Goodbye beautiful Vernazza

Today was a beautiful day. We hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare, and the views along the way were worth every step and stair. The hike was just over 2 miles with steep stairs at the beginning and the end. It took us about three hours to complete, probably because Tommy had to stop every 20 steps or so to take a picture :) There were lots of pretty flowers and a bunch of lizards (all seemed to be the same type) along the way to look at. On the tail end of the hike there was the bottom of a mostly dried up waterfall with three frogs! Not little tiny ones you usually see in ditches and other swampy areas at home. The hike was definitely worth the first extremely steep bit, and the numerous narrow areas. We had much of the path to our selves, but as we got closer to Monterosso we encountered more hikers going the other way and had to pull over a lot. I really can't imagine what these hikes might be like during the peak season when it is both much hotter out, and many more people hiking the trails.

Our destination

Looking back on Vernazza

Getting closer!

We arrived in Monterosso and rewarded ourselves with a focaccia bread lunch.

After we had eaten and sat for a little bit along the harbor, we decided to explore the Church of the Capuchin Friars and the hilltop cemetery set in a ruined castle. Yes, those were both up more stairs. The cemetery is within the confines, and around the grounds of an old ruined castle. The cemetery in Vernazza and the one in Monterosso al Mare both have vertical cemeteries. That means you see a wall of stone faces with names, dates, sometimes some other phrases or inscriptions, and sometimes a picture of the one being remembered. These face plates ranged from around 24" by 24" to 4' by 24". I think the wider ones were merely fake marble facades, and the ones there were more square like actually had the remains buried behind them. There were some spots that seemed to have had someone there but are now empty. I'm not sure why. There were a few family mausoleum as well on the grounds. The only place that had anyone buried underfoot were at the top of the castle. There didn't seem to be any pattern to where people were buried. I didn't notice that some areas had all of the older burial plots, and as one went a certain direction they got more recent. I did notice that some of the plots were for people that were born in the 1840s. That's before Italy was unified officially in 1861!

The cemetery

We decided to head back to Vernazza, we were trying to decide between going to Corneglia and hiking back to Vernazza, or going back to Vernazza and getting cleaned up and visiting Corneglia without the hike, or just calling it a day. Well, the train we were trying to catch was delayed by 15 minutes and eventually cancelled, so that set us back almost an hour. We decided on just going back to Vernazza. We got cleaned up, rested and went back into town for our last dinner with a view in Vernazza.

Tomorrow we are off to Lucca where we will be staying for just one night. After we get settled in Lucca, we will be taking the train to Pisa for the afternoon, which is about 30 minutes away.

Two of Five

Today we explored Vernazza and Manarola. Both are beautiful in their own ways.

Here are some more pictures of Vernazza.

I wanted to touch the water. It got in my shoe

Tommy was more graceful

Looking south from Vernazza

Panorama of Vernazza from the top of the ruined castle

We walked both Vernazza and Manarola today. The Vernazza loop took us from above the train station, down to the square on the beach, and up to the castle tower. That's where the above picture is taken from.

Manarola is two towns south of where we are staying. We decided to visit Manarola today because it sounded more picturesque than Riomaggiore. In Manarola we refueled with gelato and got to walking. It was a beautiful day and we were very thankful for every little breeze--we were sweating! We followed Rick Steves' 'Manarola Walk' from the Italy guidebook that we've been using, and we were rewarded with amazing views.

Manarola from the north

See the little lizard?

View from the vineyards above Manarola

When we got back to Vernazza we rested a little bit in our apartment before heading to the square for an aperitivo (pre dinner drink and small snack) and we looked through our guidebook to decide where we wanted to eat for dinner. We decided on Gianni Franzi because the prices looked decent and we've been wanting to try fresh anchovies which is a specialty of this region. Well, we can say we at least tried something new... and I don't think we'll be trying them again :) The dish we got was baked anchovies with potatoes, tomatoes and herbs. It was really fishy. We also got pesto pasta (Trofie--a Ligurian pasta) again because we knew that would be delicious.

Tomorrow we are going hiking! We are going to hike one town north, to Monterosso al Mare. Once we are done exploring Monterosso, we will take the train one town south of Vernazza, to Corniglia, and hike back to Vernazza from Corniglia. Each hike is about 2.5 miles with lots of ups and downs. I think tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler than today, so it should be perfect for hiking!

Oh, the pesto!

We are now in the Cinque Terre, specifically, we are staying in Vernazza. Let me tell you, this is exactly what I needed after Milan. Big cities wear me down but I'm already feeling recharged.

It took about 3.5 hours to get here by train and the views were scenic, especially once we started going through coastal towns. Once we arrived, we met our Air B&B host at the train station and he led us up, up, up to the apartment. We got settled then wandered back down to town (after taking pictures along the way so we wouldn't get lost trying to find our place again). We found a grocery store and got some water, yogurt and eggs for breakfast. Then we hiked back up, up, up to put our groceries away before going back down, down, down for dinner.

