Under The Tuscan Sun – Pisa and Cinque Terre

Tuscany region of Italy was finalized as our first travel destination for the new year. Ideally it would have been a perfect four day trip. However due a critical situation at work, leaves were not available and hence we had to be content with just a weekend trip. Luckily we were able to book tickets to and fro Pisa on Friday evening and Monday morning which ensured that we at least had two full days for the weekend.
In the age of low cost carriers which is all we can afford, reaching the airport can at times over compensate for the low airfare. Reaching from Basingstoke to London Stansted airport was one such journey which included a train journey to Waterloo, a  one-change tube journey to Liverpool street and finally another train journey to the airport resulting in a two and a half hours ordeal. All the pain was forgotten once we were welcomed at the wonderful Stansted airport which was far better than we anticipated. Flight was on time and in a couple of hours we arrived at the modest looking Galileo International Airport in Pisa, Italy. The bad news was that it was raining torrentially while the good one was that the forecast was sunny over the weekend. We prayed that it rains as much as possible tonight so that the clouds clear in the morning.
A taxi took us to our hotel which was remarkably at the Piazza de Miracoli or the Square of the Miracles right in front of the landmark for which everyone visits Pisa i.e. the leaning tower. Having viewed the tower six years back, our eyes were not that excited about it despite the miraculous marvel factor attached. For this tour, our sights were focused on the Cinque Terre region of Tuscany.  A sunny day as forecast would be just perfect to hit Cinque Terre.

Panoramic View of Piazza De Miracoli

The forecast was proved right and we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day. Seldom do you get a chance to just stroll out of your bed and end up staring at one of the wonders of the world. I did exactly that, viewing the miraculous leaning tower once again after six years. The scenes were identical as the place was flooded with excited tourists, only that their cameras had changed. Nikon Coolpix was completely replaced by iPhones on selfie sticks. This served as the perfect warm-up for our main destination. We were joined by my wife’s sister and her husband who had been visiting Rome and joined us for the Tuscany leg of the tour.  We headed off to the train station where we boarded the train towards Levanto.

Always Overshadowed By the Tower

Cinque Terre is a region in Tuscany, Italy where the hills meet the sea and it comprises of five villages – Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiorre . The villages look similar but all have their own character, most notable for colourful buildings with shutter windows providing the retro-effect. The combination of the sea and these colourful buildings on a hilly slope often provides the signature postcards for the region.
Our plan was to get off the train at Monterosso from where we would take the local train that would take us to the other villages all around four-five minutes away. We planned we would visit two villages – Riomaggiorre and Vernazza (in addition to Monterosso, our starting point) after which we would take the train back to Pisa. The train journey through multiple tunnels indicated that we had entered the hills.

Monterosso

We were greeted to the beautiful shimmering blue sea at Monterosso as we reached there at around 1 PM.  On inquiry at the information desk we learnt that the next train to the villages would be an hour away for which we need to buy an all-day Cinque Terre pass. Everything was arranged and it was now time to enjoy the sea, the sun and the great view. This was duly followed by a pizza and burger lunch overlooking the gorgeous sea.

The Perfect Lunch Setting Overlooking the Sea

Monterosso Beach

Riomaggiorre

We made a short journey through the tunnels in the mountains and reached Riomaggiorre.  There are trails for trekking the entire region through the mountains, however, due to time constraints and some trails being out of bounds for the winters, it was not an option.  We made our way to the sea side and enjoyed some great views of the sea and the village. Needless to say the main activity was photography. The view looked straight out of the postcard and it was a great feeling to soak in the view under the sun. 

We then walked around the place and purchased some souvenirs. The best sight to view were the colourful buildings from up close with the green windows. There was not much of a crowd but enough people to fill up some of the bars and cafes.

It was now time for our train which would take us to our next destination Vernazza. In the meanwhile, the hangover of running around Rome got to my brother-in-law and he slipped off to Vernazza and then to Pisa while we were busy taking photographs of the place.
Everything, from the weather to the trains seem to be working as per plan since the morning. So something now definitely had to go wrong else what will be the fun. It was time for some imperfection. While boarding the train to Vernazza, we never realized that we had boarded a fast train which did not stop at Vernazza and instead took us back to Monterosso.  Trains are there only by the hour so as the twilight set in we were struck at Monterosso.  It was not such a bad thing as we enjoyed the walks along with sea, which also had a ruined castle, offering a gorgeous view on a sea backdrop. The sea was the best at Monterosso so we certainly did not mind. A few scoops of ice-cream for the ladies and a lemon soda for myself re-energized us as we boarded the train to Vernazza.  

Back to Monterosso

Vernazza


By the time we reached Vernazza, twilight had set in and was now time for the setting sun. The view of the place looked similar. Colorful buildings meeting the sea. But the highlight of the moment was the sunset. It was the most gorgeous, clear sunset that I have ever witnessed where the sun looked more like a fluorescent, orange balloon going down into the sea. 

Sunset

This was another cute, little town with narrow lanes lined with shops, cafes and colorful buildings. The best part was there was no cars to be seen.
We walked back and planned to take the train back to La Spezia en route to returning to Pisa.  We thought we have had our share of unpredictability but little did we know that there was more in the offing. By this time we were quite hungry so we packed up a McDonalds meal at the La Spezia station before boarding the train back to Pisa in the knowledge that we had booked return tickets in the morning. As we were happily enjoying our Mc Nuggests in the train, the ticket collector gave us a nice surprise educating us that we were travelling without tickets. The tickets we had were just from Pisa to Monterosso and were just one away tickets. With the obvious language barrier it was tough for us to comprehend or understand what the guy was saying because we clearly asked for return tickets in the morning. They were kind enough to give us some time to come to terms with this surprise and returned after a while with a bigger surprise that we now needed to pay a cool EUR 61 per head. Now even if we understood that, we were not going to take it so we refused to do so and made the generous offer of getting off the train at the next stop which was Massa. They were kind enough to agree to that and thus making our ride from La Spezia to Massa free of cost with some entertainment and memory to write about. We duly got off at Massa and purchased tickets to Pisa, thankfully from a manned counter and not a kiosk. No further complications followed and we reached Pisa at around 8-30 PM in the evening. After a bit of rest, we hopped across our hotel to have a sumptuous dinner at Il Toscano which surely must be one of the better restaurants in town. Not for nothing was the place called the Square of Miracles.