Backroads, Day 1

We met our Backroads group at the Pisa train station at 10:00 on Sunday morning. We have 2 leaders (Juliette, an American, and Giulia, an Italian) and a support crew (Lorenzo-half Italian and half Californian). There are 11 members in our group, ranging from age 18 to 60s. 

The first leg of our journey was to take a bus to the hillside village of Campiglia for an amazing lunch at an Eco-friendly restaurant. All the foods were local specialties and brought to the table family style. Then we are from little biodegradable wooden boxes with wooden forks. I was too busy enjoying it to take a picture. 

Bus ride:

Piccolo Blu:

Our hike began after lunch. The terrain (minus the views of the sea) reminded us of the Hill Country in Texas.

The big city of La Spezia is below on the left, and the gulf is known as the Gulf of Poets, since it inspired people like Lord Byron and Shelley. 

Hiking down into Portovenere (that island is where we eventually ate dinner, Isola Palmaria):

After 3 or 4 miles of hot, sweaty hiking, we were greeted by the sight of the Backroads van and a huge table full of treats and cold drinks for a snack. Backroads spoils you!

A marble quarry we passed:

The cat at our restaurant, hoping for some delicious seafood to drop:

View from our table:

And Portovenere at night, from the boat ride back:

Pisa

We arrived in Pisa Saturday evening, checked into our hotel, then walked around town. Pisa was busier and dirtier than I expected. Perhaps it was just the contrast from the order and cleanliness of Switzerland. 

I'm working on learning Italian...one gelato flavor at a time. This is amarena:

We (and all the other tourists in Pisa) eventually ended up at the baptistery, cathedral, and tower. 

A field full of people posing for pictures making them look like they're holding up the leaning tower:

Obligatory tower selfie (perhaps we should have bought a selfie stick from one of the umpteen street vendors pushing them in our faces at the Duomo Milano):

En route to Italy

I love trains and train stations, and public transportation is a great way to get through Europe. Friday was spent traveling from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, to Pisa, Italy, with a few hours in Milan along the way. 

The Osprey convertible rolling suitcase/backpack has been perfect for this trip. Here it is with the straps exposed, or you can zip a flap over the straps to make it into a regular suitcase. My daypack zips onto the front of it. 

When we got to Milan, we planned to stuff our bags in a locker, as we had done in Germany and Switzerland, but there were no lockers, only official bag check through a person, and the line was miles long. So we toted our bags into town with us and explored some. I was once again grateful for my backpack straps, but it was still heavy, so that limited how much we explored. We sat at this beautiful café in front of the cathedral and plaza and had a nice meal. 

Olives and potato chips are a common appetizer here. The olives, of course, are amazing! We ordered a pizza with funghi e prosciutto, but the picture on the menu of the hot dog and french fries pizza amused me: 

We wanted to go inside the cathedral, but the line for tickets was very long in the hot sun, so we strolled around town on the shady side of the street instead.

And we ran across a small church that we could tour for free. The architect had to find a way to make the choir at the front of the church look deeper than it really was because he didn't have enough room to build at the depth he wished. Here's how it looks from the back - the area behind the head altar looks about 20' deep:

But when you get up beside it, you can see the optical illusion. It's only about 3' deep in reality:

Now back to the train station and on to Pisa!

Lauterbrunnen, Part 2 - Waterfalls

Friday evening we walked a couple of miles from our hotel through the Lauterbrunnen valley...

...to see the Trümmelbachfälle- a series of 10 waterfalls in the mountainside. 

You take a tram up through the mountain and start viewing the falls from the top.

We arrived at 5:30 and were told: "The lights go out at 6:00. Be out before then."  That amused me. In America, I don't think they would have allowed anyone in after 5:30, for fear that they wouldn't make it out by 6:00 and would then sue when they fell down a dark, wet concrete stairway. 

John said that Rivendale of Lord of the Rings was patterned after or inspired by this area. I can see that. It is so magically beautiful.