We have been using the Road Trips Italy book published by DK books to help guide us. It has been in François since our first visit to Italy. It had a small mention of the city of Otranto as one of its stops, and since we were only about 40 kilometers from Otranto we decided to head there before moving on to our planned stop for the day in Gallipoli.
Looking back at the old city walls from the pleasure boat marina.
From the description we did not expect much of Otranto, maybe a small fishing village with a cute waterfront. So we were pleasantly surprised with what we actually found there. It turns out Otranto has a very nice old town dominated by a castle built when it was part of Aragon in Spain. The fort is very impressive and well preserved. We did not tour the interior because we have turned into castle snobs and will not pay an entrance fee for just any castle. But we did enjoy walking along the walls.
One of the entrances to the castle with a modern stair case.
The old town had lots of shops and restaurants and was fairly bustling with a mixture of tourists, but here it was mostly foreign tourists, not Italian. We were hustling thru town because when we arrived I did not expect the town to be this interesting and I had only put 2 hours on the meter in the parking lot. Also, we were on the edge of a thunderstorm and it was raining a bit.
Looking down on the town from the castle walls.
About 20 minutes into exploring Otranto I told Ton that I was enjoying myself more here than I did in Lecce. She agreed, Lecce is a far more important city both in the past and today, but it did not connect with us the way the little backwater town of Otranto did.
One of the streets in the old town. We really enjoyed wandering around in Otranto.
Our two hours were nearly up so we had to hustle back to François. We stopped at one more interesting art piece near the port. It is a monument to displaced persons commissioned by the town in the early 2000’s. In the 1980’s an Albanian naval patrol boat with about 100 people on board was trying to defect to Italy. Before it could safely reach Italy it was sunk, and over 80 people died. The boat was salvaged and brought to Otranto where the town commissioned a Greek artist to make it into a monument to refugees. It is a very interesting work that we both enjoyed.
The salvaged hull of an Albania patrol boat sunk while trying to defect to Italy during the communist era. The glass represents the sea. It is a memorial to refugees, and seems appropriate given the current times.
We were pleasantly surprised that our 60 kilometer drive to Gallipoli was almost entirely on freeways. We arrived at the Agritourismo which is a campground on a farm earlier than planned, but almost immediately decided to stay 2 days instead of the one planned because we liked the vibe of the place.
The front of the agritourismo is a cactus garden which Ton loves.
We were planning to go into town today, but there was a big thunderstorm brewing off in the distance so we decided to wait until tomorrow. Of course the storm blew out to sea without touching us or the town. But we did get a nice sunset from the campground to reward us for our caution.
Even though we have been following the coast of the Adriatic we had not been down to the ocean so we decided to fix that today. Our campground is about 2 km from the beach and Luigi will shuttle you down there, so we planned to go down there after siesta today.
The coast at Torre dell’Orro
But the morning priorities were saying goodbye to all of our new friends at the campground from both Italy and Switzerland. No one was in a big hurry to leave and so everyone kept finding excuses to strike up one more conversation. Finally about 11 am the last person rolled out and Ton and I had the campground to ourself with Luigi. As I am writing this no one else has checked in, so we have the place to ourself.
This sign says that this is a mandatory kiss point. Ton reluctantly obliged me.
The other priority was getting laundry done. We knocked it out quickly as we had all of the facilities to ourself and it was perfect clothes drying weather with a strong sun and a brisk wind.
The beaches here are often private. You were supposed to pay an entry fee to use this portion of the beach, but this offended our Oregon sensibilities where all beaches are public property, so we just walked on in.
We headed down to the town about 4 pm and the tourist season is definitely over here. Most of the beach resorts and all of the other campgrounds had closed up for the season. There were a few people around and the beaches had a light crowd so it wasn’t desolate, but it was very quiet.
There were a few people on the beaches, but the town was extremely quiet.
One of the things we have adjusted to over the years is how on and then off tourism is in Europe. The places are mobbed for the summer, then almost no one comes during the fall and winter. As a result when traveling in the shoulder season we have to pay particular to whether the campground we are planning to use is open year round as most are not. By November only around 25% of the campgrounds are still open even in places with warm weather.
The two sisters rocks. It is much more beautiful in Italian.
The beach is famous for the Two Sisters Rocks or Le Due Sorell in Italian. It is a rock formation with two nearly identical rocks with a sheer narrow channel between them. The ancient story was that two sisters climbed on top of the rock, and one of them dived in, but was immediately in trouble because of the rough seas. She cried out for help and her sister dived in to help her but they both drowned. The gods were moved by the story so they cut the rock in half to honor the two sisters.
Another view of the two sisters.
After a quick turn thru town we headed back to the quiet campground hoping that someone else had showed up, but unfortunately we are the only guests. So it should be a quiet night for sleeping.
Tons wonderful pasta, with the Primitivo wine which was included as part of the price for the first campground.
Lecce is another 2000 year old city with a history going back to the Trojan war. Today it is the second largest city in the area and a major tourist attraction. After our late night we were a little slow getting going. But finally we packed up and headed in late morning.
One of the major attractions in Lecce is the Church of Santa Croce.
We found a place to park François and walked to the Duomo which was initially built in the 1150’s and rebuilt in the 1600’s. It was a nice building, and like a lot of the buildings it had a very Rococo facade. Rococo is a style that was popular in the late Renaissance characterized by very intricate and elaborate forms. Lecce is famous for its Rococo buildings.
A smaller Rococo church in Lecce.
I am not a big fan of Rococo as it seems a little busy to me. But the skill of the artists and tradesmen responsible for the construction is very impressive.
The detail and the intricacies of the stone carving is really impressive.
