Wednesday morning I woke up to overcast skies. Since I was feeling a little sluggish and since I was not sure what the weather would do, I decided to wait until Thursday for Cinque Terre. I checked at the front desk about the bus schedule to Tellaro (a little town nearby). The man at the desk told me that the bus left for Tellaro every 30 minutes. I had a leisurely breakfast and then got ready and walked down to the bus stop in the piazza. I bought my ticket at the tabbacheria stand and then waited for the bus.
Buses are often late in Italy, but it seemed like I was waiting much longer than normal for a late bus. Finally I went to look at the schedule posted on a sign near the bus stop and realized that the time I thought the bus should arrive (which also was the time the hotel told me) only occurred on Saturdays. For some reason a few 30 minute time periods only occurred on Saturdays and so during these hours, the bus only came hourly. One thing that often happens when waiting for a bus that is late is that you often end up meeting others that are also waiting for the bus. I talked to the sweetest older woman who also thought that the bus came at 10:30 (and she lived in Tellaro). She began to tell me about the town. She said it was very small and that there were not many people who lived there. When the bus finally arrived, a big group boarded and then we were off. The ride took about 15 mins.
When we arrived in Tellaro, the woman took me on a short tour of the town before she headed on home. The town was quite charming with a little beach area at the bottom of the stairs and beautiful views. I bought some focaccia with tomatoes for lunch and hung out on a rock down by the water until the next bus came.
After returning to Lerici, I spent some time hanging out in the center. Later in the afternoon, I decided to go to the Castello/Museo Geopaleontologico...a museum I could have skipped. All the rooms had dinosaur info/large fake dinosaurs/old rocks/etc. The views though were nice.
(view of Lerici from the castle/castello)
To get to the castle, you could either walk up TONS of stairs or take the elevator which was located inside a tunnel. Since I had been doing quite a bit of walking, I chose the elevator. Interestingly, when the elevator door opened, there inside was a woman sitting by the buttons ready to collect your money for the ride up. You could either purchase a one way ticket or a roundtrip ticket. I bought the roundtrip for 1 euro.
After my short tour of the museum, I walked to the next town, San Terenzo.
This was another little town with a beach and little shops. On the way, I finally found the tourist "i" information booth. It was located at the edge of Lerici closer to San Terenzo (not the best place for those staying in Lerici). The woman was very helpful and gave me lots of info on many of the towns nearby. San Terenzo was a lovely little beach town. Both San Terenzo & Lerici are located across the bay from each other and so you can see one from the other.
(looking at Lerici from San Terenzo & San Terenzo from Lerici)
After spending about an hour exploring the town, I caught the bus back to Lerici. I was not feeling that well when I returned and so I got some food and ate in my room Wednesday evening.
ciao!
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