of hiking trails that climb the hills overlooking the sea in varying degrees of difficulty. The easiest trail, the one we took for 3 of 4 stages, goes the 13 kilometers through all 5 towns. There is also a train that connects the towns for the ride back, or for wimping out at any stage.

This water wheel in Town 2 dates back some 800 years. The places are really amazing.











On the trail to Town 3.

And then Town 3. Note the fishing boats dragged up onto the main street.





















Penny being very happy over lunch in the restaurant in the old fort section of Town 4.

Lovely food and a bottle of wine in a chi-chi place over-looking the sea on one side and the town on the other. Tough life.

We would question the wisdom of the food and wine later.





Now, watch what happens after lunch as we climb between Town 4 and Town 5.

The key is the square stone block with the beige roof. That is our restaurant.

None of these pictures are fiddled, they were all taken with max width of field (I think), except for this first one which is zoomed in a bit.

This is looking back as we are just leaving town.








And now we are well up the trail.

Can you still find the restaurant? Extreme right of town, just above the shrubbery.










Did I mention that the trail got pretty steep and narrow through here?

And that we got quite a way up from sea level?

And there were no guard rails or anything like that?













Oh, it kept going up after this, but we could not see Town 4 after this point. Can you find the restaurant?

















Eventually we got to Town 5 and just had time to grab the train back to Town 1,

The five towns, from south to north as we encountered them, are:
1. Riomaggiore
2. Manarola
3. Corniglia (365 stairs into town, took train to 4)
4. Vernazza (had lovely lunch before hike to 5)
5. Monterosso

May 16th - Over the hill

We journeyed across the marble mountains that run between our valley and the Mediterranean. The original thought was to use this route to get to Cinque Terra because the distance was about a third of the "approved" way. Bad idea, but I really wanted to see the mountains north and west of Barga.

Wonderful little drowned town in the middle, drowned by a power dam. Now a quaint, restored tourist Mecca of sorts for only the most foolhardy tourists. The roofs are covered with a flat, irregularly shaped slate.


The roads are awesome. Switchbacks of more than 180 degrees because the road is cut left into the mountain before it swings right and drops under where you just were. But now you are going the other way and preparing for the next turn. Trying to ignore Penny screaming "Let me out. I hate this ride. We are going to be killed." and like that.

These pictures are all taken from nearly the same spot. The white on the mountains is NOT snow, it is the white marble rock!

And this is an abandonded marble quarry (they seem to be called mines).

Eventually we got down into the sprawl of Masa just south of Carrera (where Michelangelo went to hand-pick the marble for some of his statues and where they still mine marble blocks of incredible whiteness and grain).

Then to the seaside city of Viareggio - where Miami got their ideas for Art Deco kitch.

Back through Lucca and to the Bagne di Lucca region. Not many good pictures here. My fault, the subject matter was great. A cluster of about 25 small towns where Byron and all the rich, royal and famous of that time used to hang out. Also the site of the first casino in Europe. The manager of the BdL casino eventually left to open the one in Monte Carlo.

This little bridge is behind a residence / hospital / rest apartments of some kind. And it leads to this little gazebo. Very restful and new-age from the 18th century. Le plus que change ...

Given a chance, we would spend quite a bit more time around BdL.

May 15th - Pisa and Lucca

Yes, the tower does lean. It is a free-standing building at one end of a cathedral. There is a really neat smaller building at the other end.

Pisa was not a favourite place; too many tourists and the accompanying guys selling all sorts of knock-off junk. We saw the same guys (I think) in Venice, Pisa and Verona. And the same junk.




Lucca, on the other hand, is a gem. An amazing old town centre surrounded by high earthwork fortifications with a series of about 8 gates in. Somewhat like a larger Halifax Citadel. Inside the fortifications there is a whole old town with churches and towers and plazas and people living and doing stuff. And a lovely botanical garden.

This is one of the main churches. It is very large, ornate and beautiful with all the marble.

About 4 or 5 blocks away there is another equally large and ornate. Between the two, there are another two small churches that have lovely decorative work. What is with all the churches? Did each major family have its own church? Is this another ego thing like the towers? Can anyone fill me in on this?

Speaking of towers, there is a fine clock tower in town and it is open to the public for a minimal fee. For a slightly larger fee, you can climb the tower.

Here is Penny emerging from the tower climb. I stayed on the ground and waited to take the picture.



Staying with the tower topic, Lucca had many family towers at one time, but only one remains. It is pretty weird as there are large trees growing at the top.

Kinda cool, but all that is left of the ancient ego trip.

On a lesser plane, this is a gate within the fortified walls. Maybe the town was expanded from here at some time. The interesting thing is the laundry and open window. People are living in this gate tower!!!

We loved Lucca.

May 14th - Barga special

This is about two special finds: the annual Barga festival to commemorate their independence from (but continued alliance with) Florence, and our discovery of the Devil's Bridge.

We lucked into the Barga festival, it was happening today and we decided to wander up into the old town. Check out the costume details, they are fantastic. Much research and work has gone into the costumes, materials and methods of manufacture. The people are rightfully proud of their efforts.

The girl with the digital camera, leader of the drum band, was special. So was the old guy in charge of it all talking on the cell phone (not in these photos).



Barga time is a lot like New Brunswick rural time - scheduled to start at 9:30 am, the parade through the old town got underway around 11 am after much milling around.

But even the milling around was interesting. People were aware that pictures were being taken, but they seemed able to ignore it.

The parade went on in waves throughout the afternoon so there were periods of down time between the marching to the drums. We could hear the drums as we walked though the fields and forest some 6 klicks away.

This is where they ended up, at the old church at the top of the hill, before they headed all the way back down.



The whole group went up and down the town two or three times and there were displays of herbs and medicines, chain mail and other items from the period complete with write-ups and people to explain the significance of the displays (all in Italian).

Some of the side shots were wonderful - like the kid in perfect costume with the Game Boy.







Then we get to the Devil's Bridge. This gorgeous stone bridge was built in the late 1200's, has withstood floods and bombings and is still in use as a foot bridge. In its prime, it was used by people with small carts drawn by donkeys and such.



The "devil" part comes from the design and the legend that it was only completed with the help of the Devil. There are about 7 such bridges and legends through Italy. Now there's a good project!