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Our next 'port' of call!

April 18th 2003

Its day four and we have lots to tell!

First of all, Florence. The city was magical, with the buzz of London. It was far bigger than Pisa, with a population that was around four times that of Pisa.

Hopping off the train, we set out across the city on foot being drawn firstly to the Duomo, a cathedral made of marble - It was majestic! Along with the baptistry, we were already pretty excited about the prospects of a great day!

The streets, filled with Gucci shops and Prada handbags, were beautiful enough on their own, but as we continued further into Firenze, we discovered what was to be the highlight of our day - the Ponte Vecchio: an historic crossing over the River Arno which was lined with jewelry shops and had a commanding view over the surrounding city.

Overall, Firenze was fantastic.

Soon enough, it was time to move on to our next port of call (literally) which was La Spezia. The journey (which initially promised to be exciting... traveling on a EuroStar Italia train) turned out to be a minor nightmare! Unaware to us, our tickets had reserved us specific seats and by the time we had boarded, and the train was in motion, we realised that we were 3 carriages away from our seats! We struggled through the train with both cases, and by the time we had found our seats, there was only 20 minutes of "comfort" to enjoy!

After this, things began to look up. We found our pensione Gatto di Mare (literally Cat of the Sea) in no time, and were warmly welcomed by Firoella and Giovanni.

Staying in their sixth floor apartment, we were made peach herbal tea, and shown our room. The whole place is lovely. Our balcony overlooks the busy Via Milano. Even Kiko the cat gave us a warm welcome.

After getting to know each other, me and Rich set out to see the town. We walked down to the port through the town, and as we returned back to our pensione, we sat by a fountain, listened to our Ipod, and chilled for an hour or so!

After a good night's sleep, we woke to a Ligurian style breakfast of Focchio-cream-cheese toasties, waffles with fruit salad and THEN pumpkin and almond cake!! Extremely delicious, and very unusual to us!

After this great start to the day, we headed to the port and boarded a ferry which would take us to Porto Venere, a small coastal town with a medieval castle overlooking the coastline.

After a short wait, we hopped onto another boat heading for the infamous Cinque Terre (five lands). These tiny villages balanced on cliff faces were linked with a small, 5 hour long path. Our boat took us to Venazza firstly, and once we had explored this area, we began the walk to Camogli and the other villages.

This lead us to where we are currently writing from: Riomaggiore, the last village, where we have finally hooked up with the coastal rail link which will take us back to La Spezia!

p.s. Yet again, we have posted no pictures. Today, we found that this Internet cafe would have let us, but sadly we forgot the card! Ah well, we'll keep you all in suspense a little longer! Pictures to follow shortly......