The septa terrors invade Cinqua Terra

Fri June 16 - We escape the scammers and pickpockets of Firenze (still Florence) for the relative peace and calm of Siena (about an hour out of Florence by bus). Siena is an attractive almost mediaeval town in a walled city. Lots of narrow, windy streets, a huge open, sort of circular plaza, the ever present campanile – with hundreds of steps to climb (unless you are one of the coffee-addicted, copout crew), and the usual churches, etc. It is smaller and more pleasant (and safer) to walk around than Florence. Then onto another bus to San Gimignano – a tiny mediaeval town that is again walled, and is famous for the towers that the populace built to show that ‘ours is bigger than yours’. They built about 56 towers of which about one-third remain. Even so from the distance it looks, somewhat deceptively, like a town of skyscrapers. More bloody steps to climb – and more gelatis required to recover. Meanwhile John and Noel had another cup of coffee and then they went home.


Sat. June 17 - After two weeks the gang of seven finally make their first sensible decision. They all split up and people go where they want. I went to the Pitti Palace, just south of the Arno. Very interesting with beautiful frescos and ceiling sculptures on the royal rooms and apartments. At last some more modern Florentine art with classical action-based Greek figures rather than sombre religious ones. A little more like Versailles than what we have seen to date. Nice gardens at the back – but as always the grab for the tourist dollar. You want the see the Royal Palace – 8.5 Euro (about 15-16 dollars). Oh, and the gardens – another 8 euros. And you want a map of the apartments – buy a book for another 8 euros. On and you want photos – buy them – you will be tackled to the ground if you pull out a camera ! Meanwhile John and Noel had another cup of coffee and then they went home.


The 50 dollar tour of the Uffizzi gallery was another expensive necessity. You do not get to see many paintings – in the approx 1 hour tour but you do get to understand something of the history and development of art. These expensive guided tours are all organised at the end of the day, with numerous groups competing for access to the highlights and yelling together so that their groups can hear. At the end there is no time to see anything else as the gallery closes. Get the money then short-change the customer. What a change from 30 years ago when you could see all the galleries of Italy for a few dollars. Meanwhile John and Noel had another cup of coffee and then they went home.

Anyway Judy and I prepared a magnificent meal of minestrone soup, pollo (chicken) with grain and funghi, fruit salad and ice-cream. Everyone complained that we had taken short cuts but they don’t realise how difficult it is to prepare soup when the instructions on the packet are in Italian. And they devoured a phenomenal amount of it.

Sunday June 18 – Off to Cinqua Terra (be careful not to read these Italian terms out loud or the pseudo-Italian Pronounciation Police (John and Kitty) will pounce on you). Getting to Florence station was a huge 1.5-2 km walk as once again I was toting all my gear, Kitty’s suitcase and the computer. Once again as we passed the Piazza del Santa Maria Novella the others with light loads left me behind. However, luckily, this time I was not robbed. The thieves must have been away spending their last spoils).
We got to Cinqua Terra OK with Noel and Maureen (our star-fare evaders) narrowly avoiding being caught for not having a ticket as the ticket inspector checked our tickets a couple of minutes before our destination (the fine is x40 the fare – no excuses accepted). Noel waved his invalid tickets at the inspector trying to show his guilt but I beckoned for him to shut-up and put them away. He did and avoided detection. Once Kitty had walked us a few too many times all around Monterosso (our destination) with my load of super-heavy cases (“Why didn’t you listen to my instructions and call me at the station” the owner said – much to her chagrin). We debated for an hour on what to do – by which time it was too late for me to go back to Pisa. So 2 or 3 of us went to the ‘beach’. The rich ones rented a brolly and chair at the beach (15 Euro) and I lay elsewhere on the pebbles to recover. The sea is still cold and once you are 5 metres in it is VERY deep (you cannot see the bottom). Well at least I have sunbaked and swam on the Cinqua Terra. Meanwhile John and Noel had another cup of coffee and then they went home.


Monday June 19 - In the morning we decided to do the Cinqua terra walk – a world famous walk along the cliffs for 11 km and going to 4 other picturesque villages – all built in impossible positions. Lots of postcard-type views but as Kitty mentioned this was only about one-quarter of what a hard day of our TMB tour would be like. Still it took all day and wrecked us. Maybe a motor-bike tour around Mont Blanc is in order! (Just kidding, Jenny – don’t turn back now). Meanwhile John and Noel had another cup of coffee and then they went home.