This first week in Italy is for hiking in Cinque Terre, on a Road Scholar program. We have very much enjoyed our prior three trips with them, all in the last 12 months!
Our travel arrangments to meet the group, were, we thought, going to be convenient. Last night we stayed in a Pisa hotel that had a free airport shuttle. We easily shuttled from the airport to the hotel. When we confirmed the reverse last night, we learned that the morning would be complicated by the Pisa marathon. Indeed, all streets around our hotel were blocked off. We would not be able to use a car to get back to the airport to meet the Road Scholar group.
So, our hiking week started by hauling our bags through eerily quiet streets to the train station, on foot. The marathon actually helped us out in the end– there were zero cars to contend with and actually no other pedestrians either. We passed the 18km sign for the runners, but they were also nowhere in sight or to be heard. Once at the station, we bought tickets for the train-airport shuttle (Pisa Mover) and easily made it to the airport to meet the group.
Everything worked out. We joined our group of 22 other hiking Road Scholars and were bused to Le Grazie. This little harbor town is not one of the official Cinque Terre towns. It will serve as our base. I’ve found it nice to be in smaller towns with Road Scholar. They are walkable. There are few tourists, and no crowds. It’s possible to get a feeling for what small town Italy might be like. In this case, having arrived on a Sunday, we discovered that real small town Italy takes a serious rest in the middle of the day, and especially on Sunday afternoons. We found one cafe open for espresso and a sandwich. There were very few other pedestrians around. Things picked up bit around 4pm.
This little church sits up on a hill with a terraced set of steps. Those botanically inclined will notice the potted cycad on the steps and the olive tree. The terraces are secured with smooth beach stones, and you can see some of the flat rocks that were used to decorate above the doorway. What I want to know is: The name of the church is Our Lady of Grace, and someone here must have prayed for a miracle and felt it was received… so the “grace” in the name of the town refers to the human way of saying thank you, through some sort of offering. Was the offering constructing the church itself? What was the prayer for intercession about? There is a story here, somewhere…
Sharing a photo of last night’s first course at Osteria La Mescita in Pisa. Vegetarians can avert eyes. Cured meats from local deer, boar and duck. They were cured into salami and ham. My secondi was ravioli. Mark had a meat roll of rabbit. Then we shared vin santo and almond biscotti for dessert. I can recommend this osteria.
Back in Le Grazie, we have been oriented to our hiking and hotel routines, and had a convivial dinner with our fellow travelers. No photos, but the lemon sorbetto, sipped through a straw like a smoothy, was wonderful. Lemons in Italy seem less acidic and more perfumed. It’s one of my favorite flavors.
Finishing out the evening with one more photo of Pisa, from last night, taken from a bridge over the Arno. The banks were filled with college aged students hanging out and sitting along the walls, high over the water. Such a liberty that would be extremely forbidden in the States.
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