world cup mania

Tuesday, July 4th, was also the day of the Italy-Germany semi-final game. You could feel the energy increasing after each Italy win and so I was pretty excited to be in Torino for the semi-final game. In Italy world cup is called i Mondiali and the 2 ways to cheer on Italy's team are Forza Italia or Forza Azzurri (azzurri meaning blue as their uniforms are blue). I asked around and found out that the match would be broadcast on a huge outdoor screen in Piazza San Carlo. After I left the Mole, I started to see little stands of flags sprouting up all over. You could feel the energy and anticipation of the game. I stopped back at my hotel and then grabbed some focaccia for dinner and headed to the piazza.

It was CRAZY!! There were so many flags waving and the horns blasting constantly!! When Italy came out before the match began, fireworks started going off and then there was colored smoke everywhere and also something that looked like a fire by the statue in the middle of the piazza but since all the police, which were positioned all around the edge of the piazza, did not budge, I figured it could not be a fire but for a minute it looked like the statue was going to burn up. The singing and the cheering and just being in the crowd with everyone. It was amazing! This was one of the highlights of my trip. I was so fortunate to be in Italy during the world cup and have now learned to enjoy soccer. The minute the first half ended everyone evacuated the piazza! My guess was everyone was going somewhere to use the bathroom?? I spent the 2nd half and the end of the game back at my hotel as I was not brave enough to be there with the crazy crowd when they won just in case a riot broke out since this was my first day in Torino and I did not know what the city was like at night. The game went into overtime and ended at 11:30. Italy scored 2 goals back to back right at the end of the game. The town went wild when they scored! The celebrating went on for over an hour after the game ended.

FORZA AZZURRI!!

more later...off to paint my bathroom!

ciao!

mondovì

Monday, my last day in Saluzzo, I decided to go to Mondovì. When planning my trip, I assumed that there was transportation from Saluzzo all day long but as I mentioned in my previous post, there are limited trains that take you to Savigliano, where you need to be to get anywhere. There are only trains at 7 and 8 am and then again at 1:30 and later. I decided to check out some of the shops in Saluzzo in the morning and then take the 1:30 train to Saluzzo. BUT...of course it was Monday and so all of the shops were closed. The shops close on Sundays, Mondays, and every day around 12:30 or 1:00 in the afternoon until somewhere between 3:30 and 5pm.

And so, I bought a paper to read and did a sudoko puzzle while waiting for the train. The connection to Mondovì was fine and I arrived in less than an hour. Again, thankfully I had a map from Katia's work place and for once did my homework and read up on the town while waiting for the train. Two books both said that there was a funicular from the lower town to the upper historic section of the town. It was about a 10-15 minute walk to the lower town from the train station. I then found the funicular and saw some workers working right in front of the open door. When I asked if the funicular was running or if it was closed for lunchtime, one of the men told me it would be open in 3 months! In October!!

(the not yet working funicular)

So, the only way up was to go back down to the center to find a bus or to walk. I decided to walk...a long long way up up up - about 40 minutes later, I arrived at the top. I guess all those nights walking up the steps to Hotel Doria in Lerici paid off as although I was huffing and puffing, I survived the walk uphill.

Once I arrived, I realized that everything was closed because it was Monday! There was a cool tower which was closed, and a couple of churches which were closed due to restoration work.

(clock tower in upper town of Mondovì)

(main piazza in upper town of Mondovì)

The main piazza was quite lovely. I took some pictures and walked around a little and then inquired about the bus for the ride back down. I met a lady waiting at the bus stop that was quite amazed that I walked up hill. She was very nice and even gave me her phone number in case I ran into any problems while in Torino as she lived right outside Torino.

Back down in the lower town, I wandered around a little more, took some pictures, had a gelato, and then realized that I only had 10 minutes til my train left. I walked as fast as I could and also ran a little up hill again (but only a little hill) and arrived with 2 minutes to spare to then find out that the train would be 10 minutes late.

(2 pics of the lower town)

(another picture of the lower town of Mondovì - up at the
top of the picture is the upper town...a long walk up up up!)

Once back in Saluzzo, I stopped in a little shop to get some food for dinner and then headed back to the hotel to pack.