Lecce was conquered by the Romans in the 3rd century BC, and while there are not a lot of Roman ruins on display there is a very impressive amphitheater below ground level today. It was built in the 2nd century and could seat 25,000 people. It was covered by newer buildings over time which is why it appears to be below ground level now. A large section has been uncovered right in the heart of the city, and a smaller section is visible a hundred yards or so away to give a sense of the size of the original building. It is still used occasionally for special events and religious services.
Part of the 2nd century BC Roman amphitheater in the center of Lecce.
Having spent a couple of hours walking around Lecce we decided to have a coffee and settled on a cafe on the edge of the tourist zone. As we have traveled around Europe we have noticed a fascination with the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Every where we go there seems to be pictures of her in the more artistic districts of cities. We picked this cafe because it had a picture of her, the coffee was good as was the people watching.
Frida Kahlo seems to have a fascination over here that we do not have in the US.
After our coffee we decided to head back to the campground before the crowds got too big. We headed back to the train station parking lot where we had parked François and paid the €3 to bail him out.
These matching balconies were on an old home on a back ally on the walk back to the train station.
Ton’s second favorite thing is to go to grocery stores. As we were driving back we passed one and stopped. Ton was in heaven looking at all of the different fruit, vegetables, cheeses, and cuts of meat. She loves Italy because they have an incredible variety of fresh pasta on sale. We had spent about 40 minutes just poking around when a security guard came by and pantomimed that the store was closing. At this point we were only about 1/2 way thru, so Ton has something else to look forward to.
These are a type of cucumber that Ton has recently discovered. She loves them and they are widely available here.
We headed back to the campground to relax and prepare for another one of Luigi’s family meals.
In Europe you often see locks attached to bridges. Lecce doesn’t have a river, so no bridge, so the local lovers have improvised this place by the Roman amphitheater to express their eternal love.
I try to post every day but sometimes life gets in the way. It unexpectedly did yesterday. Yesterday we needed to get some shopping in and shift south about 150 kilometers to Lecce. We were up early and got on the road with a plan to stop at a grocery when we saw one. Well about 40 kilometers from Lecce on the freeway we still hadn’t seen a grocery so we stopped and asked Greta for her advice. She said there was a Lidl 6 km’s away as the crow flies so we told her to take us there. 15 km’s of driving later we arrived at a very busy Lidl. Shopping done we continued south.
I had picked out a campsite that was very well reviewed on Park4night our favorite camping app. We arrived about 1 pm and the owner Luigi guided us into our spot. He then gave us a tour of the place in Italian which we understood a bit of, and ended at the bar where he gave us a taste of his homemade wine. While we were tasting our wine a Bulgarian couple came by and gave Luigi a hug and kisses as they were departing, we thought that was interesting, but later we would understand why. While we were sitting and trying the wine he pantomimed if we had had lunch yet. When we said no, he insisted we join him for lunch because we were family. What a welcome!
Our welcome lunch at the campground.
Throughout lunch Luigi continued to converse with us in Italian and occasionally German, while Ton and I tried to latch onto words we knew to follow what was going on. At the end of lunch Luigi told us he was going to have a family dinner and we should plan on attending, but we weren’t sure we understood correctly as it seemed too good to be true. He then also announced it was time for a nap and headed into his house.
We spent the afternoon relaxing, and during one of my walkabouts I struck up a conversation with our Swiss neighbors and they confirmed Luigi was hosting dinner around 8pm. Then about 7 pm the Swiss came by and announced dinner was ready, but Luigi says to bring your own plates, silverware, and glasses because he is not running a restaurant.
The starter course for dinner.
We were joined at dinner by the Swiss couple, a French couple, and an Italian couple plus Luigi and a friend. Only the Swiss could speak more than one language so they ended up being the translators for what was a wonderful multi-lingual dinner of mussels and grilled fish with lots of wine.
Conversing in four languages.
Just as we thought the evening was breaking up, Luigi brought out his guitar and we spent another hour listening to him play and trying to sing along. Luigi is a very good guitar player. Ton and I bailed out when two other Italian couples turned up from town and it looked like a lot more wine was going to be consumed. We need to be fit enough to go into Lecce tomorrow.
I think of Puglia as the heel of the boot of Italy, but it extends much further north than the heel. It is the southern most part of Italy on the Adriatic Sea and has a couple of hundred miles of coast line. It has some really beautiful cities that are attracting a lot of attention from tourists. Puglia continues to reinforce my slight preference for southern Italy over northern Italy. The people are fantastic and the food is incredible, who can ask for anything more.
Today we shifted about 60 kilometers to a city in the mountains called Alberobello. It is famous for a style of home called Trulli. It is very much on the tourist list. We were a little apprehensive because some of the blogs Ton uses to prepare for visits warned that this was one of the densest places for tourists in Italy, rivaling Rome for crowds.
We got a preview of the Trulli architecture on the drive over from the coast on a narrow mountain road.
The Trulli homes got their start in the 16th century because the Duke who ran the area wanted to avoid taxes so he decreed that the homes of peasants be built of stone without mortar so that when the Kings tax assessor came around the buildings could be taken apart, reducing his taxes. This went on for a couple of hundred years until the peasants finally appealed to the church to end the practice. This method of construction was also used for storage buildings and field shelters.
The symbols on these homes are “magic symbols” meant to ward off demons or bring good luck to the inhabitants.
The biggest collection of these homes are in Alberobello, and since it had a nice Sosta (Italian Aire) right in the middle of town we headed there for the day. I had a feeling that getting into the Sosta might be a little tricky, and since we have not had a simple day on this trip, I figured that we were in for a little adventure. The drive up the mountain was on narrow and rough roads, but we really had no issues. When we got to Alberobello Greta the Garmin routed us right thru the city center. It was tight but again we didn’t run into any trouble, until I came to a Y in the road and had to make a quick decision whether to take the left Y or the right Y. I picked the right one and I was wrong. Greta reprogrammed us and told us basically to go around the block. When we were only a couple of hundred yards from the Sosta we ran into a bridge marked 3 meters. I stopped up short and took a look at it, François is 2.9 meters tall. I had Ton get out and take a look and she wasn’t sure, so she had me get out and take a look. Fortunately the road was not very busy, and the people who came along seemed to understand our predicament and maneuvered around us without any comment. We finally decided it wasn’t worth the risk, and I backed into a road behind us while Ton held up traffic like a good Italian wife, we then found another way into the Sosta.
