Cinque Terre (1) - Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

 First of the Cinque Terre towns from La Spezia, Riomaggiore (as with the rest) was cliffside town which for some reason had lots of boats, and even a dive site! Suffice to say that each town had a charm of its own, Riomaggiore for me was personally produce heaven. We saw tonnes of oversprouting tomato plants, prior to which bits of such vines were only seen packed into uniform plastic boxes in various supermarkets. The lemon trees heaving with beautiful golden fruit. All over the Cinque Terre we saw big sickly looking trees that bore bundles of green fruit. It was only in the walk to Corniglia that I finally deduced that these fig trees!

From the top of the cliff, we looked across the sea and saw the 4 other cliffs within which the other towns resided. Little grocers peppered the town centre (not quite the town centre as the village was built in a very narrow manner inland) and peddled their wares, fresh fruit, vegetables, pesto, pine nuts, fresh pasta, baskets of foccacia, oh i could go on. All of this wonderful ingredients presented themselves on a plate at Billy's in Manarola, a restaurant that i'd highly highly recommend if anyone is headed that way.  

Pisa

27 August 2010

Tuscany, Italy

I guess it isn't hard to guess where I spent my 29th birthday . I've been talking about wanting to see the phenomemon of this leaning tower. Indeed, it leaned. Here is a photo of the tower juxtaposed against the cathedral next door. The city itself rests on the right side of the River Argno in the Ligurian sea. Once a super maritime power in the 11th century, the city of Pisa is frankly, a shadow of its former magnificence. Unlike Venice, the other Italian city that I am in love with (and frankly, all Italian cities I've been to so far blow me away), Pisa is its dull sleepy cousin, the only hustle and bustle is in the Piazza del Duomo, yes, tourists posing in their make believe Herculean world. The rest of Pisa is dotted with beautiful Roman architecture, but very much a city left behind in times.  An afternoon in Pisa city itself sufficed, and we couldn't wait to scramble off to La Spezia after the crabby waitress gave us a dirty look for asking for 'Aqua Robinetto' (that's 'tap water' to you and me) and serving up the most vile looking (and tasting) tagiatelle con porcini. Now, why how can you bring yourself to do that in Italy? My friends, those of you who say that you've never had a bad meal in Italy, you've obviously never been to Pisa's High Street cafes. So much so that even the 3€ slice of pizza at the Piza Centrale looked dressed in its Sunday best. La Cinque Terre however, was a completely different story altogether...