Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence

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34. Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence

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I wanted to hike part way back toward Monterosso with my new camera (at least to the postcard-view overlook above Vernazza), but it was grey and raining, and I was running late anyway. I took an 8:55 train headed south, arriving in Pisa about an hour later. A couple of hours in Pisa seems quite sufficient. The guidebooks describe a bus route which goes from the train station to the Leaning Tower, but when I looked at the bus stop I found every number except for this one. It's only a half hour to walk anyway, so the bus isn't really necessary.

The Leaning Tower is a sight worth stopping for, but when I saw it I was surprised that it wasn't larger than it is. It isn't the only leaning thing around. It shares a well manicured green lawn with the beautiful Duomo and Baptistery, both of which also tilt noticeably away from the vertical. I bought a ticket to climb the tower, which can only be done on a tour, and had to wait 45 minutes for an entry time. This gave me time to visit the Duomo, which has quite a spectacular interior. The Pisan style is unique, with almost zebra-like black and white stripes everywhere. The tower climb was fun; you get to go all the way to the very top, which can be slightly frightful when you're on the side tilting downward and looking over the edge. Here I chatted with a guy from Spokane — always amusing for conversation thanks to the recent news of its hideous right-wing anti-gay mayor, who was however discovered to be chasing after 17-year-old boys and offering them jobs in his office. He was staying in Florence for a month with a friend (who didn't like heights and so wasn't on the tower). So I wondered if I would run into them again, and in fact I did later on in Capri!

From here I decided to take a short detour on a creaky old train to Lucca. After the showers in Pisa, the weather had become much more pleasant by the time I arrived in Lucca. But I was quite annoyed to find that there was no left luggage! There were actually lockers, but they seemed to be in a state of complete disrepair. So I wheeled my suitcase northeast about a quarter of the way around the wall encircling the city, and then I didn't much feel like going any farther. At that point I headed west into the town and then south back to the station. People say Lucca is wonderful, but I couldn't really see what the attraction was, possibly just because I was so annoyed by the luggage problem.

From here it was only another hour to Florence, where I arrived around 16:30. On the approach I almost started to feel as if I were back on the San Francisco peninsula. The hills here remind me of those south of the city — long ridges with deep green trees and golden dry grass. Getting out at the train station, I felt a great deal of paranoia thanks to my experience in Milan — so I was constantly glancing nervously over my shoulder. But there was less to be frightened of here than in Milan, though it was crowded enough that it made sense to be careful.

I walked south for about 15 minutes, going just past the Duomo. The architecture is stunning and unique. It's heady to be here at the center of the Renaissance. And the Dei Mori, run by Brits and Americans, was definitely my favorite place to stay in all of Europe. Other places had much better views (Lauterbrunnen, Santorini), but this one was easily the best on the inside. It was one of the most expensive places I stayed (€90), but nevertheless it was also a great value. The room was excellent and very comfortable, and the service very helpful — they spent probably half an hour when I arrived describing different restaurants and sights in the city. And how cool is it to stay just down the street from Dante's house, on the street named after him!

The first stop after unpacking was for fantastic ice cream just down the street — Florence seems to have the best. Walking south past the Palazzo Vecchio for the first time is another one of the great moments that always stays with you. Copies of monumental Renaissance sculptures line the square — most notably the beautiful pose of Michelangelo's David, but there are quite a few other naked men, too. I was tired, but I climbed the stairs of the high Campanile, just next to the magnificent dome of the Duomo. The sunset here was sublime. Shafts of soft golden-red light pierced the clouds and moved over the rolling green hills and across the city which fills the valley. It's easy to see why this is the place where people first began to exchange oppressive medieval dogma for the lights of reason and humanism. Now if only those lights weren't so endangered today by the likes of Bush and the fundamentalists!

I stumbled across fantastic street music in Piazza della Reppublica (and throughout Europe, for that matter), and then had dinner at La Spada, another of those places recommended by everyone. A Finnish couple in line behind me were visiting for the second night in a row. I think this was the only place on my trip where I actually waited in a long line for food, but it was worth it. I had the Florentine specialty bristecca, which in this case was a delicious, if slightly savage, steak — a huge slab of quite rare meat, with very tasty seasoning. I had previously had this at a restaurant around the corner from my house in San Francisco, Il Cantuccio, but in a slightly more civilized form — thinly sliced with arugula on top. Both were excellent, but in very different ways. A great thing about Italy was that I was drinking a lot of wine. It was often as cheap as water! Which seems odd, since wine should in theory be a lot more labor intensive to produce. After dinner I had a glass at a very pleasant café called Piccolo.

Jonathan's Travel Blog :: Europe

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