October 24th, Lucca, 50k circuit

Now settled in our first apt. in Lucca, we set out to cycle the 20 k or so to Pisa. However, the skies looked threatening, so we decided to do more local loops. We rode south, then east for a highly rewarding route (all based on gussing from the Touring Club road map we have been using throughout our trip) through vineyards, orachards and small medieval stone built towns. One of the routes overlapped with the Via delle Acqua (road of water) and we saw many people collecting water in jerry cans, and bottles from springs. We finally rode along the acquaduct into Lucca and had lunch beside it. To cool down, we cycled on the city walls two times and Mauny made note of the distance for his future runs (must buy new shoes tmow). We bought some homemade tortellini at the neighborhood store and cooked in our room with a local bottle of wine and good books at our side.

October 23rd, Train: Lucca to Castlenuova di Garfagnana

Last night was a sleepless one, as Mauny and I discovered that the couple next door have are in a lovenest that is over the top.

We decided to take the very small train up into the Apuane mountains to the park hub at Castlenuova. They have a craft and food market there every Thursday. We arrived when it was shutting down and the park office would not open until the later afternoon. So we had coffee and walked around the multi-tiered quaint town. We decided to take the 3 p.m. train back and to just call the office for park info. Mauny had already obtained a good map for hiking and biking.

Back home, Mauny went to the supermarket while Elaine went to the internet. They found each other unexpectently in the small village behind their affitacamere. We had coffee, cooked and read.

October 22nd, Florence to Lucca by train

We woke in time to say goodbye to Elizabetta who was heading to work. She was setting up a very nice breakfast for us. We exchanged our contact info for Lucca hoping to have a better visit later, if she can come there. We then took the bike to the train station and caught an 11:30 train to Lucca. On the train, we met a very interesting young American guy, who was biking from European marathon to European marathon. He had just finished one in the Il Chianti area and was doing a side trip to Lucca, before heading up to Austria. Most of the time he was stealth camping. In Lucca, we made way to our first Lucca apt. which was simple, but clean, yet on the outside of the walls. We were happy to have a sink in our room, so that we could continue to cook and clean dishes in the room. Mauny got a safe place to store the bike. We went and had coffee, bought groceries and settled in for the evening and began some more planning.

October 21st, Train to Florence

We had rain last night, but woke to clearing skies and were able to wipe down the tent to pack it dry. We had breakfast and went to the train station to catch the train to La Spezia and the Firenze (Florence). There we walked to the apt. of our Servas host who was storing our bike. Elaine had phoned her on Sunday night and left a message that we would arrive on Tuesday night (she was expecting us either Tuesday or Wednesday and was going to host us as well on one of those nights, so that we would not have to go to the campground in Florence for just one night). She told us she would be home at 5 both of these nights. When we arrived at 5:30, she was not there and we waited on her stoop. Mauny went to the local Coop to get some pizza which we ate while waiting. Around 7, Elizabetta was sauntering toward us with her bike and was very surprised to see us. She never got our message. Elaine left the message, thinking she was being prodded to do so by the recording in Italian. Lesson learned: always have direct contact to confirm. Nonetheless, she was very generous and had us up and made sure we were comfortable. She had to leave to go to meditation and a potluck and we stayed and began repacking our bags. Unfortunately, she came home around midnight and were were already asleep.

October 20th, Cinque Terre, 10k hike

An aside to our trip itinerary. We received confirmation from our potential Lucca digs that we can stay there from November 3-20, at a negotiated reduced rate of 35 Euro per night (and with a small kitchen to use). We had another backup accomodation in Lucca for the time prior and called them and also received confirmation for October 22nd-29th. We now just figure out what to do from the 29th-3rd, when there are no accomodations in Lucca due to a comic book convention there. Always more logistics to figure out....