The bridge that stymied our progress. We were able to turn around by backing into a road by the stairs. Looking at the center it looks like it has been hit more than a few times.
After our minor adventure, we settled into the Sosta and had a quick lunch. It was then time to brave the crowds in town to take in the Trulli homes. There are two major clusters of the homes on adjacent hills. One is the main tourist attraction and has over 4o0 of the buildings. Many of them have now been converted into tourist shops and restaurants.
A Trulli converted into an Air BnB.
We were pleasantly surprised that the crowds were manageable. Ton really enjoyed herself taking photos and a lot of the Trulli are really nicely decorated on the outside.
While it was busy, the crowds were not overwhelming.
We strolled up the hill to a church that was built in the Trulli style. It was interesting though once inside it felt like any other church.
The Trulli style church.
The other cluster of Trulli buildings is on a hill adjacent to the main group. It has about 200 structures, the difference is that these Trulli cannot be converted to commercial uses but must be maintained as homes. While they are “homes”, it looks like the majority are being used as vacation rentals.
A Trulli still being used as a residence.
It was much quieter on this side of town and we enjoyed walking among the buildings. They really are interesting to look at and quite unlike anything we have seen anywhere else.
That’s Amore.
Our final stop of the day was the conventional cathedral in the new part of town. It is a small but nice cathedral. Ton really admired the modern version of the stations of the cross which reminded her of religious art we had seen in a church in Romania. We also enjoyed it because it had good air conditioning and it was about 90 degrees outside. We lingered inside for awhile admiring the art and enjoying the AC before deciding to head back to François to honor the Italian siesta.
We think this is the Trulli called the Siamese twin. It is two buildings that are mirror images of each other with a common wall.
After a nice siesta we headed back into town to take a look at the Trulli at night. When we were at the cathedral we noticed they were setting up decorations for a festival. When we went by some of the decorations were lit up.
The Cathedral lit up for an upcoming festival.
It had cooled off substantially and the crowds were thinned out, because all of the bus tours had cleared off. We found a new road of Trulli to explore and Ton again enjoyed taking lots of pictures.
This restaurant was really well decorated, but surprisingly almost completely empty despite the Michelin rating from 2018.
We spent a couple of hours again looking around and in addition to taking in the interesting architecture, we enjoyed watching the people. It was a nice evening stroll.
This shop was really well decorated and Ton liked the cactus above the door. She is a cactus person.
So far the two towns we have visited in Puglia have not disappointed, in fact they have outperformed our expectations. We are looking forward to seeing the rest of the region and finding some Primitivo wine to try.
Nine days into the trip we had our first day as tourists. Ostuni is a beautiful hilltop town about 8km’s from our campground. The campground we are staying in is across the street from the bus stop to town and the cost is €1 and it only takes 15 minutes so we joined about 5 other couples from the campground on the 10 am bus. Unfortunately our ride back to the campground was not as smooth.
Our first stop for the day was the central square with the required statue of a Pope or Bishop in the middle of it. The square was pretty and surprisingly bustling for late September.
It was a short walk to the main square for the town. The square was as typical full of restaurants serving meals, coffees and various alcoholic drinks. It was going to be a warm day so they were already doing a booming business. The town was surprisingly busy already with a mixture of Italian, and foreign tourists. At the beginning of the day the tourists were mostly Italian, by the middle of the day they were mostly American, and by the end of the day they were mostly Italian again, as the Americans we presumed had returned to their ships.
The early mostly Italian crowd in the main square.
Ostuni is a typical hilltop walled town built far enough from the sea to be able to see the pirates and barbarians coming, but close enough to benefit from access to the sea. It is well preserved, and they have painted most of the town white which really adds to the beauty. We took a stroll thru a bunch of the back alleys scouting a restaurant for lunch and taking in the views. It is a very photogenic town and Ton was very happy, stopping every minute or two for a picture.
A beautiful apartment with a great view.
We spent about an hour and a half walking up and down staircases/roads, and Ostuni was a great town to get us back into enjoying being tourists. It was big enough to have a lot to see, but you could walk thru it in a couple of hours. We really enjoyed ourselves.
One of the many “roads” in Ostuni that consisted of stairs. The layout was very pedestrian friendly.
About noon we were looking for a beverage break and a snack as it was still too early for an Italian lunch. We found a little cafe that had been in business since 1950, and settled in for a couple of waters and a small local cake called Pasticcotti. We bought one as an experiment and as soon as we bit into it we wished we had bought more. It was like a really nice donut with a wonderful creme interior.
Our Pasticcoti traditional. The traditional one is creme, but you can also get it with chocolate, or cherry creme inside. We highly recommend it if you are in town.
After our little snack we walked around the walls of the town. The views to sea were obscured by a smog of some sort, probably wild fire smoke as they have been having a lot of large fires in Greece and the Balkans.
More street scenes from Ostuni.
By now the restaurants were starting to open for lunch and we decided to get a big lunch as we had not really been out since we arrived. Our first restaurant had a Michelin sign on the front of it and they turned us away as we do not look like we belong in a Michelin restaurant (actually they were fully booked.) Just down the street we had passed a pizza place that looked interesting. The restaurant occupied a little square on one of the walking roads, and took over all of the buildings on the square. Some were for dining, some were for food preparation and some were storage. It was a bustling place. We got a table outside of the building with the pizza oven. I ordered a pizza, and Ton ordered a pasta dish called Drunken Fettuccine. They were both delicious and immense. Adapting to Italian ways we lingered over our meal for a couple of hours and even managed to share a Tiramisu at the end. Given the quality and size of the portions it was a good value even with the “cover charge” factored in. This is a charge that nice restaurants add for the privilege of sitting at the table. I will have to remember to ask next time we eat whether there is a cover involved.
