Our room wasn’t a B&B so we had to make our own breakfast and enjoyed some ‘Grancereale’ with some Muller bianco yoghurt. We wanted to see the frescoes (apparently to rival those in the Sistine Chapel) in the Basilica of San Francesco (must find out what makes a church a basilica) which opened at 9:00, so headed out early and followed the girl into the ticket office after a security guard unlocked the doors. Had to wait while the computers booted up and then enjoyed the peace and quiet in the old church with only a few other people. Wonderful to see the old paintings in the Bacci Chapel (which houses the fresco cycle of the ‘Legend of the True Cross‘ (painted in the 1450s) and thankful that we could read the explanations about them as they didn’t follow any recognisable Bible stories. It’s a same that these wonderful artworks are so fragile being painted on render of stone work. Most of the paintings we saw have been restored as time, neglect, and probably cost, have meant they had deteriorated badly.
Did another lap of the old town and through the Piazza Grande which looked different in the morning compared to yesterday evening. They filmed ‘Life is Beautiful‘ in Arezzo and have some signs depicting scenes from the film in the places where they were shot. Might have to watch the film again and look out for the recognisable landmarks we’ve visited. Up the sloping street to the cathedral with a marvelous interior and a few people practicing some singing in accompaniment to the organ. It sounded lovely and then we realised that a wedding was imminent as people were congregating outside and photographers where taking photos of couple (parents of the bride & groom?) as they were entering the church. Amazing that all this goes on while tourists and other church goers/users are wandering around…
Down to the station in time to catch a train that would allow to to make a couple of other connections during the day and would get us to the beginning of the Cinque Terra mid afternoon. Changed trains in Florence and had to wait a bit for one that would stop in Pisa and managed to catch another train within five minutes in Pisa that went to Turin but would stop in La Sezia where we needed to change again before stopping in Riomaggiore. Lugging the bags up & down stairs is testing my shoulders a little but it’s manageable. The trains that you can walk straight onto are good, but the ones with a couple of large, high, narrow steps are tricky to negotiate with 15 kgs in each hand. After Pisa we were close to the coast and could see the scars of marble mining/harvesting in the mountains near Massa & Carara.
In Riomaggiore it was a hot climb to the accommodation office, from where we had to climb even further to reach our rooms just of a piazza with a church. We had to climb up a set of narrow, steep stairs (minding our heads) to get to our little apartment (sharing a balcony with a couple next door & their little baby) with kitchen and washing machine. So, taking advantage of the facilities a load of washing went in, and we decided to cook our own dinner and eat it (wormy pasta, pesto, sausage, roasted pine nuts, tomatoes and mozzerella, along with some with some Rubentino Chianti) on the three people only balcony, before checking out the ‘Lovers Lane‘ (first section of the Cinque Terra walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. Very pleasant to do this at the end of a hot day with the sun going down over the headland behind Monterosso 8-9 kms away. It’s all very picturesque alongside the water and in the quaint towns built in steep hillside of valleys, but it’s starting to get busy with other tourists (and the locals are taking every opportunity to cash in) – I can’t imagine what it will be like during peak season in a few more weeks…
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