Today was a superb day of hiking. We too the train to Riomaggiore and began a hike, this time heading south toward our destination of Porto Venere. After 3k, it began to rain, and were were wondering if we should just abort the hike. But fortunately, there was a coffee house right there when it started. While there, the rain stopped, and we continued on. The hike was just stunning, with varied terrain of pines, chesnut trees, rock scrambling, and down a deep ascent with a stunning view of a medieval castle and another medieval ediface on the point. It was glorious to behold. Porto Venere was a quaint seaside harbour, where Lord Byron and other poets would spend their time. It was like a movie set for a pirate movie. We took the ferry back this time to Riomaggiore, where we caught the train to Levanto. In Levanto, we decided to splurge and have a Ligurian (the province of Cinque Terre) seafood dinner. We found a cute restaurant on a quiet side street.

October 19th, Cinque Terre, 10k hike

It rained lightly last night, but now we were not worried, being in our new waterproof tent. The day ended up being mild and sunny. After breakfast at our site, we took the train from Levanto to the first northern Cinque Terre town, where we would begin our hike through these 5 cliff-clinging towns, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The towns are absolutely gorgeous, hugging cliffs on one side, and plummeting down to the sea on the western side. The houses are in subdued pastel colours, with each town having narrow streets and small harbours. From a distant, it looks like a Christmas train set landscape. The trails were steep at times, but we were in shape for the task. They cut through terraced vineyards and olive groves. Each picnic area had an assigned cat, with a bowl and sometimes its own tent (you can buy t-shirts of this). The Italians show their love everywhere we have gone.

At the fifth town of Riomaggiore, we caught the last evening ferry back to Levanto. We had planned to get off at Riomaggiore and take the train back and were suprised to see that we had actually landed in Levanto. This time, the Italian logistics surprise worked to our advantage...and the view from the sea with the sun setting was picturesque and rewarding.

Back at the campsite, we ate and showered. Now, there is only one thing wrong with the campsite, which we learned about last night...it has a neurotic town clock that not only sounds on the hour, but also has a different bell for every 15 minutes. So the worst time of night is 12:45, when the first bell tolls 12 times, and second bell tolls 3 more times. The best time of the night is at 1 a.m., when the first bell only tolls one time. Tonight we will put in ear plugs.

October 18th, Train - Lucca to Cinque Terre

This morning we approached our hotelier regarding a longer stay and she asked that we write to her and explain what we wanted. We think this a great place to explore the Apuane Alpi region, much smaller than the Alps. Also, the weather, ironically, is very mild here, and with a place to stay during November, we can take advantage of the nice days and still hike and bike. When it rains, we will have a place to hide that is nice with kitchen, a sitting area, and a city full of coffee shops, and other distractions.

We caught the train to La Spezia, where Mauny handled getting our Cinque Terre passes for the next 3 days. We were amazed how many tourists were still here this late in the season. Then we hopped a train to Levanto, a small seaside town just north of the Cinque Terre "park" area, and with a few trials and errors, found our way to the AcquaDulce year-round campground, which had been recommended to us by a German couple we had met during our ride in Tuscany. Appropriately named, it has a fresh spring coming out in the middle of the campground. It had very modern, but unisex bathrooms and a nice place for cooking with tables. We have found that the other campgrounds we visited to be void of tables. Elaine found the unisex situation strange, although not uncomfortable. She felt that she had been allowed into the very most private areas of the daily routines, of men, in particular, being privy to the routine of females in bathrooms as well as that of her own husband. As an anecdote, Mauny, in contrasts, had spent a year in a Kibutz in Israel where boys and girls showered together...

We went into town, bought groceries and cooked dinner and had nice hot showers.

