Europe Trip - Day 7 Pisa, Italy

On Day 7 we headed to see one of the wonders of the world Leaning Tower of Pisa. After a lovely breakfast in Cinque Terre we took a 2 hour train to Pisa.

Eating breakfast at a road side cafe with beautiful sea views

Pisa is known to have a lot of pick pockets so we walked carefully and attentively through the hordes of tourists at the Pisa train station. With our passports tucked in the money belt we were less worried. We started walking from the train station to the leaning tower which is quite a bit of walk.

beautiful town of Pisa

Pisa is a typical Italian city with narrow beautiful streets, colorful houses, beautiful piazzas (squares). By now we kind of knew what to expect :). We kept marching ahead and reached the leaning tower of Pisa. Well, the leaning tower really LEANS :) ... it leans quite a bit. The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex which is called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli which means Field of Miracles. There is a beautiful cathedral and couple of other magnificent buildings in the piazza. Check out the video below which gives a overview of the place.

Leaning tower is a medieval engineering marvel which is about 8 stories tall and is made up impressive white marble columns and arches. It sort of looks like a huge wedding cake which got knocked off a little :).

We took the standard touristy pictures with the pose of trying to hold the falling tower as it leans. There were hundreds of people there taking a similar picture. There were lots of Indian tourist groups here.

The tower looked really beautiful and is well worth a visit. We spend some time in the garden there admiring the marvelous tower.

On our way to the tower we located a Indian restaurant as we were craving some curry after eating Italian food for several days now. So we headed back to the Indian restaurant. The restaurant was owned by a very sweet man who was originally from Chennai. We made small talk with him and he told us how he came to Pisa and that he has been living in Italy for 18 years with his family. He served us awesome tadka daal, rice, naan and curries. Our taste buds were totally satisfied and we thanked him for serving us amazing food. Pisa had lot of Indian and Bangladesh shops and restaurants. Happy with our meal and sight seeing we headed back to Cinque Terre in the afternoon.

It was almost 6 pm by the time we reached back. The only thing left to do in Cinque Terre was the scenic hike which spans across the five towns. The entire hike takes about 5 hours but the most scenic and difficult part of the hike is from Monterosso to Vernazza. The tourists that we met there were telling us how their feet were aching from the difficult hike. But our feet had become used to the constant walking and had stopped complaining. Also we were totally happy about our routine of applying tiger balm and massaging our feet before going to bed so that they were ready to tackle the next day.

Starting the hike

The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza takes about 1.5 hours one way and on the way back you can just catch the train. We started hiking around 7 pm. We had earlier in the day bought the tickets for the hike but if you hike after 7 pm it is free. So we basically wasted our money on the tickets which we never used. By 7 pm the weather was pleasant and just perfect for the hike. As we started the hike the initial part was fun and mostly easy. But then there was a huge stretch of steps which literally killed us, at least me. Rakesh and Rishi Bhaiya seemed to be doing OK or maybe they were just pretending to make fun of me. Needless to say, the views of the sea and mountains and the towns which were now dazzling with all the street lights were spectacular. There were lots of pretty wild flowers on the way. We just soaked up the fresh air and beautiful views on the hike.

beautiful town of Vernazza in the background

Finally we reached Vernazza and weren't in mood of eating dinner due to our heavy Indian lunch. So we just grabbed some fruits from a local vendor and headed back to relax in our cosy B&B.

Check out more pics here.

Europe Trip Day 6 - Cinque Terre, Italy

By day 6 we were exhausted by the incessant walking, packing bags and catching the Eurail every morning to head out to a different city. The much needed break was on its way as we headed out to Cinque Terre. 2 days in Cinque Terre were supposed to be relaxing and without a typical big must see list except for a half day side trip to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Cinque Terre is a portion of the beautiful Italian Riveria. Cinque Terre means "5 lands" and it is composed of 5 beautiful small towns located along the mediterrean sea. Out of the 5 towns Monterosso and Vernazza are the most visited. We also picked these two towns. It was hard to find any hotel to stay in the main Monterosso town so we stayed at a beautiful B&B in Pignone which was about 15 mins drive from Monterosso. Our B&B receptionist hardly knew any English so we had to use lot of hand signals and kind of play dumb charades to communicate with her. The B&B was located in a serene location, was very clean and nicely decorated. It was the first place I found a hair dryer in my room and I was so excited. My hair really needed some care :).

We started roaming around the town of Monterosso and saw a lot of American tourists with their Rick Steve's book in their hands. Cinque Terre is not among the well known tourism places in Italy even though it is very beautiful. The Rick Steve's book highly recommends it and that's why we had added it to our itinerary. So looking at majority of American tourists there we were joking that Rick Steve's has helped immensely in making Cinque Terre popular. Based on Rick Steve's recommendation we located a small bakery which served these amazing focaccia bread pizzas. We grabbed few of them and of course gelato for lunch. We then just strolled idyllically in the rustic town walking through the narrow alleys and beautiful cobbled streets observing the simple life in Cinque Terre. A fun observation was clothes drying on clotheslines outside most of the houses just like we see in India.

