Well Tuesday morning started out rough with Andrew having contact trouble and us heading to the train station without him. We got to the station and had to wait for a bunch of others so it turned out fine but it really stresses Greg out to be late. Our wait for our group did insure that we got to induldge in yet another vanilla croissant- so good.
We met our guide and tour group and hopped on a train to Pisa. I figured the leaning tower was overrated but this stop was well worth it. We arrived just as the ticket booth was opening and there were hardly any people in the plaza. With the lack of tourists we grabbed lots of pictures then headed to the ticket booth where we were mesmerized by the robotic lawn mower. Mack wants one!
We grabbed our tickets and headed to the tower. Entering the tower you could feel how off it was; Mack put his chapstick on the floor on one edge and it rolled all the way to the other side. So strange but the weirdness had just begun. Walking up the stairs was unlike anything I've done before. "Climbing the stairs to the top of the tower left me feeling a bit off kilter. The stairs clearly weren’t perpendicular to the ground, you could feel your center of gravity shifting and falling to the leaning side. On the lee side gravity pushed you against the outer wall but when you circled to the other side gravity was pulling you toward the center wall. The well-worn footprints in the marble followed a similar pattern and were not in the center of the step." I think Greg described it better than I could- I'd just say it was trippy but so cool.
We took some more pictures (it took forever for Andrew to get this one right 😂 but it was okay because Mack and I were busy admiring the robot).
A quick walkthrough of the Romanesque Cathedral with amazing ceilings and a few minutes to fill up water bottles then we were on our way to La Spezia.
Our quick stop in La Spezia left our bellies full of focaccia and my eyes happy with all the orange trees lining the streets. Now on to the 5 costal villages of Cinqe Terre.
Our first stop was Riomaggiore; it felt like we had entered the world of Luka, a recent Disney movie. We had enough time to explore, enjoy the brightly colored buildings, grab a bite to eat then jump on next train.
Destination - Vernazza. The small stone church and tower were a disappointment because the tower was closed and Andrew really wanted to go up all the towers. The lovely lemon trees in town inspired me to get lemon gelato, worst food choice of the trip. It was so bad I couldn't really eat it, but Andrew managed to finish it off while he petted every cat he could find 😬.
Our next stop was Manarola where we got to walk for a while on a trail along the ocean. The views were spectacular.
At a look out the boys were caught being silly and while Greg continued taking pictures the boys and I headed further up the trail. Unfortunately, when Greg finished snapping photos he headed back toward town. We had fun on our little trail and took some photos of our own. They may be a little sillier than Greg's.
Andrew hitting the gritty.
Model posses - love these boys.
The long train ride home ended what had been such a lovely day, the weather, the sights and the company.
Our guide gave us a recommendation for dinner and it didn't disappoint. Neither did the mango cheesecake in a jar I got when everyone else ate gelato that night.
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