October 17th, Florence to Lucca, By Train

This morning, just like magic and prior to our rising, our efficient German scout troupe vanished...tents struck and packed away like clockwork. We were impressed. We struck down our tent and checked out, only to find that the Italian trains and buses were on strike (so we were told). We were planning to take the bus to the train station, but had to walk. En route, however, we saw that indeed some buses were running, but otherwise all was strangely quiet on the streets. We thought it must be a notorious Italian work slowdown. We walked the 3k to the station and got a train ticket to Lucca without a problem. In fact, it was awfully quiet at the train station, perhaps because many people couldn't access by bus. The ride only took about 1.5 hours.

In Lucca, we headed to the tourist office and we found a very charming affitacamere (room for rent) right near but inside its medieval walls. It had a kitchenette and shared bathroom. We loved it and our brains starting to get ideas about the next step in this journey. After we walked around and on top of the city walls, our hearts were won. It is a clean city, with small canals flowing, spring oozing around twon with people filling dozens of bottles each, and wonderful walking paths going in and out of the walls and with culture to boot. So we put thought to exploring staying here after going to Cinque Terre and reclaiming our bike from storage in Florence.

October 16th, Florence 0 km

Today was our transition from cycling to hiking and we were a little sad to leave our bike temporarily behind. This a.m, we separated what we needed for the next small portion of our trip. This is when we get to unzip our converitble front panniers in order to be able to use them as backpacks.

In the afternoon, we rode our bike with only the rear panniers on through town again, with the usual chaos, expect this time we knew the way (including where we could steal against traffice on a one way street). We hauled our rear panniers and bike up to the 2nd floor apt. of our Servas host, where she would kep our bike on her balcony, and our bags in her office. We sat and talked with her and her friend for awhile and Mauny got a lot of giggles helping the girls compose a letter to a man they had met at an Israeli-Palenstinian peace conference, while Elaine copied Servas addresses for Rome from her book (Elaine did not bring these on the trip, and now we both think perhaps visiting Rome could be nice, as Mauny recommends). We left shortly after dark and made our way back via bus to our last night at the Michael Angelo campground.

October 15th, Florence, 0k

Another night at Michelangelo campground in Florence. Today, we walked around seeming more piazzas, cathedrals, and statues. We would probably have more interest in Florence, had we not already seen so much in smaller portions in smaller and quainter towns...and Florence was charging more for it. Also, the number of tourists present is just overwhelming. Thus, our art friends will be greatly disappointed that we did not take advantage of this city as much as we should have. We did climb up the dome of the Duomo, which was pretty impressive, ironically much like climbing our own half-Dome in Yosemite.

With news of the economy, we are exploring ways to either shorten our trip or stay put somewhere that we enjoy and can save money off-season.

This evening, our little corner of the campground was encroached upon by a large troop of German scouts (boys and girls). They talked late into the night, as we did when we were their age.

October 14th, Florence, 15k

Elaine was up ill all night with some kind of stomach virus. She was thankful that there were not many people around our immediate sight as she gripped on and over a tree most of the night, in and out of the tent, zipping and unzipping. She felt better by the morning, but without much sleep. So our first task for the morning was to get some anti-nausea medicine.

Today we walked to the Tuesday cheap market on the outskirts of Firenze, along the Arno River. However, we did not find much that interested us. We are looking for shoes for the upcoming rainy season in particular. Afterwards we walked to the secondhand English bookstore, where we did further research on Morocco, Siciliy, etc. and Elaine picked up two novels.

We got back to the camp in the afternoon, and then biked to a Servas host, to speak with her about hosting her first bike only guest. We need to leave our bike somewhere while we go to Lucca and Cinque Terre, taking only the panniers that convert to small backpacks as well as our tent and sleeping bags,etc. Mauny successfully negotiated the madness of the Firenze streets. Everybody rides bikes, no matter what the attire or age, and they claim the streets, in spite of the number of cars. We are quite impressed with their attitudes in this regard. We arrived early, and so had coffee at the local bar.

Our host, Elizabetta, embraced taking our bike in the next couple of days. We left thankful for yet another host helping us and biked back to our camp, but on smaller streets this time, as it was growing dark. Trip accomplished.