Quick Update Before Our Hike

Kelly here! Yesterday we traveled from Volterra to Vernazza, in the Cinque Terra. We planned a stop in Lucca for lunch. It was about a two hour drive to Lucca, with hills and switch backs and our little diesel, so I was not feeling totally great 😉 Corbett was a champ driving in weird roads with our Tom Tom guiding us. We made it into Lucca sort of easily, and found a great place for lunch called Allosteria.

After lunch we strolled around a little. Lucca seemed “taller” and busier. We came up on a Medieval tower which Corbett wanted to climb and I didn’t, but I did it for him! He got a few great shots from the top of the tower, including some of me attempting a smile. The rickety, skinny stairs were not exciting me after the car sickness.

We made it back to our car and then the real foibles started. Getting out of the main city was rough. So many one ways, or no ways, pedestrian only roads, Italian signs that we couldn’t read, etc! Our car barely fit through a few of the streets we tried. Eventually I got out and spoke to two different people to try to get directions. Our friend Vanessa taught me how to ask politely in Italian if people spoke English. So many didn’t but did offer French or Spanish. So in not-so-great Spanish, I got enough info to finally get out, with the grand finale of having to go the wrong way down a one way, because there was just no other way!

A bit more driving and we go to Spezia, where Corbett dropped me and the bags and went to return our rental a few miles away. One cool sight on the way was driving through Carrara, Italy. Huge marble yards with raw rectangles of grey and white marble.

Corbett had to cab it back, which was also not easy, but we were reunited and hopped on our train to Vernazza. A short 14 km ride away. We found our great hotel down by the main square. The steps here are insane! No one with a handicap or knee issues should come here. We were able to get help with our luggage, but even hauling ourselves up we were out of breath. I guess the stairs might off set our two-gelato-a-day habit.

The travel was worth it, and the views from the hotel are pretty spectacular. Cliffs and ocean on one side, and the hillside and town on the other. Here is a panorama of the main square, where fishermen launch into the water. This area was flooded pretty badly in 2011, but you couldn’t really tell apart from many of the business posting photos or articles from the time.

We are off in a few minutes to take the train to one of the other 5 towns, and hike back to Vernazza. You can hike between all of the villages, and we chose the “medium” difficulty version. Walks of Italy: Cinque Terre

Later today we’ll add some of yesterday’s photos.