Tuesday morning, the owners' son drove me to the train station in Savigliano so that I would not have to leave so early. While waiting for the train, an announcement was made about the train being late. I panicked as I heard Torino to Savona and thought for a minute that the train that arrived a few minutes earlier was my train and I was waiting for the train from Torino to Savona instead of the train to Torino. All the people waiting with me assured me that I did not miss my train and although my train was also late, I did not miss it. My train finally arrived and it was packed. I ended up standing in one of the areas where you get on/off the train which is between 2 of the cars for the 50 minute ride. My nano ipod has come in handy for occasions like this!

I will write more later on Torino where I am now....

ciao!

cuneo & saluzzo

After looking at all the bus and train options (which there are not many of), I decided that Saturday would be the best day to go to Cuneo. The owner of the hotel drove me into the bus station which is not very far from the hotel. He is very nice and insists on driving me every morning into town which is nice. Of course when arriving at the bus station, there is little information available. I found the bus schedule and saw that there was a bus going to Cuneo (which takes an hour) pretty soon. There is no ticket window at this station but there is an automatic ticket machine which I could not figure out how to use. Luckily, a nice woman told me that I could buy a ticket at the bar. The bus ride (a pullman bus - the blue bus) was ok. I am not a fan of bus rides...crowded, not much room between seats, and sometimes pretty smelly as all the windows are shut and not everyone showers before getting on the bus. There seemed to be a problem with the little yellow machine in the front of the bus that validates the tickets (stamps the time) and so we sat waiting for the bus to leave for an extra 10 minutes while the woman fixed the machine.

I got off at the train station in Cuneo to check to see what train options there were for the ride back. For some reason, there are more trains going to Saluzzo in the afternoon and only a couple early in the morning. After writing down the times, I headed into town. Luckily, I had a map of Cuneo which I got when visiting Katia. The town is pretty easy to navigaate. I stopped in a bread shop and had to fight my way to be called on. At times, people are pretty aggressive when waiting to order. I watched carefully to make sure that I did not ask for what I wanted before others who were already here. I was next in line and a woman started to ask the same time as I did. When I looked her way, she admitted that I was next and waited while I ordered. I bought some very delicious little slices of bread covered in cheese, tomatoes, and rucola. I headed on to the big piazza. I had wanted to go to Cuneo after seeing a beautiful picture of this piazza.

(the main piazza in Cuneo)

Unfortunately when I arrived there was a big volleyball match going on as well as other tables set up with cars and signs everywhere. The volleyball match was beach volleyball with 4 high school girls on each side playing some type of championship match. I continued my walk to the end of the town. There is a beautiful clock tower in the town which was not open on Saturday to climb.

(cool clock tower in Cuneo)

I wandered the city a little more. Most everything closed up about an hour after I arrived. The city was very pretty with interesting architecture. It seemed to me to have a "french touch".

(porticoes in Cuneo)

I was still very tired from the long day of traveling the day before and also a little sore from carrying the backpack for so long and so I decided to cut my visit short and return to Saluzzo on an earlier train instead of waiting for everything to open back up. The ride was fine with a short wait to connect to a second train at Savigliano. When I returned to Saluzzo, I wandered though a few shops on my way back to the hotel and then took a long hot shower. The England/France game was playing. It was only on the german station on my tv and so I watched the end of the game which ended up being very exciting. The hotel was making dinner that night and so I decided to eat here at the hotel instead of walking back into town.

On Sunday, I decided to spend the day in Saluzzo. After spending some time on the internet catching up on all the news, the owner again drove me into town. Everything was closed and it was like a ghost town. Even on the main street, the streets were empty with only a car passing every 5 or 10 minutes.

(center in the lower town of Saluzzo)

Usually, you need to dodge the cars when crossing the main street. It was actually sort of nice to walk around and take pictures. I went back to Quattro Stagione for lunch and had a salad and some risotto.

