Woke up at 5:30am to go to Roma Termini (second largest train station in Europe) to catch a train to La Spezia. It turns out we woke up too early as we had no trouble finding the platform etc. I read there are something like 30 or 40 platforms and supposedly it can be very confusing, but it seemed pretty straightforward. The train left mostly on time at 7:00 and somehow over the next several hours got 45 minutes behind - I'm not sure why. The journey was pleasant - much better than travelling by plane or bus in our opinion. They had round bales here, whereas in Turkey they had square bales - this for some reason interests me - me and the tour guide in Ephesus talked about bales.
We arrived in La Spezia in the region called Liguria (where pesto and focaccia came from, also we were here earlier in Livorno and Genoa) and caught a taxi to our hotel in between Tellaro and Lerici (it is basically one big cluster of towns from La Spezia south, hard to tell where one ends and the next begins). It was funny when I went to the taxi stand to watch the drivers sort of argue amongst themselves whose turn it was to take the next passengers - they obvisouly have some kind of pecking order or system at the stand.
I had initially wanted to visit the Cinque Terre ("The 5 Lands") after reading about it, but apparently it is completely mobbed in high season. The whole area here is a series of fishing villages that have been used for tourism for the past few decades. Fishing is still pretty important here, but vacationing people are where the money is for their economy. I chose Tellaro because it has the Cinque Terre feel but because there isn't a train that goes here (you need a car or cab) it is much less busy. We're planning to take a boat from Tellaro to Cinque Terre on Sunday just to check it out, but even if we don't this place is incredible.
The hotel is perched on top of the hill that leads down to the rocky beach area. They've built up a really nice private beach and there are "canoes" (we would call them kayaks) that guests can use. We enjoyed some time at the beach before going for a nap and then supper. The town is super clean, the air conditioning works really well, and everyone is friendly - what the hell did we leave Italy behind? No wait it is still hotter than hell so we're still here. The water is very clean, clear, and an excellent temperature. I would say the water in the Aegean off Mykonos / Greece is slightly nicer looking, but the lack of wind was really nice.
We went further into the village of Tellaro and it was right out of what everyone imagines the Italian Riviera to be.
We found a place selling sandwiches made with bread right out of the oven. It was a food highlight for me. The focaccia with some kind of cream cheese and meat toppings was also very good.
We explored the village a bit more after supper before returning to our hotel.
Scarlett and I went for an evening swim and we had the beach to ourselves. It's crazy that the water is so nice at 9 pm.
At 8am Tina and I went and had the free breakfast that I apparently booked with this place a few months ago. It was probably the best hotel breakfast I've ever seen - I wish they offered it at lunch because we don't really eat much for breakfast. I assume I didn't have a choice but to get it since I usually opt out of those. Anyway, we caught a bus to Lerici (the main town, about the size of Warman in population, whereas La Spezia is about the size of Moose Jaw).
Lerici is a really nice place, we checked out the market and then took a boat ferry back to Tellaro. We also found a place selling snorkel and goggles to use later. The view from the ferry to Lerici and Tellaro was great and easier than catching the bus again. Tellaro is also really nice, feels really "unspoiled" with really just the main square having a few little restaurants and cafes.
Afterwards Tina and I wandered back to the hotel to pickup the kids and go swimming. We spent several hours down at the beach with the goggles and snorkel. My 10-15 year old underwater camera doesn't have hookups for this laptop, but anyway it was really cool to snorkel around and see fish. We all had a good time. Most of the staff and guests here are Italian and speak little english, so ordering food from Pietro the friendly waiter at the beach restaurant is a fun (sort of ) challenge. He mostly got our order right, and what he brought us was good. We swam / floated a few hundred meters out to a rocky island and took a look around. Really fun day. It is really refreshing to see Italians taking it easy and relaxing - seems a world away from the ones we encountered in Rome. Oh and did I say the air conditioning works well here?
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