Our moderately priced lunch for the day. We splurged a bit.
We decided to head back to the campground and there was supposed to be a bus at 2:55 back to Villanova. At about 3 pm a bus with Villanova on the marquee on the front of the bus pulled up, so we jumped on. The bus was full and we were in the back row with two young Italian women. The bus headed down the hill in the right direction and turned in to the train station, but we had stopped at the train station coming in so I was not worried. Most of the passengers got off except for Ton, myself and the two young Italians next to us, but instead of turning left to go the 3 km’s to Villanova it turned right and heading back into Ostuni. About 20 minutes later we were back at the stop we had gotten on at in Ostuni, and everyone got off. I looked at one of the young Italians and asked aren’t we supposed to go to Villanova and she said yes, so we followed her to the front of the bus where she and the bus driver got into a vigorous discussion about why the bus that said Villanova did not go to Villanova, but in the end we all lost and had to get off the bus. She then confirmed that the next bus wasn’t until 6:20. She said that they were going to try to call her boyfriend but he didn’t get off work for a while, though she offered us a ride if we wanted to wait.
Ostuni is a beautiful town, we just wish the bus system was a little less opaque.
We decided we would get a taxi back to the campground, we weren’t happy about it, but we didn’t want to wait two and half hours for the next bus. So our next chore was to find a taxi. I assumed there would be a taxi stand somewhere nearby. I was wrong. We saw a tour guide waiting at one of the tour buses so I asked her where we could get a taxi, she said it it difficult, but she would call one of the taxis and see if they were available. She then spent the next 20 minutes calling various taxis without success until she found one that could pick us up at 5:30 and take us to the campground for €30. We thanked her for her effort, but passed on the taxi due to the cost. After spending 20 minutes trying to find us a taxi she then apologized because the one she found us cost too much. She said she would give us a ride, but she had to give a tour soon.
By now it was about 4:30 so we went to a local cafe next to the bus station and ordered a beer and a water and sat down to wait for our 6:20 bus.
It was almost like this guy didn’t want us to leave Ostuni.
It turned out to be very interesting to watch the interactions of the cafe for the next two hours. There were three generations of family involved in running the cafe including a grandfather whose job was to sit at one of the tables and provide calm when conflict came up, as well as just seeming to enjoy talking to the customers. His son ran the bar and was busy most of the time behind the bar. The bar tenders son seemed to be the black sheep who tended to get too aggressive in deciding who can move chairs from one table to another to accommodate customers, with the grandfather having to mediate his bad decisions. It would have been more fun to watch if we were there voluntarily!
Another street scene from Ostuni.
Finally about 6:15 we crossed the street to the bus stop, to catch our 6:20 bus. We had to get this one right as it was the last scheduled bus for the day. We met another couple from the campground so that was a good start as we now had numbers on our side. A couple of busses came and went with us now running to every bus that showed up to ask if they were the bus to Villanova, none of them were. At about 6:40 we were all getting nervous. At this point another young Italian women showed up who was going to the train station. We asked her about Villanova, she looked at the schedule and said not to worry, because Italians have a weird way of scheduling busses, and even though it said 6:20 on the schedule, that didn’t mean it would arrive at 6:20, but within 20 to 30 minutes of 6:20! There really is a method, but her English wasn’t quite up to making us understand. Finally a bus showed up, the Italian women went on to the bus for us to confirm it was our bus, and it was! So we arrived back about 5 hours later than we planned.
We would have been home a lot earlier if we had a functioning bike.
The one positive out of this, was every Italian we met today during our bus adventure absolutely went out of their way to help us with our dilemma. The two young ladies who confirmed we were on the right bus even though it didn’t go to our stop to start with, the women who spent 20 minutes trying to find us a taxi, and the young lady who tried to explain the mysteries of Italian bus schedules to us were all patient and cheerful in providing us help. Even the grandfather at the cafe kept looking over and giving us encouraging and wise smiles even though he didn’t know why were waiting. So while the experience of getting us home was frustrating, the Italians we dealt with during the adventure almost made it worthwhile!
The weather forecast was threatening so we had a debate about whether to head into Perugia. But after consulting with the weather channel app and the clerk at the desk for the campground it looked like the rain was going to hold off until late afternoon so we decided to head into Perugia.
The Passignano train station.
The next issue was we had about 30 minutes to get to the train station which was about a mile away on foot. So we took off like someone chasing their water buffalo (to quote the Thai saying), and made it with a few minutes to spare. When we arrived in Perugia we saw signs announcing the European Chocolate Festival, so the day was definitely looking up. After taking the mini-Metro (maybe the cutest mass transit system we have seen) from the train station to the top of the hill that Perugia’s city center is located on we were greeted with row after row of tents with chocolates from primarily Italy, with a few of the biggies in Europe thrown into the mix.
Looking forward to entering Choco Street.
In between visiting chocolate tents we also enjoyed Perugia. It is a beautiful town set on a hilltop with expansive views in all directions. We were also surprised by the beauty of the Palazzo dei Priori (Palace of the first People) which dates from the late 1200’s and was the seat of government during that time up to modern times. We wandered in by accident and then spent about 30 minutes wandering around looking at the wood carvings and paintings.
One of the paintings from Palazzo dei Priori.
