Leaning, leaning....

Yesterday saw us successfully negotiate the Italian Autostrade system and travel some 450kms in our little Nissan Micra (we have done over 600km on just over half a tank of gas). Interestingly, despite their reputation for outrageous driving, we’re finding that driving here is easier than at home and the signage and signals etc are the best we’ve come across anywhere.

First stop was Pisa, which without the leaning tower would not be otherwise worthy of visiting. However, the tower IS worth a bo-peep. Coming down to the overcast and humid coast from the elevated cool of our hotel, the first lady realised she had applied too many clothing layers! Interestingly, it is just near Pisa where the story of the wooden toy Pinoccio was inspired and so there are various references to wee chap with the long nose.

After Pisa it was off up the coast toward Genova for a stop at the little coastal villages of Cinque Terre or five lands – more actually, five villages. Chris Richards at Northside College encouraged us to go there and we’re glad that he did. The 5 villages are quaint little clusters built on the steep sides of coastal cliffs, tucked into the “V” between the ridges. They pull their fishing boats up into the streets and then climb the steep steps and paths that lead to their houses. The photos fail to capture just how steep the streets and steps are. As you can see we tucked into a very nice late lunch (4pm) of fresh Bass. Yum.

The climb back up the car was tough going for Judy and our clothing was drenched by the time we got there, especially for those of us who wore too much!! To get to Cinque Terre we had to pass through the port city of La Spezia. From the hills it reminded us so much of our native Wellington that we included a photo here.

Near our hotel and in the middle of no-where, we stumbled upon a large Designer Clothing Outlet mall – all the famous brands from this part of the world… Ralph Lauren, Benetton, etc. However, the thing that most fascinated the chocoholic in our team was the big Lindt Choc Shoppe. The pic shows her drooling in front of the huge bins of the world’s best. After a moment of worrying about the extra weight in our luggage, I quickly realised that even with the best intentions of gifts for folk back home, it wasn’t even going to make it out of Italy!! CIAO, CIAO.