14 Aug – Siena, Assisi

We left Florence and headed for Siena, Florence's traditional rival. They also have very different architectural styles. We came to Siena just in time. On Saturday (two days away) is a big horse race which pits 17 different districts of Siena against each other in a short (90 second) horse race around the Piazza di Campo. Everyone was wearing flags for their district, and there was a bunch of about 40 girls at a cafe all wearing one districts flag singing for ages. I bought a couple of flags, one with a tortoise on it the other with a snail. The track the horses run around is uneven, small and rough as guts. I'd be surprised if many made it to the end. Also here is a cathedral (they're supposed to have amazing marble floor inlays which are only uncovered in August...but they weren't uncovered this time) a museum (which was meant to have a good view of the Piazza, but I couldn't find it) a crypt (with some 800 year old paintings which they only re-discovered in 1999) and a baptistery (which was small and fairly much on par with others I've seen). The whole place was nice, but fairly busy with the race coming up, so we decided to head on to Assisi for the night (also since we couldn't find the place we were going to try stay at).

Assisi is really nice. Small, clean and interesting. It's all different colour stone to other cities, and the hotel we picked is very comfortable and the guy working here is friendly. We went straight out to the Basilica of Saint Francis, which closed just after we got there. On the way we stopped at the numerous little art galleries around the town, some of which were pretty cool, and I'm going to have to look into getting some prints of some of the stuff as the guy who's stuff I liked didn't have the one I wanted in stock.

Dinner was fairly standard (except that they didn't take down Dad's order), and after eating I went to look at the fort at the top of the hill. It was pretty cool since it was closed and no one was around so I walked off the path around the side and found a little grave. I headed back to the room, and we got to bed pretty early since we have a long drive down south tomorrow.

Signing off...

13 Aug – Pisa, Florence

We left La Spezia fairly early today (by early I mean before 10) and headed towards Pisa. The weather was looking a bit crappy, and I glad we did the Cinque Terre yesterday, may have been a bit wet today. The drive to Pisa was fairly short and we were there in just over an hour.

Getting to the Leaning Tower is pretty easy. It's in an amazing little Piazza with the tower, a baptistery, a cathedral and an enclosed cemetery. We asked about climbing the tower, and the first available time was at 2.40 pm, more than 3 hours away. We decided against it. Walking around the piazza was good, and I bought a ticket and went into the baptistery (very echoey) and the cathedral. Both allowed photography which was good and we fairly interesting. I didn't go to the cemetery 'cos I didn't actually work out which building it was til later, otherwise I would have. We had read before that there isn't much in Pisa other than the tower, and it's fairly accurate. We were in and out of Pisa within 2 hours and on our way to Florence.

We didn't take the motorway to Florence, as the other roads were about as quick according to the GPS. We took about 1.5 hours to get there, then had fun getting into town, as a lot of roads were closed for construction or travelled in the opposite direction to what the GPS said. The first hotel we tried was closed, so we went to the other side of the city and tried another. Hotel Althea is a nice hotel, and was relatively cheap. It also has free internet which is what I'm using to upload this.

We only have the one night in Florence, so we raced out to see the sights. I made straight for the Galleria dell' Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David. We also saw the Porte Vecchio, Duomo and the Piazza della Signoria with a bunch of statues on the way which were nice, but I had my sights set. I almost walked past the gallery it was so unassuming. It's a grey door along an off-white wall up a side street. The only thing that set it apart was the 30 metre queue of people out the front. We only took about 15 mins to get in. The gallery houses a lot of other things other than David (including a Stratovaria Violin, Viola ad Cello) but the highlight is easily David. It is huge in person, and absolutely breathtaking. There's no words to describe it.

Inside the gallery there was a plaster cast of the Rape of the Sabine statue that I had wanted to see, and according to the inscription, the original was in the Piazza della Signoria. I had walked past there earlier, seen the statue and assumed it was a copy. It, and a bunch of others including a cool one with a decapitated head, are out in the open, with pigeons and people milling about. A bit of a shock, so we had to head past it again on the way back. We also stopped at the markets (famous for their leather, but only bought some sunglasses) and waited in line at the Uffizi Gallery (which houses the Medici collection of pre-Renaissance, Renaissance and Baroque art). The line didn't move an inch in the 30 mins we were there, so unfortunately was gave up. We headed back to the hotel, having dinner on the way.

I'm glad we got into see David today. My rush to get there out of fear of there being a line was unnecessary, and also meant we missed out on going into the Duomo, and perhaps getting into the Uffizi, but it was still a great day. I saw two statues I like, and a poorly built tower.


Signing off...

12 Aug – Cinque Terre

Today we walked the Cinque Terre. It was hot, tiring, long, rough and totally worth it.

We started by catching the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore at 10am. It was a 10 minute or so trip til we arrived at the station. Riomaggiore to Manarola is the first walk of the Cinque Terre. It's the easiest and shortest of the walks, buts gives a chance to see lot of the coastline (read cliffs) and even chances to go down some stairs to close to the bottom of the cliffs. They say the walk should take 20 mins but we took a bit longer since I kept climbing down the cliffs. The second walk (Manarola to Corniglia) is no harder than the first, just a bit longer. We decided to take a different route to the usual (couldn't find the normal one). I think it was probably the old way to go, narrow, rocky and with no railings for most of the way. It wasn't as close to the coast, but was still good, and we met up with the original path after a little while. We took about the 1 and 10 mins they say it should. A lot of this was taken up by the stupid zig-zag stairs just before you get to Corniglia. We stopped here for lunch and a drink.

The next walk (Corniglia to Vernazza) is longer and harder than any of the others we'd done. Mum was going to get on the train and meet us at Vernazza, but decided to give it a go. Bad idea. Mum struggled in the heat, and was really wishing she'd caught the train. This track was fairly steep in parts and a lot rockier than the previous two. It also had some great views. The drinks place at just past the halfway mark was a welcome stop, especially since I'd rolled my ankle just before getting there (on what was probably the smoothest and easiest part of that walk so far). Vernazza was probably the best looking of the towns to arrive at. With a tower on the jutting out from the coast and a little marina area. Mum decided against going any further, so after we all had Gelato, she got the train back to La Spezia. Dad and I decided to go on.

After the first 20 mins, it looked like it was going to be the wrong choice for dad this time. The first part out of Vernazza was very steep and we had to stop at the top of each section. There were some great views looking back at Vernazza though. After the first 30 mins or so, things got a lot easier, and we made it to Monterosso 15 mins or so under the 2 hours expected time. We stopped here for a swim (my first at a rock beach, not good on my already sore feet) a drink and then hopped on the train for La Spezia.

Some of the books we read said that only those who are really fit should try walk the Cinque Terre in one day. Now I think I'm roughly on the opposite end of the fitness scale and I managed it quite easily. My legs and feet were sore, I was hot and sweaty, but it was relatively easy. If anything, I was going slower than I would have liked so I didn't get ahead of my parents, I could have walked it a lot quicker on my own. Definitely try it if you get over here, and don't get put off but what some things say.

Tonight we decided to go simple for dinner, and bought olives, cheese, salami, salad and bread rolls from the supermarket. It didn't look like much, but there was plenty, and at around 1/3 the price we were paying most nights for dinner.

Tomorrow were heading out for Pisa and Florence, and hopefully see Michelangelo's David in all his naked glory.

Signing off...