Across the square is the Cathedral of Perugia and despite a little cathedral weariness we really enjoyed this one. It is quite different than the cathedrals we have seen in France, Germany, and Spain which seem to have a lot in common in design and decoration. Like St. Peters this one seems less in a pattern and more unique. The highlights were the different marble pillars, and the ceilings. But the surprise was a room off of the main cathedral. The sacristy (which is the room where the priests keep their formal clothing and other artifacts needed for mass) was covered in frescoes by an artist named Pandolfi and were really beautiful. It was like a small version of the Sistine Chapel, with the difference being that we had the room to ourselves to enjoy the art.
The ceiling of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Perugia.Interior of the cathedral.
Keeping the rain in mind we cut our visit short, and headed back to François. We beat the rain. Ton really outdid herself with a pasta dish that would make any Italian proud. The rain has arrived and we are being treated to a pounding rain on the roof of François.
We have moved north towards Tuscany. Our plan for the day was to visit the university town of Perugia. Parking and places to stay were pretty slim, but there was one campground mentioned on the edge of town so we headed towards that.
Our French friends Michel and Ginette from Pompeii ended up in the spot next to us in Rome so we took the time to say au revoir before we headed North. We smacked our foreheads about an hour down the road for not getting a picture with them. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future so we can take care of that problem.
Leaving Rome was very straightforward. Overall Rome was a fairly easy to get in and out of in François, and we were pleasantly surprised how easy and convenient the public transit was. The other thing that was special about Rome is that every time we had a doubt or were struggling with a machine someone stepped forward to offer help or directions. While the sights and food of Italy are fantastic, we have been both really impressed with the Italians. They have been overwhelmingly hospitable to us, warm and fun to deal with. They seem genuinely concerned that you enjoy your time in Italy.
Interesting fruit (we think) on a tree in Passigano.
After a couple of hours we arrived at the campground in Perugia and it was closed. I had been worried about that possibility so we had plan B which was Lake Trasimeno. Lake Trasimeno is the fourth biggest lake in Italy and a large resort area. The town we are in has train service to Perugia so we have the option of heading into there tomorrow.
Sunset on Lake Trasimeno from our campground.
We finished the day by heading into Passignaro to check it out. It is a very quaint lake front town with a nice promenade and several restaurants facing the lake. We walked a little further than we planned to to visit a Conad Grocery. We had not visited a Conad yet and Ton wanted to see one as it is the biggest chain in Italy. Another item checked off the list of things to do in Italy.
The Cinque Terre is one of the biggest highlights of any visit to Italy. We adjusted our travel to make sure we had a good weather window to visit. Interestingly at the end of the first day we thought we liked the Amalfi, but by the end of the second day visiting we came to the conclusion that the Cinque Terre was our favorite of the two, but not by much. We also ended our trip in Liguria at the town of Sanremo. Sanremo was one of the unexpected finds we stumble on during these trips. It is a small coastal town but it hooked us and we ended up staying there an extra two days. It may also have been because we were reluctant to leave Italy. We also visited Monaco from Sanremo so it is included here.
We finally had to reluctantly leave Italy behind. We will talk more about our impressions of Italy later, but we both found it wonderful. We had read a lot of negatives about Italy, and were prepared for a tougher experience than we had had in other places. It turns out Italy was pretty easy to move around in and we did not experience anything that would cause us to discourage anyone from traveling there. On the contrary we found Italy to be a wonderful country and we encourage anyone who is thinking of Europe to make sure they include Italy in the itinerary.
Arrivederci Italia.
We woke up to sunshine, so we made an early start towards Nice. The drive over was uneventful but Nice made a bad first impression on us. First the year round campground that we planned to stay at after much research to make sure it was open, was closed. One warning if you are traveling in November call ahead and confirm that places that say they are open are really open. Luckily because of our research we had a second choice in mind and it was only 10 minutes away, and most importantly they are open year round as advertised. The next negative to our first impression of Nice was at the train station. We walked about a mile to the nearest station, which is a minor station. In Italy every station no matter how small had someone working there, this one had a nice lobby with an information window, but it was closed with a sign saying they were open random hours during the week. No problem we are serious travelers and can get tickets from any automatic machine. The one thing that will stop intrepid travelers like us is if the only ticket machine at the station is malfunctioning (actually completely dead, powered down). So now we were stuck, our first temptation was to just get on the the next train and if we did run into a conductor tell him our tale, but not really speaking French this seemed risky and could end up costing us an awful lot. At this point Ton saw an advertisement for an App the train company in France has where you can buy tickets on line so we tried that. Surprisingly it worked, and armed with our app bought ticket on our phone we boarded the next train to Nice.
As a quick editorial, one of the things we liked about Italy was the lack of automation, you bought tickets from people, who were able to answer questions, point you in the right direction and deliver a smile. Maybe that is why even though things are rougher around the edges in Italy we enjoyed it so much, because we were dealing with people and not machines and apps.
The beach in Nice is this pea gravel and not sand, but it does not detract from people heading to the beach. The gravel makes a really interesting sound as the waves recede.
Nice is much larger than I envisioned, somehow I had an overgrown Monaco in mind and not the big metropolis we found ourselves in. But it is beautiful and the waterfront esplanade is one of the best we have ever seen anywhere in the world. It is truly magnificent and I can see how you could fall in love with a city that goes out of it’s way to embrace the sea in the way Nice does.
The extensive waterfront esplanade of Nice, the best one we have seen in our travels.
We ended up walking more today than any day on this trip, just about exactly 10 miles. We climbed up to an overlook on one side of the city and waterfront and were rewarded with some fantastic views of both Nice, and the Alps in the background.
City view of Nice, with Italian style Duomo in the center.