At 2, the museum - Casa Cavassa opened up. This was such a wonderful place to visit.  It is the home of a family from Saluzzo that has tons of room with interesting paintings and furniture in each room and also wonderful views. I was the only one there and had the entire museum to myself. A rare sight in Italy. After taking lots of pictures and chatting with the girl at the desk, I went on to climb the bell tower. This was my first tower to climb this year. There were only a little over 100 steps and do it was a very easy tower to climb. The inside was very interesting. I tried to take some pictures and hope they came out. the views from the top were wonderful. I stayed up there for quite a while and then decided to head back into town. (the tower and museum are located at the top of the town in the old part of town and the main part of town is below).

(Casa Cavassa and 3 views of Saluzzo from the top of the tower)

It was amazing!! When I went back down to the main part of town, there were TONS of people! A couple of hours it was completely empty and now it was so lively. Most of the stores were still closed, but the bars were all full and the streets were also very busy. I walked around for a while and then headed back to the hotel. The Palio (from Siena) was on tv and I wanted to get back in time to watch the parade before it started. I saw some people walking near my hotel with a bag of groceries and found a great little supermarket located about a block past the hotel. I decided to get some food for dinner and just hang out for the night instead of heading back into town again after the Palio finished. I had a nice relaxing night and it was fun seeing Siena again with the crowds and all the action. It ended up being a very close race and Pantera won.

(view of the upper town of Saluzzo from my hotel)

Today (Monday) it is pretty overcast. I am hoping this does not mean rain. I plan to go to Mondovì in the afternoon (first available train). Tomorrow, I head to Torino...my last place to stay.

ciao!

the reason having a car is nice

Friday morning, my day to travel to Saluzzo...

I knew in advance that this day would be my longest travel day. In order to get to Saluzzo by train, you need to take 3 trains. The first takes about 3 hours but luckily it is on a more comfortable train. I decided to take a taxi to La Spezia instead of the bus in order to make sure I would catch the train on time.

There were 2 train times that would work to get to Saluzzo in a reasonable amount of time -the 9:54 train and the 11:54 train. I made a seat reservation for the first train and ended up arriving in Saluzzo at the arrival time of the second train (which if you do the math would be 2 hours later).

My day started ok with the hotel having someone carry my bag up all the stairs to the parking lot. There, the taxi driver was waiting. After an incredibly expensive taxi...about 10 euros more than the hotel quoted, I arrived at the train station with time to spare.

I was pleasantly surprised to find new seating on this IC train. I had a nice seat and the ride to Torino was very pleasant. We did stop along the way for a while and then were told over the intercom that there was an "incident" in Levanto and the train would be 10 minutes "in ritardo"...those words I never want to hear when taking a train. In the end we arrived 25 minutes late meaning that I missed my next train by 5 minutes to Savigliano. I waited another 30 minutes to take another train to Savigliano. So far, things were still ok. I then remembered that I needed to call the hotel as the woman I corresponded with told me she would be happy to pick my up at the train station in Saluzzo.

This was when things started to go wrong. My phone did not work. Nothing... I tried and tried to turn it on but nothing happened. I was sure I charged it the night before, but perhaps it was 2 nights ago?? I hoped that she would not be waiting for me at the train station as I was definitely not going to be there at my original time. I did write that I would call her that morning to confirm the time and hoped she would wait for my call.

When I got to Savigliano, I found out that the next train to Saluzzo did not leave until 4:03 pm (I was supposed to originally take the 2:03 train). And so...there I was with all my bags at a tiny train station with not much to do. I had heard that the center of the town was quite charming and so off I headed down a street, hoping to find the center. After a little while, I saw a sign pointing to a store with the words centro on the sign.

Because it was the afternoon, everything was closed except for the bars and some pastry shops. The one thing that I did notice was that there seemed to be a place to buy a gelato at almost every corner, sometimes even 2! I only had a piece of focaccia and a couple of nectarines on the train since breakfast and so I was pretty hungry. Also, it was VERY HOT outside. I eating gelato twice during my wait in Savigliano. The town was cute but it is difficult to judge when most everything was closed. A woman at the pastry shop where I purchased my second gelato told me where to find the most picturesque places to see.

 (Savigliano)

After taking a couple of pictures, I headed back to the train station and waited for the next train. This train was one of those tiny trains with only 2 cars. The ride only took about 15 minutes to reach Saluzzo. Once there, I took out my map that I printed off the internet and headed towards my hotel. The hotel is actually an old farm redone with beautiful rooms located about 15 minutes by foot from the center and about 25 or 30 minutes on foot when lugging baggage from the train station.

