Karen and Tom Wanderings

We caught an early morning, uncrowded train out of Manarola to start an multi-segment trip to our next destination, Siena.  There were some tight connections, but fortunately, everything went smoothly.  Siena is probably the largest Tuscan hilltop town, and it was certainly one of the highlights of our trip.  The town is known for it's vibrant inter-neighborhood rivalries that center around a couple of horse races they have in the very large town square.  Flags, statues, and engraved placards on buildings let you know which neighborhood you're in.  We spent a full day, plus another couple of half days mostly just wandering around the old city to our hearts' content ... mostly into remote corners away from the crowds.  As usual, there were lots of narrow streets going up and down and every which way ... with limited cars (residents and taxis only?).  And we crossed paths a few times with some neighborhood-based youth drum corps that were marching thr...

Manarola (our flat was located in the light green building in the upper left of the photo) After returning to La Spezia from Porto Venere, we grabbed a gelato and our roller bags from the hotel, and hopped on the local train to Cinque Terre.  This famous area is about 7 miles of rugged Mediterranean coast line, with 5 villages built into the hillsides.  There seems to be car access to these villages via narrow, winding roads, but the only vehicles we saw inside the towns were delivery vans early in the morning (to stock up all the shops for the busy day ahead).  For most everyone, there are trains, trails, and boats (weather permitting) to move about.  The entire area is a national park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We stayed 3 nights in Manarola, and it worked out very well.  We hiked both full days we were there, first between Manarola and Corniglia, and then between Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza.  There's a very famous trail connecting the to...

Porto Venere After saying goodbye to Patrick, Todd, and Bologna, we headed out on our own.  Our next primary objective was Cinque Terre on the northwest coast, but, based on glowing recommendations from Patrick, we decided to stop by Porto Venere ... which led to spending a night in neighboring La Spezia.  We had a straight forward trip ... including a cushy high-speed train (300 km/hr = 170 mph) and seamless transfer between trains.  The route went through Pisa (we caught a very quick glimpse of the top of the leaning tower), through some nice countryside, and by some pretty good looking mountains. Nice mountain view from the train La Spezia isn't really known as a destination, though we found it nice enough.  It's a major port city, with a main base for the Italian Navy, and a significant amount of commercial boats.  There also seemed to be a non-trivial number of super-yachts.  One of its main calling-cards, though, is as a jumping-off point for visiting...