When we arrived back to our broken home train station of Villeneuve-Loubet I told Ton I thought there was a better route home. When we were walking to the train station in the morning we had spotted three very large and striking condominium towers. We both find them striking but neither one of us will own up to liking them. We walked thru them on the way back and found a giant marina behind them, so they are catering to a very upscale clientele. It was sunset and the sky and the views over the Mediterranean were eye catching. From one beach we were able to look at the sea, and turn and look at the Alps with the pink light of the setting sun highlighting the snow caps. It was worth the diversion for a great sunset.
The striking condos and upper middle class yachts.
Italy has a hold on us. Our plans were to head over to Nice in France today but when we woke up this morning the weather was pretty brutal, and it was supposed to stay that way all day with a couple of short breaks. After some discussion we came to the conclusion if we were going to be trapped in François most of the day why not do it in Italy.
We spent the morning trying to get a veterans discount for our Amazon Prime service. Amazon was struggling with us applying for a US veterans discount from Italy but after three calls we finally got it sorted.
Finally about noon we saw a little break in the rain so we made a dash to downtown Sanremo. Ton wanted to get a picture of the Russian Orthodox Church we saw on the bus the other day, and we decided to do one more shop for Italian food in a large Coop (pronounced coupe) here in Italy.
The waterfront promenade in Sanremo on our way to the Coop for groceries.
We got off the bus near the casino in Sanremo (about the same size as the famous one in Monaco but not as famous.) After getting some shots of the only Orthodox Church we have seen in Italy, we took one final walk down the main shopping street, confirming that Sanremo was much more alive for us than Monaco before heading to Coop.
The dome of the Orthodox Church in Sanremo.
One of the pleasures we have had in Italy is the quality of the food in the groceries. We have each found and enjoyed a bunch of food that we have not seen anywhere else. Our main motivation was to get one more chance to stock François up with some our favorite new staples such as Blood Orange Juice, fresh pasta (not dried like we are used to in the US), pocket coffee (a chocolate coffee confection that can be eaten as candy, or added to a shot of espresso to make a drink), and the varied pasta sauces. We also broke our €2.99 limit on a bottle of Primitivo wine as we both wanted to try this particular wine and had not been able to find one within our budget. So we picked out the cheapest bottle and are now indulging in our expensive €3.69 bottle which is superb!
Italy rewarded us for our loyalty for the two and a half hours we were out the rain held off. Five minutes after we returned to François the skies opened up again.
We decided to take the train into Monaco from Sanremo. Some places exceed your expectations and some just miss. I had been looking forward to Monaco with visions of the Grand Prix, and James Bond playing baccarat at the casino. It is an independent country surrounded by France, and after the Vatican the smallest country in Europe so I had some romantic vision of the place.
The train station in Monaco.
When we arrived at the train station we could tell there was money in Monaco. It is also the richest country in Europe, of its population of roughly 40,000, 30% of them are millionaires due to its status as one of the worlds biggest tax havens. It is also one of the most densely populated places on Earth as it does not have much land to cram the millionaires into.
A view of the densely packed Principality of Monaco, the empty hills above the town are in France.
We walked along the waterfront admiring the harbor, and looking at all of the yachts. One particular ostentatious one stood out to me, and I wondered what billionaire owned it. The views of the harbor were nice and Ton took a lot of pictures as we strolled along.
Some of the yachts in the harbor at Monaco.
After getting our fill of the harbor we decided to head over to one of the famous landmarks of Monaco the casino in the Monte Carlo district. We had read that it was difficult to get access to the building and we thought we would have to pay an admission fee to get inside. We were surprised when we got there to see that we could walk in and look at the main foyer and the slot room. Maybe because it was off season they were a little more lax with letting the plebeians in. In addition to taking some photos we took advantage of their very upscale toilets and they were free.
The lobby in the casino at Monte Carlo in Monaco.
As we walked out of the casino Ton said lets find a real neighborhood with coffee shops and food stores for a light lunch. So for the next hour we wandered the streets looking for a real neighborhood with coffee shops and normal stuff and failed. Partly it might have been because it was Sunday and Monaco like France rolls the sidewalks up on Sunday, but we think at least partly it is because there are less of the cafe’s and little shops that we really enjoy in cities here. We ended up having a box of french fries at McDonalds for lunch (they still will not take our American Credit Cards!), not at all what we were looking for.
A typical quiet and empty street in Monaco. I guess all of the millionaires were out of town.
We did find the carnival that was in town and walked thru that for a few minutes. It was a big carnival and occupied a good piece of land on the harbor. The families were behaving just as they do everywhere in the world when they are in a carnival which is fun to watch.
The carnival along the waterfront, the most exciting place in town today.
Overall Monaco was a miss for us, and if I had to pick between Monaco and Sanremo to spend a week, I would pick Sanremo without hesitation. It feels like a real town with real people and has a much more interesting atmosphere than the cold richness of Monaco.
We have made our way over to the Mediterranean Sea again at Sanremo. This is the last city we plan to stay at in Italy before heading back into France. We woke up early when the electricity we were plugged into decided to stop working, this causes the refrigerator to sound an alarm. I got up and switched over to propane but the damage was done and we were both wide awake at 6am. After laying around for a few minutes we decided to get up and get an early start for our drive.
This is an Ape on the dock in Sanremo, a three wheel utility vehicle that reminds Ton of a common Thai vehicle called a Tuk Tuk.
We started the day with bright sunshine around Turin, but as we headed towards the coast we passed over a pretty high mountain pass and it got dark and rained a bit, even more concerning the temperature had fallen to the high 30’s. Fortunately as we headed down to the coast the sun popped out and the temperature climbed into the high 50’s.
Sanremo is a pretty coastal town. The drive down into Sanremo was a bit of an adventure as Greta got us off of the main road and we had to squeeze down some narrow roads until we got to downtown. I am getting better at realizing when Greta is picking a bad route and ignoring her, but she got me this time.
A women ocean going rowing team exiting the harbor in Sanremo.
