Leaning In

Six weeks to explore Italy which is about 3/4 of the size of California. It was a given that we go to Rome, Florence, and Venice but where else? Generally, we like to be in a town for about a week and we also like seeing as much of a country as we can rather than just a few cities so that we have a more solid feeling for that country. The impression of California (okay it’s a state, but could be a country) would be dramatically different if you went just to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco rather than going to Truckee, Monterey and Berkeley or to Bakersfield, Weed and Chino. Now picture hitting Sonoma, Death Valley and Yosemite. We could go on, but we won’t. So along with seeing the big three; Rome, Florence, and Venice; we wanted some small cities and prioritized staying south to stay warm and then filled in the rest of the map by ease of train/bus transport.

We left Marseille for Genoa (aka Genova in Italian) at 6 am for 6 hour ride amid a busload of coughing, sneezing, nose-blowing passengers on the Flixbus (aka Phlegmbus). The ride started out beautifully; driving along the edge of the mountains looking out over the sea, the sun rising, the pink sky, seeing Monaco in the distance and then seeing… nothing. We entered tunnel after tunnel, anticipating and then experiencing sporadic glimpses of the beautiful Ligurian Sea shoreline.

We survived the ride without a sniffle, which was good because we needed our stamina to traverse Genoa which is built on a terraced coast between the Mediterranean and the Ligurian Mountains. A lot of mountain goat walking up and down steep city streets and steps. The port, the twisting-narrow streets, the old villas, the crumbling apartment buildings built into/on/around hills were interesting, nothing extraordinary but we were in Italy, so it was all good. Of course, our first meal in Italy was pizza (and a Negroni), but the pizza was just… okay. The pizza in Marseille was better, so we regret not trying French tacos -maybe not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_tacos

What was extraordinary was the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno (aka Staglieno Cimitero Monumentale).

When do you order these? Is there a showroom where you select? Do you order years before your demise?

It was like a Michelangelo inspired Colma https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/colma-necropolis

After 2 nights in a small family run hotel (with this ceiling in an otherwise rather basic room) and walking 13 miles up and down, it was time to move on. It was really hard to decide where to go next considering the overwhelming plethora of websites, travel forums, family/friend’s recommendations and old Italian movies. The villages of the Cinque Terre constantly came up as a “must see” for the sea, shopping and dining out but it was too cold for the sea, we don’t shop or dine out plus these towns basically shut down for the winter.

Based on train travel options and the goal of visiting a Tuscan, walled city, we decided to just ride the train through the Cinque Terre on our way to Lucca. Unfortunately the train that actually goes through the Cinque Terre is a special express train, and instead, our train just went through more tunnels. There was about a 20 second glimpse, it was truly eye opening and magnificent.

After our tunnel vision of the Cinque Terre, we made a quick stop in Pisa where we changed trains for Lucca. A 15 minute walk through town and you round the corner and THERE IT IS. Surreal and lopsided. We’re in Italy. The tower, cathedral, baptismal building surrounded by a castle wall. It was a medieval enclave populated by a circus of tourists, all making silly poses.

It was spectacular.

Twenty minutes later, we were in the medieval walled city of Lucca. It was walled, sedate, and rainy, very medieval level of excitement. We walked in the wall, on top of the wall, within the wall and outside of the wall. After three days we hit the wall.