Looking down from the front door

The beginning of our steps up, up, up

Tommy got pesto on the regional noodles and I got pesto lasagna

After dinner we explored the harbor and beach area. Tommy clambered around the rocks a bit and saw a fish, some not so lively little crabs, and some shrimp (at least he thinks they were shrimp) in between some rocks in the water.

The view from the end of the breakwater

We ate dinner under those umbrellas

Oh, the pesto! Oh, the views! Ahhhhh, the salty sea air.

A castle, not the Sistine Chapel, and a Mexican restaurant

Today was a big one. I wore poor Libby out. We visited three sites: Sforza Castle, San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore , and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. 

The Sforza castle started life out in as a fortress built upon the medieval wall around the city of Milan between 1360 and 1370 by Galeazzo II Visconti, and in 1392 Gian Galeazzo had a citadel built to house his troops. After a rather interesting history, in the early 20th century it was restored to it's Sforzian glory, and became a home to a cultural institutions and museums. 

We arrived a little after nine thinking we wouldn't be there very long based on Rick Steves' depiction. We ended up being there at least three hours. :-) I got an audio guide, we dropped one of our bags off and started out. There are some Roman and early Medieval Lombard stone monuments and sculptures, and some fairly large tapestries. 

We moved on up to the upper floors of the castle and came across the area where there are many typical and some quite unusual musical instruments. They had some Hurdy Gurdies, Piochettes (tiny bad sounding violins), beautifully painted Virginals, and a number of other interesting instruments.  

There were a number of paintings, a famous Michelangelo sculpture called the Rondanini Pieta, and an area with pre-Roman artifacts, and Egyptian pieces. They had two mummies and one was still all wrapped up. They had some items with Hieratic and Demotic scripts on them. Those were the script used after Hierolphys. 

The pieta is interesting because it's unfinished. Michelangelo started this piece in the 1550s and worked on it until he died in 1564. It's a sculpture of Mary mourning over the body of Jesus. You can tell it's unfinished and there is an extra arm.

There were a lot of groups at the castle. There were some school groups in the musical instrument section, and those kids were having a ball. Their teacher was taking them from section to section and a man was playing an instrument in each section as their teacher yelled out instructions. It was really cute. There was also some conference with a bunch of adults in suits, so there was a mixture of small children and middle-aged people wandering around being loud. 

On our way to San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore (the not Sistine Chapel) we came across a store called "Canadian" that seems to sell goods with Canadian Maple Leaves, variations of the word "Canada" on them, shoes you'd find in the Pacific Northwest, and a shirt that says "I love rainy days with a blanket and a cup of tea and a book." We thought of Jeremy and Amanda when we saw it and I wanted take a picture of that shirt. 

San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore was a lot of fun. It was built into a Roman wall and originally attached to a female Benedictine convent. Construction started in 1503 and was consecrated in 1518. The inside is more or less painted floor to ceiling. 

I had problems deciding between Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and the Pinacoteca de Brera. I went for the former because...well it was a toss up and I was drawn just a bit more to that one. It has a cartoon of Raphael's School of Athens which is the outline for the famous fresco in the Vatican Museums. It wasn't currently viewable because they are in the process of restoring it. We watched a fairly lengthy video on the process of taking it off the wall and some of what they've done since. It's a very large piece so they closed the room it's in but the doors are a window so you can see all the equipment they are using. It was a pretty interesting video considering it had no audio. 

By the time we were done with the museum Libby was really tired (I was pretty tired too) so we went back to our place for a few hours before grabbing dinner. What would a trip to Europe be without trying to find Mexican food? It was actually pretty good, even if it wasn't Mexican food like we know from home. The waiter was super nice and translated the menu for us, they didn't have an English version. Tommy got Pollo Sarten and I got a quesadilla with chorizo, cheese and black beans.

Tomorrow we are off to Vernazza in the Cinque Terra! Libby is looking forward to very small villages and quiet. 

My feet aren't tired!

Today was about as relaxing a day as we've ever had on a trip. We started out the day with breakfast and a trip to the grocery store to get some yogurt, fruit and meat and cheese for a snack. Coffee and a pastry just doesn't keep you going for very long, but it's delicious!

After breakfast I did a little bit of laundry while Tommy did a little bit of reading in our Rick Steves' Italy guide book. Most sights in Milan are closed on Mondays so there was literally one thing we were interested in seeing that was open today, the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio.

There has been a church at this site since A.D. 380, when St. Ambrose built the first church on top of an early Christian martyr's cemetery. Saint Ambrose is remembered for converting and baptizing St. Augustine of Hippo. The church wasn't very large but it was very interesting and beautiful. We didn't take a picture in the crypt but there are three skeletal bodies in an enclosure, Saint Ambrose and two martyrs.

After visiting the church we went back to our apartment for a little rest before heading to Naviglio Grande for dinner. Our apartment is located in the Naviglio district, but on the other side of the train tracks from the canal. The canal looked like it was about 6 inches deep, we saw a duck standing in the water!

This was dinner:

As a side note, there are a ton of pigeons in the big squares, like at St. Mark's square in Venice and in the Duomo Square here in Milan. People pose with them and let them climb into their hands. Somebody offered us bird seed the other day, Tommy and I were like, no no no no no no. Whenever a group of pigeons start moving toward us, I think about this scene from Jurassic Park, they're flocking this way!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day, we are visiting Sforza Castle, that is now a museum, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, another museum, and the Church of San Maruizio.

