We awoke today to grey brooding skies that matched the mood of awakening on the last day of the cruise. We docked in Livorno harbor, the main port for Tuscany, where many of our fellow passengers would disembark and skitter off to Pisa or Florence on their organized tours. Since that’s not how we roll, we had reserved a car for the day with the idea of cruising through the Tuscan countryside visiting wineries. That idyllic scene did not contain rain clouds, however, so we spent some time at breakfast recallibrating our plans. We had heard several people mention that they were very excited to visit Cinque Terre – a group of five villages nestled along the coast of Liguria, north of Tuscany. Our weather apps said that the weather might be better there and it was a new place to visit so a new plan was hatched.
After breakfast, we disembarked and found the Avis counter inside the cruise terminal (score oe for Livorno port – very convenient!). Today’s driving pleasure would be in a Fiat Tipo – a substantially larger car than the Fiat 500 we had in Sicily. We took off to the north with clouds over head but the promise of sunshine coming in from the west. About 90 minutes into our drive, we arrived at the Cinque Terre National Park and then the geography got real. Apparenty you don’t get to go see the cute fishing villages nestled into the mountains without actually driving down the mountain! If we thought the drive to Etna was challenging, we were sorely mistaken. This route was just as twisty but hugged the cliff the entire time. Thus we were not only creeping along hairpin turns as we did in Sicily, but there was a sheer drop to the sea on one side of the car for the last one-third of the drive. I confess that I could not have done it but Frank did an amazing job, especially given that the Dutch couple in the Volvo infront of us were having some challenges with their wider car.
Eventually we made it to Vernazza, supposedly the most picturesque of the 5 villages. We parked outside the village – only residents can park closer and there aren’t any cars allowed in the village – and started the walk down to the sea. It started to sprinkle en route but rain never really materialized. It was enough to be tortuous since we were both dying for the toilet but not enough to warrent breaking out the rain jackets. We toured the entire village looking for a public toilet and wound up standing in the unreasonably long line at the train station for the only one in town.
Travel tip #25: scout out the public conveniences before you need them. You may not make the best decisions if your eyeballs are floating.
Suitably relieved, we decided to actually explore a bit. This was another stupidly picturesque place complete with stark church, churning seas, brightly colored albeit fading buildings, all built into the side of a mountaion at the edge of the sea. As we drove down, we terraced vinyards where grapes were growing at a pitch steep enough to make your nose bleed. And so were the buildings here. Stacked on top of each other between land and sea, it was intriguing toI think a) how they got this way, and b) how on earth anyone lives there now. Apparently, tourism is huge and there is a hiking trail that connects the 5 villages. It’s now on my bucket list.
We found a seafront cafe with a reasonable cover charge and ordered lunch.
Travel tip #26: when you are a captive audience, restaurants can charge you just to sit down. we paid 2 euros each for the pleasure of occupiying one of their chairs. {grrr}
Gluten free options were limited but we opted for the seafood risotto and a half liter of house white. Today I was nice enough to share some with Frank since he was not going to drink very much before the drive back up the mountain to get back to civilization. Of course I forgot that seafood would have come straight from the sea that I was sitting next to. The clams and muscles were fine, the calmari was probably frozen but that was okay too. The whole jumbo prawns with heads and everything attached nearly did me in. I managed to slay the sea creatures in the serving bowl and enjoyed the rest of the lunch.
Since the sun had come out during out lunch, we wandered about again taking new pictures of the scenery with clearer skies and brighter lighting. This included walking into a little cove where there were more cairns in one place than I have ever seen in my life. I know it’s a hiker thing and there were lots of hikers in town – more people were carrying hiking poles than were without them – but this was amazing!
Eventually we realized that it was time to head back so the climb back to the car park began. This was followed by the drive along the sometimes frightening road we took down into the village but somehow the rally driver in Frank rose to the challenge. I confess there were times when he was grinning like a madman and I just closed my eyes. But he’s happiest when he’s driving and I’m happiest when I’m not.
Once out of the national park, the toll road back to town was far less than exciting. We returned the rental car and headed back to the ship to begin the dreaded “last night of the holiday”activy: packing. One thing that worked in our favor: the budget airline with the nonstop flight to Glasgow doesn’t fly on Thursdays so we have one night in Rome before flying on Friday. That means that we don’t have to do the “where to pack the liquids” shuffle just yet. Thee decisions are especially challenging on a cruise since your main luggage needs to be outside your cabin before bed. If you want to shower in the morning and have anything like, say, tootpaste available to you, it needs to go in your carry one that stays with you. If you are going straight to the airport, that can be challenging.
Travel tip #27: An extra day in Rome is never a bad thing.
So tomorrow we “have” to stay in Rome before beginning our visit to Scotland. It made our packing much easier so we had lots of time for our last night on the ship: the final visit to the Martini bar, the final dinner in the fancy French restaurant, and the final double Bailey’s nightcap.
Dubious data for today:
12,010 steps and 37 floors. (Not much walking but none of it flat!)
244 kilometers
39 miles to the gallon
47 swear words each on the scary road
The Cannon Family's travel blog 