After getting settled in we headed into town to check out the city and to get our experience of the Italian Riviera. The city is pretty, we decided to check out the casino that Sanremo is famous for, but when we were told we had to check our back packs we decided it was not worth the effort.
The Casino in Sanremo.
The next stop was the waterfront where we ambled along the breakwater looking at the yachts and the working boats. There was an impressive array of yachts ranging from upper middle class to billionaire. Ton was most impressed with the fishing boats.
This is a two or three hundred foot yacht belonging to some billionaire, Ton thought it was ugly.
Our last walk was up the hill thru the old Sanremo to the church which had a great view of the town and the sea. The interior of the church was prettier than the exterior indicated it would be. Just as we emerged from the church a big thunderstorm broke over the town. We were not prepared for rain because I convinced Ton it was not going to rain! We dashed from shelter to shelter until we got down to the main road. I saw the bus back to the campground just down the street stuck in traffic, we were able to jog down the sidewalk and get to the bus stop before the bus. The rain was pretty intense on the drive back and we got off the bus we dived into a grocery store to wait out the storm before finally heading back to François for the night.
A rainbow to reward us for our unexpected soaking in Sanremo.
We had another great day on the Cinque Terre. We are staying at a basic Sosta run by one of the local ambulance services, so in addition to a bunch of motorhomes we are sharing our space with a couple of ambulances. When the drivers are not out on runs they man the front gate and take payment. When I went to buy bus tickets into town I tried to do the ordering in Italian (due persona biglietta a autobus retorno) for anyone who speaks Italian you will know that is terrible, but the guy understood and thanked me for trying and then switched to perfect English for the rest of the transaction.
Yesterday we covered the most popular of the three cities on the Cinque Terre, today we planned on covering the last two towns. After our twenty minute bus ride to the train station in La Spezia we headed out to Corniglia. It is the least visited town because it does not connect to the ocean, and you have to climb 365 steps to get to the town. The town is really perched on a promontory overlooking the ocean with great views up and down the coast. It is also has good views up to the mountains above the coast. In addition to climbing the steps to town we climbed up above the town into the vineyards that were the primary source of income before tourism took over.
Corniglia with vineyards terraced on the hills above town.
Our next stop was the town of Manarola. It is considered by the people who write about the Cinque Terre as the most romantic of the towns. It consists of one main street running down to a small harbor. But what makes it romantic are the trails around the town which after a pretty good climb take you thru the vineyards that cascade down the mountainside into the town. The trail is quite spectacular and you are rewarded for your effort by some great views.
Looking down on Manarola from the vineyards above town.
Having climbed about 770 feet in total between the two towns (if my fitbit is to be believed) we decided to reward ourselves with a nice lunch. We walked up the road in Manarola scouting for lunch. Ton would walk up to each restaurant and look at the menu and inspect the food on the tables that the customers were eating. After a while she pointed at a restaurant and said that is the one. I noticed that there was a table for two on the second floor balcony and asked one of the waitresses in terrible Italian if we could sit there. She said of course; and informed the manager/husband that we were going to get those seats, clearly to his frustration. It turned into a wonderful meal as we both had great fresh seafood on a balcony overlooking the town. We shared the balcony with a nice German couple, and inside there was a French tour group who had quite a bit of wine with their lunch, and in the end their Italian tour guide broke into song and the group joined in. All in all a very memorable lunch.
The rail station at Corniglia looking down from the top of the 365 steps. The rail line connecting the 5 towns is more or less continuous tunnel, with the tracks only emerging at each town. Manarola is the town you can see in the upper right of the picture.
Our final plan for the day was to walk from Manarola to Riomagiore but unfortunately the trail was closed. So instead we headed back to La Spezia. Ton says I owe her a massage for making her climb 770 feet today, but I think most of the climbing was her idea.
Todays trip was driven by the weather. So far the weather has been spectacular, the one day it did rain it was nice enough to do it during the night and by morning the sun was out again. But our good luck is changing and we are supposed to get a week of rain, starting tomorrow night.
One of Ton’s bucket list items on this trip was the Cinque Terre. This location is really weather dependent, and since today was the last guaranteed good day for a while we decided to head over from Florence. We will end up heading back into Tuscany for a more extended visit once we are done here.
One of the pastel colored villages in the Cinque Terre.
We were up bright and early, and it turns out today was the day Europe Falls Back from Daylight savings time. With our early start we covered the 140km’s to La Spezia quickly and arrived at the Sosta on the outskirts of La Spezia at 9am. After a quick breakfast it was off to the train station to buy our two day Cinque Terre pass.
The Cinque Terre is a series of 5 coastal villages carved into the sides of cliffs along the Ligurian Sea. They are part of an Italian National Park as well as UNESCO Heritage sites. While they are difficult to reach by road, the Italian Railway has carved tracks that connect them all. This is by far the best way to explore the Cinque Terre. A two day pass is only €27 per person and allows unlimited trips on the line between La Spezia and the five towns (it also includes free access to the walking trails between the towns, and the bathrooms in the train stations!).
One of the UNESCO listed villages on the Cinque Terre.
s today was the only guaranteed good day we picked the three largest villages, Riomagiorre, Vernazza, and Monterosso. They are all in spectacular settings with small harbors at the bottom of steep roads leading to the ocean.
We started the day in Riomagiorre and as we got off the train we heard a lot of Thai being spoken all around us. It turns out we had stumbled into a tour of about 25 Thai. We listened into the guide for a while until he caught on and we introduced ourselves. He thought it was funny.
The harbor in Riomagiorre.
Monterosso is the largest of the towns and has the largest of the harbors but probably the least spectacular setting. I was a little disappointed when I saw a big parking lot on the edge of town with about 20 RV’s parked in it. It turns out this is the one place you can camp in the Cinque Terre. I missed it in my app because it was listed as parking and not a Sosta. In Italy I am not looking at parking areas like I have in France and Germany as places to stay only Sostas and Campgrounds.