Beautiful sea views

Clothes drying outside the houses

The sunny weather and warm water were very inviting. So we rented a paddle boat for some fun in the water. We swam and did some paddle boating.

Rakesh taking a break

 After having fun in the water we headed to the neighboring town of Vernazza by train for dinner. The town of Vernazza was even more beautiful with its small streets, old houses, small vegetable and fruit markets and beautiful views of the sea.  Modern transportation is forbidden in Vernazza. There is a barrier which doesn't allow cars to enter except for Tuesdays when the supply trucks arrive. 

Checking out the vegetable and fruit markets

Some more strolling later we were ready for scrumptious Italian dinner. We ate some awesome pastas made with fresh locally grown ingredients and drank some local wine while enjoying beautiful sea views from our outdoor seats in the restaurant. Then we hopped on to the train back to Monterosso. We arrived at Monterosso almost at midnight and were worried that we might not find a cab to get back to our B&B as there are only couple of taxis that run in the town. The two cab drivers handle taking the tourists around. As it is a small town you can cover it easily by feet so there is no need of cab. However we were staying a little far off from the town. Luckily the cab driver showed up and we got a ride back to our B&B.

Enjoying the local wines and pastas

View from our table

The first day in Cinque Terre was very relaxing and a vacation from our busy vacation :).

Check out more pics of the day here.

Europe Trip Day 5 - Venice, Italy

Woke up in the morning with a bad headache as I could not sleep on the train as we didn't get reservation for sleeping. We had to sit all night in spite of having Eurail first class pass. One of the things that we didn't like about the Eurail system was that even with the pass you need to make reservations and pay money for lot of the high speed trains. Though the reservation cost is much higher without the eurail pass. Also if you buy a global pass the only option is to get the first class pass but on lot of popular high speed routes the first class compartment is usually fully booked so you need to sit in second class. Anyway, we reached Venice around 10 am.

After seeing Venice in lots of movies we were totally looking forward to our day in the romantic city of Venice. As we exited from the train station in Venice we saw the huge Grand canal and numerous gondolas. It reminded us of Venetian at Las Vegas. The sight was mesmerizing. 

The Grand Canal

Rialto bridge in the background

We caught the vaporreti which is the public bus/ferry which people use to get around the islands. Venice has more than 100 small islands which are all connected by foot bridges. We were staying at Hotel Rio which was centrally located in the San Marco island and was a stone's throw away from the major attractions. However as we entered our room we realized that except for the location there was nothing impressive about the facilities here. There was barely any room to move and no breakfast. But Venice is an expensive place so we expected to pay little bit higher price for this location. As always we dropped off our bags and headed out.

So once you are in Italy you have to explore and eat all the yummylicious food. We grabbed a table at a small bistro and ordered some paninis and coffee. The paninis were delicious. We were happy and ready for the sight seeing.

Check out the gondolas

We headed out to see the famous St. Mark's Basilica. This is a huge beautiful cathedral which is located near Piazza San Marco and was a symbol of Venetian power and wealth in old times as was visible from the opulent design and architecture. As expected there was a huge line with tourists trying to beat the heat with gelatos. However Rick Steve's book mentioned that if we checked in our day pack and got a luggage ticket then we could show the ticket and enter directly. So we did exactly that. Rick Steve's book definitely has such useful tips and tricks for European travel. We felt sorry for the tourists who were wasting their time and energy standing in the line. The basilica was beautiful from inside with all the adornments and artistic works.

Near the basicilica

Inside the beautiful basicilica

It was a very hot day in Venice so we stopped by a gelataria to grab some gelatos. As you would know Italy is famous for its gelatos. So this was just a beginning of our gelato eating experience in Italy. They have so many flavors so each of us picked up different flavors so that we could sample a variety of flavors. We loved the gelatos and were definitely going to miss them in Seattle.

Next we headed to the famous Rialto bridge which is the biggest bridge on the island. We grabbed some Italian lunch here and enjoyed the views from the bridge.

Another view of Rialto bridge

Then we just strolled around the narrow cobbled streets which were filled with tourists. People were enjoying gelatos, taking pictures, feeding the pigeons, riding the gondolas and just having fun.

Beautiful narrow streets

Mask shop

At night the temperature cooled down a bit and we got some respite from the burning heat. No amount of sunscreen could protect us from getting tanned. We headed out the St. Marco's Piazza. Piazza is basically a square which is ideal for gathering and just hanging out. Wish there were some piazzas in Seattle too. There are a bunch of huge restaurants and hotels located near the piazza. Some hotels had live band playing beautiful music which made the atmosphere so romantic. You can order few glasses of wine and just enjoy the music and atmosphere. We just sat there and enjoyed till late in the night before we called it a day.

Night view

Beautiful live music

At the piazza

Our day in Venice was truly beautiful and romantic as expected so I would say Venice lived up to all the hype in the movies.  

Check out more pics of the day are here.