We took the short train ride along the Costa Ligure of Levante from the most southeastern of the five villages to the most northwestern village of Cinque Terre, Monterosso al Mare. We checked into our apartment room and took a quick look around the "new" part of the village. Having dropped off our luggage, we backtracked to the pastel village of Manarola to see its tiny harbour from near the cemetary. Another short train ride took us to Vernazza to see the picturesque and lively harbourfront with its church and square. Having seen what we came to see, we headed back to Monterosso, this time to look around the old town. Eventually we headed back to the new town and the beach near our place, eating deep-fried calamari, shrimp, and red mullet.
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A basic breakfast with some great coffee was included before leaving San Marino. A bus, three trains, and approximately seven and a half hours after checking out, we were in Riomaggiore, the most southeastern of the five villages that comprise the famous Cinque Terre. The colourful village is quite small, so it didn't take us long to walk the main street and see the famous views. We then grabbed some homemade pasta for dinner - one in walnut sauce, the other in pesto. It was raining the next morning, but that didn't prevent us from exploring the area in a little more depth. We then checked out and moved on to Monterosso al Mare.
We enjoyed the first full breakfast buffet of this trip before taking a short local bus to the station to catch another bus to the independent republic of San Marino. The enclaved microstate is completely circled by Italy.
Basilica del Santo Pallazzo Publico in the Piazza delle Liberte We began our day with a good meal, and ended it with a delicious one: "Fabio Pizza" (Italian sausage, pepperoni, zucchini, & chunks of parmesan) and gnocchi with walnuts, Italian sausage, and radicchio in cream sauce with an Italian beer.
We nearly missed the train from Venice despite being at the waterbus very early. We then took a train for two hours and thirty-nine minutes, waited for a local bus that took another eight minutes, and still checked into our room in Rimini prior to ten am! Rimini only made our radar as the connecting point for access to San Marino. When I did some research, it seemed like an inexpensive beach resort getaway, so we decided to spend a day there despite it being late in the season. As it turned out, we completely missed the season, as it was practically a ghost-town. There was evidence of Rimini's beaches being equipped for thousands upon thousands of simultaneous visitors, but we walked for kilometres along the beach and the coastal paths without encountering more than a dozen people in total. Unfortunately, the "extra day" of leisure was necessary for Lisa to simply rest due to her increasingly painful and troubling ear problem. We still managed to walk Rivabella Beach, then San Giuliano Mane on the other side of the river all the way to the new marina. We walked back through the streets, picking up some groceries. Much of the afternoon was spent recuperating in the room, drinking tea and coffee and enjoying some sweets. I headed out at dusk to capture some images of the deserted summer playground of a beach. I walked past hundreds of changerooms, dozens of deserted playground areas, hundreds of picnic tables, empty concession stands, etc. I even found a statue I assume is "Baby Trump"!
Yesterday we walked around the heart of Venice; today we took to the water. Venice should not exist; it is crazy that it does. This city is built in a giant lagoon. Millions of wooden posts were pounded into the ground to form a foundation to build this city on water. Today we visited the basilica and then used a public transit day pass to cruise the Grand Canal on a waterbus, then to travel to Burano and back. Accademia Bridge Rialto Bridge After cruising up the Grand Canal, we also used the vaporetto service to travel to Burano, seeing other parts of the lagoon. Along the way we saw Murano, Mazzorbo, and other smaller islands. Burano was as bright and beautiful as I'd hoped. After taking the waterbus back, we explored some more on foot. Venice is touristy for good reason; it deserves to be. The fact that it exists should be enough, but Venice thrives. It is packed with history and beauty. I am also thrilled to report that its waters are significantly cleaner than when I previously visited way back in 1990. It was a fantastic day of sightseeing in a spectacular place despite how much Lisa's ear was bothering her. The following morning we had a very early departure from our hotel, but it gave us the opportunity to admire the lights of Venice. Due to confusion over the name of the waterbus stop that accessed the train station, we missed our stop and had to backtrack by catching the next boat in the opposite direction. This caused stress and panic, but ultimately left me grateful for the Italian tardiness that I'd been criticizing and complaining about earlier. Despite arriving late to the train station (running and sweaty), our train awaited us... all before sunrise, which we watched as we left Venice behind.
I've enjoyed checking out the huge variety of masks, but still cannot quite imagine what Venice must be like during Carnival.
We took a train to Venezia Santa Lucia, then the waterbus to San Zaccaria, where Lorenzo met us to lead us through the tiny streets to our four room hotel, just three minutes from San Marco square. The above photos were just getting there! Venice is a spectacle, a feast for the eyes (and the camera lens)… We had three nights staying in the heart of Venice and experienced clear blue skies with warm sunshine, as well as rain showers from cloudy skies. Ducal/Doge's Palace, San Marco Square and Basilica The Bridge of Sighs Venice is not very big, but it is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, tiny bridges, and the canals they cross. Rialto Bridge Accademia Bridge That was just one full day in Venice... we still have another to come!
We only saw Peschiera del Garda in passing as we rode the bus to the train station. Verona was on the way to Venice, so we explored it as much as we could with limited time and our luggage in tow. We walked all the way to the Arena, found a bench in the piazza, and then took turns exploring the surrounding area while the other stayed with the bags. Our primary target was the Castel Vecchio and its bridge. I hadn't intended to visit "Juliet's House" as it is admittedly a faux site; the government purchased the home of a family with a vaguely similar name to the one in Shakespeare's famous work and added a balcony to it in order to create a tourist sight for fans of the bard. I happened to notice a sign indicating that I was near the home, so I followed the arrow and joined the throng. It was crazy how people were flocking past a wall of gum & Band-Aids inscribed with declarations of love to see this place. The train and waterbus to Venice await...
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