It took me longer than I was expecting to put photos online, but I've figured it out. It'll be hard to recap everything that's happened in the past week and a half, but the images should help. I arrived in Pisa on Thursday and met Chiara, my couchsurfing host. She is terrific and really took me into her group of friends for the time I was there. The first day we went all around town, then to a pub with a couple other couch surfers from Poland and her roommates. Here's what it looks like:
The next day we went to the beach for the sunset and I taught Chiara and her friend Andrea about throwing a frisbee. They were quite good for the first time! The sunset was beautiful (the second of many, I seem to have more time to watch the sky out here!), with the sun melting below the horizon.
Saturday I took a the train up to Cinque Terre, deciding it would be better to wait to start biking until I got back to Pisa. I spend three days there, and the landscape was unlike anything I'd seen before. Very steep hills in all directions straight up to the sea, with terraces carved everywhere to grow wine. Much of the area is overgrown and has reverted back to forest, but there are still remanents of stone terraces everywhere. There are lots of broken down ruins and old farm houses, giving a feeling of abandonment. It makes sense, their main economy is now tourism (and there is a lot of it in the towns!), so the vinyards are mostly for show. The ones that do work are supported by the government because they can't compete with other places.
I hiked all around the area for 3 days, and returned exhausted on the train to Pisa to stay with Chiara for a couple more nights.
What beautiful sunsets!
ReplyDeleteLooks gorgeous! Hope the good weather continues.
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