Big city. Big change.

The ride from Venice to Milan was much less eventful and annoying than packing was for me. I sliced my thumb open something trying to pack my toiletries. Somehow I struggled to accomplish as easily today as I did on the night before we left.

The ride over oscillated from fairly picturesque to fairly grungy. There was some unfortunate urban areas that were fairly rundown looking with a good amount of graffiti and broken windows, and there were some really old looking villas that were exciting to look at knowing they were likely a good deal older than the United States. We saw a mystery castle with a wall that ran down a hill at one point to the north of the train even.

City above/underground metros in Milan are easy. We've not used one since Amsterdam and it was like meeting up with a old friend. There's something very satisfying about traveling a good distance and with ease and while not having to do anything but walk to a location and step on board the people carrier. Our time getting to the place we are staying once our time on the metro was up was not such an easy time. The tube station is also a train station, and the station itself is on the wrong side of the tracks from where we are staying, and the directions we were less than satisfactory. After sweating more than I'd have liked due to the hapless meandering we did stumbled across a cab after possibly hailing it on this weird kiosk thing. I say possibly because there was no response from the kiosk after the button was pushed.

Finally, we arrived. Our studio is really cute. It's got tile floors, and slate steps to the loft where the bedroom is. Gianluca, our host, was really nice and gave us some ideas of where to eat.

Once we rested a bit we decided to try to get lunch at the place Gianluca mentioned for lunch but it was packed so we decided to head to Milan's duomo. Once we arrived we were accosted (not for the first or last time) by men trying to sell bracelets to us (it was roses in Venice). I get they need to make a buck, but it's still kind of annoying. The tube exit was on the North side of the cathedral where there is scaffolding. The North side, and much of the top part of the cathedral is being worked on.

The lines. Oh, the lines. There were lines we've not experienced getting into a church of any kind before. Libby found in our Rick Steves' book that you could tickets to the duomo from a ticket office in a building behind the duomo. Tickets in hand we asked around to what seemed to be information people walking up and down the lines which line we needed. The wait for us to just enter the duomo with tickets was at least 30 minutes. Again, this was with tickets. Nothing about this was very clearly laid out or properly labeled. There were signs that said to by tickets first, but it didn't say where from. We were metal detected, and our bags searched by Italian military security. They even asked Libby and I to drink from our water bottles. I don't know if it was to make sure it was water, or to see if we would do it? This happened on the way into the duomo, and on the way to the lift to the terrace.

The duomo is the largest cathedral in Italy (St. Peter's Bascilica is larger but it is in the State of Vatican City which is technically it's own country), and fifth largest church in the world. I was shocked at how empty the building seemed when we first got in. The center of the nave was closed off because there was a vespers being sung, so we were unfortunately limited as to where we could go in the church. All the same, it was still enjoyable to be able to see Sequoia sized stone columns, expertly carved with statues at the top. We also saw a statue of St. Bartholomew that was done by one of   Leonardo DeVinci's pupils. It's incredibly detailed and life like considering the medium. There was no one by the audio guide booth so I didn't get one, and we missed the bookstore so I haven't bought anything to further educate myself on the duomo. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to do that.

Poor St. Bartolomeo, he was a first-century martyr who was skinned alive by the Romans

You can see the service happening

Guess what was in store for us before we got to see the Archaeological site?! MORE LINES! This one was more painful because we were tired and hangry. It was mostly worth the wait though. There are some old burial tombs, and an old baptistery with some of the original tile around the round hole. You can see the trench dug for the water to move into the area they did the baptisms.

The information placard said that the decoration around the baptistry was commissioned by Laurentius, the Bishop of Milan from 489-510. This is OLD!

After our time in the crypt-like area we went to the terrace. Stood in another line, got metal detected, searched, water tested, and up we went to the top. This part was fairly crowded. The walking routes are narrow and there were a good amount of people there. When we got to the top I noticed some chunks of the church much whiter than others. I think they are sections that were damaged and replaced during this refurbishment process the church has undergone. It's striking both visually and by feel. The new white parts are much smoother than the older original parts. There was a spire near the top where a golden statue is that seems to have the top missing. I think they are likely fixing parts of it or took it down to rebuild the whole chunk.

Yes it did start sprinkling on our walk home

We got some food next. We shared a pizza and penne arrabbiata (penne noodles with spicy red sauce), and wine. It was decent if not overly expensive. We weren't complaining considering we were on the square of the duomo an things on heavily populated squares tend to be a little pricy. After dinner we walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. This is a beautiful 19th century covered mall where there are a few resturaunts, and shops like Louis Vitton. It's kind of a giant plus sign or cross with a beautiful glass arched roof from building to building with a round dome in between where the four buildings meet. There are fun mosaics on the ground, and some at the top of the buildings where they meet.

Tomorrow, Monday, most of the sights in Milan are closed so we are going to do some sink laundry in the morning then head to the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, one of the few things open.