I finally arrived with sweat pouring down me. Everyone was so kind to me when I arrived. The woman at the desk immediately got me some water and had me sit and rest. The hotel is owned and run by a very nice family (a woman, Jean, from England and her husband, Tony, from Saluzzo). Once I got to my room, Jean called me to apologize that she did not arrive at the train station to pick me up and I told her that it was my fault as my phone did not work. The one day I really needed that phone and it did not work!! Luckily it was just the battery and so I immediately charged it and have charged it every night since!

The rooms here at the hotel are so beautiful and comforable. The hotel just opened last fall and so everything is new. I usually am not a fan of baths and prefer showers, but this hotel has a combo and so I took a long luxurious bubble bath to pamper my sore feet.

 (view from my window)

 (my room)

 (the building which is part of complex across from our rooms)

After my long soak in the tub, I finished upacking and then headed out to explore the town. Tony, one of the owners, volunteered to drive me into town and he also gave me a quick tour and also pointed out everything to see on the map. Saluzzo is a very charming town!

I had dinner at a pizzeria/restaurant called Quattro Stagione, which was recommended to me by the hotel. The food was WONDERFUL!! I was happy that they started serving at 7:30 as I was really hungry. I also wanted to get back to the hotel in time to watch the Italy-Ukraine match. I headed back just as the game began. In town, there were bars crowded with locals with reserved seats sitting in front of TVs waiting for the game to begin. I was near my hotel when Italy scored as all the cars started honking wildly.

Italy won!! A great game and now they play Germany...

A long day in which a car would have been nice to have but I arrived safely and survived. Both the hotel and town are lovely...

more later.

ciao!

boat ride to cinque terre

Thursday, my last day in Lerici....a long day on the boat!

After my morning breakfast at the hotel, I headed down to the port and boarded the first boat for Cinque Terre. From Lerici, the boat lands in Portovenere where you transfer to a second boat. This was my first experience this year with the charging crowd of people trying to be first in line to board the boat. I stood my ground and ended up getting a nice seat in the front of the boat to take some pictures. The boat ride was beautiful. It stops in 4 of the 4 villages of Cinque Terre. Because of the boat schedule and everything shutting down for a couple of hours at lunch time, I tried to figure out the best way to see as many villages as possible before needing to head back to Portovenere to then catch the last boat back to Lerici. I have been to Cinque Terre twice before, the first time in 1999 and the second time in 2000.

I decided to first ride the boat to the last village - Monterosso.  Monterosso is the largest town and to me the least charming although nice.

(Monterosso)

Because of the boat schedule, I could only spend time in 3 towns in order to catch the last boat back to Lerici. And so, I stayed on the boat and skipped exploring Monterosso and instead departed at Vernazza, as the boat headed back.

 Vernazza has always been my favorite village and I was looking forward to spending a little time in this village. Unfortunately, after Rick Steves, this area has been invaded with tons and tons of tourists. I could see the change just from 1999 to 2000, but this year, things were even worse! Tons of tourists now arrive by both boat and train. Many are very loud and obnoxious. The area is still amazingly beautiful but I only lasted 30 minutes after hearing a man play songs such as The Sting and New York New York on his accordion in the main piazza with tourists applauding him after each song.

(Vernazza)

And so, I took the train to the last town, Riomaggiore (town closest to Portovenere) and spent some time there taking pictures and then sitting on a rock on a cliffside doing a sudoko puzzle (my new addiction). The area is breathtaking.

(Riomaggiore - yellow X is where I sat on the rocks)

When the boats started running agin, I took the boat to Manarola (heading back towards Monterosso) and explored the town for a little while.

(Manarola)

After a long day visiting the Cinque Terre, I finally took the boat back to Portovenere and then waited for a connecting boat to Lerici. I was pretty tired when I got back to Lerici about 8 hours later. I decided to have dinner at my hotel instead of walking back down all those stairs into town.

A great last day to end my stay in Lerici and the Ligurian coast.

ciao!

tellaro & san terenzo

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.

(pics of Tellaro)

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.

(pics of 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!