Florence, Pisa & Cinque Terre, Italy
This morning to my frustration we got rolling late. Our goal was to pick up our rental car at 9am but we didn’t get out the door until closer to 10am. We left our bags at the front desk after checking out and walked 15 minutes to Avis. Ben thought it would be fun to drive around the Italian countryside. I thoroughly enjoyed my road trip with mom in Europe, so I had no objections to this even though most guidebooks and people think driving in Italy is a terrible idea. For the first time in five years I wasn’t a driver on the rental car and I was honestly and surprisingly okay with it. I was slightly concerned with how Ben would handle aggressive driving being that he drives his Fit in Eugene like a Grandma, at least most Grannys. I’ve never heard Ben utter the line “I can take him” like my Granny does while driving.
It took a while to get the car but we ended up with a nice black Audi A6. We plugged in the GPS and made our way back towards the hotel. Florence, like many Italian cities, has restrictions on driving in its city center. I was hoping we’d be able to make it back in front of the hotel to grab bags for a few minutes but the Avis lady said we would get fined. We decided to have Ben idle outside the safety line while I ran back to the hotel to grab stuff. Unfortunately we have enough stuff that required too trips. Eventually we were finally on our way out of town at 11:35am.
We needed to be at the Pisa ticket office to pick up our entry tickets at 12:15pm for our scheduled 12:45pm tour. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Ben drove impressively like a mad man but we still didn’t make it to the ticket office until 12:44pm. Fortunately the ticket office lady was very nice and broke the rules for us, allowing us to join the 1pm tour.
Pisa really does lean. Walking up the spiral marble stairs one can see how they are super worn in the direction the building is leaning. Clearly people feel compelled to move in relation to the tilt. The view from the top of the tower was cool. I didn’t realize prior to our visit that Pisa is located in a field of monuments called the Field of Miracles.
We enjoyed looking at a few of the other buildings after our hike, then we hoop hunted as the lighting was likely to only get worse as the day progressed. We found two courts, one of which worked out quite well. The sun placement wasn’t ideal for lighting but the shot is still pretty awesome.
We grabbed some lunch at a random spot a few blocks from the Fields. We ended up eating what is currently Ben’s favorite pizza on the trip. I think he liked it because of the special sauce the chef used. He didn’t wash his hands when he come out of the bathroom. I’m hoping he had a secret sink in the kitchen where he was going to wash them. Post lunch we took a few more pictures in the fields, bought a couple random souvenirs and made our way back to the car.
On our drive from Pisa to Cinque Terre we had some serious excitement. Even though we were no longer in a time crunch, Ben still drove like a mad man, but that’s not where the insanity sent in. Approaching the CT area we saw what appeared to be a lot of smoke. As we got closer we realized one of the hillsides was on fire. Like any smart people would we decided stop, park the car and watch it. I’ve never been present for a forrest fire. It was pretty insane to watch. In attempt to contain the spread there were two helicopters and one plane rotating water drops from the sea.
After we felt we had sufficiently watched the fire we made our way to our hotel. We were greeted by a super nice lady named Elena and shown to our room at the Locanda a Ca du Gigante in Monterosso. After getting settled we took the short thirty second walk to the beach and watched the sun set. We then walked around Monterosso before cleaning up and heading out to dinner.
My friend Sue recommended a restaurant, Milky, in Monterosso for dinner. We had a swordfish (sorry, Jason) appetizer that was fantastic. Our entrees were pretty good but the presentation was excellent. Ben had ravioli that were plated at the table with a fiery presentation. My dessert was also excellent. I can’t remember the name of this Monterosso specialty but it was basically a beignet with cream and berries.
We’re now back at the hotel and it’s late and time for bed! Our plan for the morning is to get up early and see some of the adjacent towns at the Cinque Terre before driving up to Milan to see Leonardo’s Last Supper.
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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