The Five Lands and the Sinking City

Our last excursion from Lucca merited separation from the others, due to its impressiveness. The final trip we made out from Lucca was to Cinque Terre. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, it translates from the Italian into "five earths" or "five lands". This area of Italy consists of 5 towns that are all along the Mediterranean, over to the north of La Spezia (in northwest Italy, for those of you with maps). In order from south to north Cinque Terre is composed of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. These gorgeous coastal towns are connected by hiking paths, as well as train tracks. We began at Riomaggiore and ended with Monterosso. I must confess, I joined my parents taking the train from Vernazza to Monterosso...but the younger generation (I am old now) continued and finished the last leg on foot as well. 

Riomaggiore

The steps on on the first leg of the hike (from Riomaggiore to Manarola). This part was literally steps up a mountain and then down the other side of the mountain

View from the top of the mountain, Manarola down ahead

A parting view of Manarola

It is worth mentioning that there are usually, or at least supposedly, at least two separate routes for hiking the Cinque Terre. One is a seaside road that is relatively flat and very similar to a boardwalk. However, due to rockslides this route has been closed for renovations, and I overheard one tourist couple talking about how it had been closed for years. So, if you do plan on visiting the Cinque anytime soon and are not feeling up to the step-ridden mountain routes, don't let that stop you! Take the trains. And when you get off in Manarola make sure to buy some of the Calamari cones that are sold as street food all over the town!

On the hike from Manarola to Corniglia. This was easily the most beautiful of the hikes and passed through vineyards on the mountainside and stretched along the cliff

We were guessing these were nets that were stretched out during harvest time and used to catch olives.

Entering the town of Vernazza

A view of Vernazza from the harbor area where we went swimming

Limoncino, or limoncello, is a traditional lemon liqueur that is normally served after dinner. It is a digestivo....you can imagine what it is meant to do

 On our last day in Lucca we toured the town a little bit more and attended a Jazz festival performance going on in the town square.

View from atop the tower of Lucca

Shamelessly attempting to make my blog cuter with a picture
of a cat that I found guarding a car in Lucca

The festival

 From Lucca we left for the coast, the other coast. We shot off to Venice for a quick day within the sinking city. The town was originally created in the way it was in order to discourage barbarians from attacking the city. It worked. And Venice flourished and became one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Renaissance Italy. Nowadays, though, Venice is experiencing a slow and constant decrease in population, as people leave behind the economy completely centered on tourism.

This is a horse created by a glassblower in Murano. He created it in less than a minute. Murano is a small island off of Venice and is known for its glassblowers. 

The Doge palace at night

The bus ride back to the train station was pretty packed, but the Pavliks prevailed

Venice was our last Italian destination before continuing northward into Austria...

Lucca All the Things to Do!

I have fallen behind once again. A combination of limited access to internet and sparse access to energy after a day of traveling often results in a strait-to-bed situation at the end of the day. What it comes down to is that I am in Prague right now with the family, but in my blog I am still in Milan, just arriving in Lucca. I will have to speed things up a bit. Time for more pictures than words (as if anyone has ever complained about that).

The general movement of the Pavlik family centered around Lucca, Italy, as we made daily excursions to other towns/sites within range. Lucca was a gorgeous little city, with a wall completely surrounding it, a wall that has never had to be rebuilt and successfully made Lucca a place of peace throughout the Middle Ages. We stayed in Lucca for a total of 6 days. Here's a breakdown:

Day 1: Pisa

A few kilometers away from Lucca we took a wrong turn (courtesy of my copilot navigation) and ended up taking a quick trip to Pisa before continuing to Lucca.

That night we went to a local pizzaria. Great people and fantastic food...the Italian pizzas really are simply better

Day 2: Firenze

Mackenzie has spent the last semester in Florence studying abroad. Therefore, we took advantage of this free familial tour guide and spent a whole day in Florence. There are countless sights and it is known by many as one of the birthplaces of the Renaissance.

Need I say? The David.

Hanging out at Mackenzie's Gonzaga in Floence campus. Taking a quick power nap, by the looks of it

Mackenzie made a fresco for one of her classes, using the wall and everything

The Firenze duomo

We went to a church called the Santa Croce, which boasts the tombs of Galileo (above) ...

....Michelangelo....

.....and Dante.

The Ponte Vecchio

Chilling after a long day of walking

Day 3: Lucca Day

For our third day we hung around Lucca and explored the city. We found an awesome little café and hung out for awhile and then rented bikes to do a little self-tour. 

Turns out Mackenzie and Nathaniel went for a run in the morning but didn't have a key and were locked out. I looked out the window when I woke up and thought they were just about to begin and so were stretching...they had already been out there for a half hour or so

Crazy how cheap quality wine in Italy is... 1,92 Euros for a bottle!

View from our window

Mackenzie and Dad trying out the tadem

Sometimes Mackenzie took advantage of her hidden back seat position...

Lucca duomo by night

Day 4: Hill Towns of Tuscany (San Gimignano & Voltera)

We took this day to drive up into Tuscany and explore its amazing hill towns. The scenes were breathtaking. Rolling hills of vineyards, olive trees, and Cyprus trees with villas scattered in among them. The first town, San Gimignano, is quite famous for its hill position and incredible number of towers. These towers used to serve as a symbol of the wealth of residents, so the bigger your tower, the more important you were. There are around 14 still standing today and there used to be closer to 74. 

About 7km outside of San Gimignano. You can see the towers of the town to the far left

Duomo of San Gimignano

View from the wall

You can get see the rolling hills in the distance

View from the walls of Voltera. This city was owned by the Etruscans before being taken over by the Romans

Just a classic Italy shot

Mackenzie and Nathaniel during the tour...and the lady clothespinning the crap out of her rug

Ancient Roman amphitheatre and baths

This is not quite all of our Italian days...but it is all for now. The last section will include the two classic locations of Cinque Terre and Venezia! Ciao!