The beach at Monterosso.
Vernazza is the smallest of the towns we visited today and is considered by most people to be the prettiest of the towns. It only has one main road that leads down to a small harbor. As you walk down to the harbor you see pictures of a massive flash flood that shot down the road in 2011. After walking around town we headed up on to one of the trails that connect all of the towns on the Cinque Terre. We wandered up there by accident but the view was so good we kept going. At one point Ton was shooting some pictures when she overheard 4 Thai taking turns taking pictures of each other, she could not resist and asked if they wanted a picture of all 4 of them. They reciprocated by taking pictures of us.
The hiking trail between Vernazza and Monterosso, it is steep in this stretch, there are vineyards on the right behind the fence.
Tuscany is on everyones bucket list for Italy for a good reason. Of the places we visited we really enjoyed Lucca, which is a little off of the beaten path.
If you are following our destinations you will notice we have headed south. The drive was pretty uneventful, the last 45 minutes were thru some pretty rugged hills that are the home of the famous Chianti grape. Tomorrow is a major holiday in Italy so the traffic on the autostrada seemed a little heavier than normal but still moving well.
We arrived at the campground in Sienna around 11:30 and after checking the weather decided to head right downtown. When we bought our bus tickets at the campground office the lady warned us to make sure we stamp our tickets as soon as we got on the bus as they have monitors and they are mean. In Europe you can buy tickets in bulk and it is your responsibility to stamp the ticket when you use it, this is also true on the trains. We have gotten used to this and have only forgotten once and of course we were checked. The conductor on the train let us off with a polite lecture about using the stamp, sometimes it is good to be perceived as a clueless foreigner. We were checked by monitors both going to town and coming back so they really are strict in Sienna.
Five streets come together in this intersection in Sienna.
Sienna has been on our must see list for the trip and while we had last minute thoughts of skipping it we decided this morning to double back and I am glad we did. It is a mountain city and has maintained a great deal of the old world feel to it that we like.
View of Sienna from the bus stop.
It is known for two things the gothic era town hall with a large tower, and of course it’s cathedral. We came across the town hall first and it is indeed impressive. But for us the Piazza in front of the hall is more impressive. In addition to the town hall the Piazza is surrounded by 6 and 7 story brick buildings. Unlike most Piazza’s it is not flat but kind of concave.
The town hall which is the center of the main Piazza in Sienna.
The Piazza is used to stage a twice annual horse race called the Palio of Sienna which is pretty wild. There are 17 neighborhoods in the city which in the past were organized as battalions for the defense of the city. 10 of them are selected at random to take part in the race. The first thing is that the Piazza is not an oval nor level so the turns are angles which makes them a lot more intense. The next thing is that the jockeys ride bare back which makes for a much more precarious perch on the horse. The jockeys are allowed to use their whips on their horse, but also on other horses (not the jockeys) to “disturb” them. Finally it is the horse that wins the race not the jockey which means if the jockey falls off sometime during the race and the horse carries on without him and crosses the finish line first it is the winner.
The Piazza where the race is held.
Our next stop was the cathedral. We have seen a lot of cathedrals over time here, but Ton and I both said wow when we saw the Cathedral in Sienna. It is not the largest cathedral, but the front is beautiful with intricate carvings and colored marble.
The intricate Cathedral of Sienna.
Having knocked out the two main attractions in town we just wandered up and down roads and alleys for a while taking in Sienna. We both agreed that it would be easy to spend a few days here, but we are running out of time.
We woke early to catch the bus as there were only two options, one at 8:15 and the next at 11:10 which we thought was too late. As I was getting things organized outside we ran into the owner of the Agritourismo, Andrea and he asked what I was doing up so early. When I told him he said that he could have his father drive us in at a more civilized hour and we happily took him up on the offer.
The sign for the campground we are staying at in Lucca.
Ton did some research on the comic book festival in Lucca and it goes back to 1966. It is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world with 90,000 tickets sold each day and the festival apparently sells out the 450,000 tickets in hours each year. It is a much larger event than we expected. We figured the people watching would be interesting even though we do not have tickets.
The people watching was fun.
Arriving at one of the city gates all of the tents we had seen around the city yesterday had long lines leading into them with fans of different cartoons and comics looking to score the latest merchandise. We wandered the streets pretty aimlessly and Lucca is a great site for this kind of event as the long narrow streets with frequent piazza’s allow it to absorb the people effectively and allows the participants interesting places to stage photos.
This guy loved having his picture taken and insisted on handing me his weapon.
A lot of the participants were dressed up in costume, though Ton and I are not the right age to identify most of the characters people were dressed up as. We did have fun trying to guess. Eventually we climbed up on the wall that encircles the old city and it turns out it is an unofficial promenade for the people in costume to walk and see what other people were wearing. We ended up walking completely around the city. We found one exhibit that was open to people without tickets, it was based on the video game Resident Evil so we got to go in and interact with a bunch of zombies in Raccoon City.
One of the zombies and a guard at the Resident Evil display.
In between all of the characters we also continued to admire Lucca. After a while we needed a little break so we went to a restaurant Ton had her eye on that has been in business since 1865. Our waitress was a young lady who spoke English well. She asked if we were here for the cartoon festival, we told her no, it was a happy accident. She apologized and said that Lucca is a beautiful city and while the festival was really good for the local economy she is happy when it is over because it was just a little too weird, and to illustrate her point she had to run up to the cash register to ring up the bill of a zombie with his intestines hanging out and a knife in his back.
The view of the Hoben Oak trees on top of the tower.
We returned to François just before the rain that had been threatening all day hit. I am writing this a little early today because we are heading up to the farmhouse for a 4 course Italian dinner, I will write about that tomorrow.
