Maybe the Tower of Pisa is just being italic.

After a good night's rest, I left Florence early and got back to the train station to head on out once again. My first stop is a famous destination called Pisa, of the leaning tower kind. I previously was going to take my time in the trip, but I miscalculated the time I had to spend in Cinque Terre, so I had to get there as early as I could. When I got to Pisa I dropped off my pack in the storage area and then instead of waiting for the bus, I decided to just walk the couple of miles to the Leaning Tower of Pisa so that I'd at least have a chance to see the town. It didn't take too long to get to the famous landmark. While I wasn't expecting anything grand, I wasn't disappointed either since the church and nearby structures were fairly interesting to me in addition to the famous leaning tower. There were of course the massive numbers of tourists (though I was obviously one as well) taking pictures with pretty much everyone of them making the same iconic pose of holding up the tower from a distance. The entire area is full of people, young and old, trying their best to support the poor, pathetic, sagging tower. I wondered who was fired for this SNAFU and failure to pay attention in their Soil Mechanics engineering class. I am proud to say that I was able to completely resist that urge, however it probably had more to do with the lack of any travel companion to aid in that set up and the fact that using the tripod and making multiple pictures to get that one shot would have been a pain. After walking the compound and seeing what I wanted, I headed back for another walk to the train station so I could catch the next train to Cinque Terre.

When talking to some friends that this was the place to experience; so after researching it a bit more and figuring out the logistics I decided I definitely had to go. I took the fast train to La Spezia and then transferred to the local train and got dropped off in Riomaggiore so I could check into the hostel and leave my pack. After getting my camera and water together I headed back to the train station so I could take on the famous trail that connects the villages. The villages along this area are all built into the cliffs with few having any roadway connection, so all trade and goods transport had been via the trails. I took the train to Vernazza and then started the track. Since I only had part of one day to spend here, I wasn't able to do the tougher section between this village and Monterosso al Mare, however the trail I took was still pretty steep and took over an hour to reach the next village. I suppose I can only describe through the pictures the lovely views witnessed along the trail. Each vista was simply picturesque with the colorful villages along the grand coastline. I tried to stop wherever possible to take in the views, but also enjoyed walking along the grape terraces that have been here for a long time. There is a particular section between Manarola and Riomaggiore that is known as a Via dell'Amore, or lovers walk. There is one spot overlooking the cliffs that has a silhouetted sculpture of two lovers and is surrounded by hundreds of love locks. As in Florence the tradition is that a couple would close the lock and throw away the key, forever sealing their love. All I had to offer was a short piece of string tied into a bow, which I guess is as representative as anything else can be.

I was able to hit a couple of geocaches along the way and explore the towns a bit more in depth. when I got back to Vernazza, I took the train to Monterosso al Mare since I wouldn't have had time to reach it via trail. I strolled along the beach for a little while and watched some locals play soccer, umm ... football, before taking one last train back to the hostel. I shared a room with a couple of Aussies and had a good time talking to them sharing stories, especially about some of the places I had visited in Australia last year. It was a pretty exhausting day and like normal, I didn't have much of a problem falling off to sleep to prepare for the next day's events.