Florence to the Cinqueterre, Day 9 Italy

We left early for our train to the Cinqueterre on the Ligurian Sea of Italy’s
northwest coast.

La Spezia is the last big town before the Cinqueterre, and there we transferred
to the euro 1.20 “milk train” that connects the five Cinquettere
towns. We debarked at Vernazza, our Cinqueterre hometown.

The one road business area of the town rolls down a hill while the sides of
the road are hills in themselves and the buildings hug the road in beautiful
pastels. Rising above the buildings the hills are covered with terraces of
olive trees, grape vines, huge pomegranates, tomatoes, oranges, etc. There
are several restaurants and many très petits cafés , a couple
small groceries, the bakery, the meat shop, a couple internet places and shops
with gourmet regional fare, t-shirts, and souvenirs, of course. And cats, lots
of cats everywhere.

Guiliano, our landlord, met us and led us up the hill to our room. The view
from our veranda of the hills and the ocean was breathtaking. The air smelled
sweet with the many fruits and vegetables he was cultivating on his terraces,
and the birds sang in happy harmonies.

We explored the town, walking up to the church and the grade school, which
has 25 students. It was late afternoon and the school was closed up. I so wanted
to peek in the windows to see how a classroom was set up, but windows were
high above our reach. We continued up to the cemetery which overlooks the sea
and the town and were privileged to witness a beautiful sunset over the ocean.

Guiliano had recommended Il Gamberra Rosso for dinner. The presentation of
the food was artistry and portions generous. Bill had his dream dish: a plate
of locally caught anchovies, tomatoes and potatoes, and another dish that was
octopus. I had an excellent bean and barley soup and an exquisite mixed salad
that was the best salad of the trip to date. It included local green olives
with long stems; the olives unlike any I’d ever had before. The ambience
was very pleasant and I remember feeling deliciously spoiled.

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October 26th,2005 Uncategorized | No Comments

Florence, Day 8 Italy

We had a late morning reservation at the Galleria dell’Accademia which
houses Michelangelo’s David.

We started chatting to the couple behind us in line who were from Pacific
Palisades. I noticed the man had on a jacket with the logo of the letters “H” and “W” with
a lion in the middle. So I just said, “Oh, that reminds me of Harvard-Westlake.” The
man said, “It IS Harvard-Westlake.” So I said, “I’m
a Westlake girl,” and the woman said, “I’m a Westlake girl,
too!” We had lots of fun talking about how great Westwood Village was
decades ago and reminiscing about the old restaurants and bookstores.

When we got in we rented the audio-guides. All I can say is that David is
more riveting than I ever could have predicted. He is so commanding, so poignant,
so moving that I couldn’t look anywhere else in the room. You know you
are in the presence of something exceptional.

We visited Santa Croce Church, built in 1212, which houses the tombs of Galileo,
Michelangelo, Dante, and Machiavelli. The church contains a lot of precious
art and we spent quite awhile here, in fact, we were one of the last ones out
as they closed it for the evening.

We enjoyed a very good dinner at Il Ritrovo which we located down a dark street
below street level. It was in our guide and had been recommended to us, but
we were the only ones there the whole evening. The candles continued to burn
on each table and the waiter catered to us—so special to be the only ones
in this setting, and the food was scrumptious.

This was our last night in Florence. We hadn’t even begun to touch her
wonders and she deserved a lot more time, but how fortunate we were to have
this time there.

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October 25th,2005 Uncategorized | No Comments