A Return to Italy
A few weeks at Chateau de Radetz was just what I need to escape the unforgiving German winter. The place came equipped with built in ‘mother’ hence I was treated to luxuries far greater than I deserved. Gone were the days of dried pasta drowned in a German Dolmio equivalent, the days of lumpy creaky 5 foot dwarf beds. Between bouts of lounging and eating, Mary showed me the town, and the surrounding towns. Day trips to Heidlburg, France (just ‘popped’ over for a day…), snowy walks in the hills (with real snow!), flamkuchen (german pizza) and even skiing (on real snow!) gave me a better taste of Germany than I would have gained on my own.
The two weeks flew by, after which I left the comforts of ‘home’ and the German winter for a warmer climate in Italy. Excited to be heading to Italy once more, but reluctant to leave behind family and the luxury and kindness that come with.
I landed in Pisa and caught a train to Livorno where I was planning to stay. Why did I go to Livorno? My reasoning escapes me at this moment. But I can save you the trouble now and tell you its not worth it. Livorno is a dump. If I were to have consulted Lonely Planet I would have seen that under the heading of Livorno the words ‘a bit of a dump’ are actually used. But of course I didnt read that. I think after two weeks of ocean depravity, in a state of landlocked insanity, I just assumed that since it was near the coast it might be a nice place to spend the night. I was wrong. Things were not starting out well my second time in Italy. Until… I booked into the hostel, was shown the dorm room and a few minutes later upgraded to a private double room with bathroom and TV (albeit Italian TV) due to the fact the place was rather empty. It seemed my life of luxury was not yet over. Yes, things were looking up….
That is until I decided to catch the bus into the centre of town. After the 45minute trip I wandered aimlessly for a while, finding nothing and learning that Livorno is, as I have already stated a dump. So I caught the bus back. The wrong bus. Get off bus and at instructions of current bus drive catch the next bus. The next wrong bus. I consult the drive and am told, or rather mimed to(with two walking fingers) that he can drop me off close and I can walk on to the hostel. By this time it is dark and I am rather wary of walking around alone, in the dark, in a strange dump, but I have no other option so I disembark and follow the drivers pointed finger into the night. I saw lights in the distance and so walked nervously up the road to what seemed through the trees to resemble the hostel. Only to find it was some kind of Italian Mental Institution (the Italian words for Mental Institution escape me but they are very similar to the English equivalent). I will not deny I felt some panic at the prospect of finding myself on a dark isolated street in a strange dump of a town outside a Mental Institution. But common sense prevailed and I hurried past the high gate to the next visible building, which to my relief was the hostel.
That was the extent of my grand trip to Livorno. May it be a warning to all. The next day I hightailed it out of there to visit the misaligned wonder that is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And suprisingly, I was impressed. Pisa had never been on my itinerary, it was merely the cheapest place to fly into from Frankfurt. I had preconceptions of tacky souvenirs and equally tacky tourists posing as if holding up the tower. And those preconceptions were all realized as I walked the sellers gauntlet past the green (perfect for posing on), through Piazza Miracoli towards the tower. But the buildings themselves are quite beautiful. The baptistry with its orange dome roof sits in the foreground, then the cathedral and poking round the far corner is the tower itself, everything in white marble, bright and clean against the immaculate green of the surrounding grass. The tower is fascinating. It seems to defy logic in the way it rises out of the ground at an angle. So though I highly reccomend you DO NOT go to Livorno, I can highly reccomend you DO take an afternoon to see the Leaning Tower.
If Id known of it before, I would have spent my first night in Italy in Lucca – the town I travelled to next through a Tuscan landscape of forest green hills dotted with siena roofs, along roads lined with olive trees. Lucca is a beautiful little town set with in a complete surrounding city wall. There’s very little transport inside the walls so one is free to wander the narrow cobbled streets, and windowshop along the main street. Or, one could hire a bike and ride around the top of the 3km wall – if only ‘one’ had known before ‘one’ left the city.
But ‘one’ was destined for Riomaggiore, the first town of the Cinque Terre or ‘Five Lands’….
Tags: Travel
Em
Mental institution huh???
Welcome home, Emily…
This coming from 1/5 of a split personality….or is that comment from all 5 of you?