Italy - Day 6 - Tuscanny

Today we took an excursion to Cinque Terre and Pisa. Cinque Terre literally means 'Five Lands' and consists of five coastal cliff-side towns linked by rail and footpaths. We took the train from La Spezia (which is not part of Cinque Terre but the starting point to go to it) all the way to the last village, Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five. It has a nice beach so is more touristy. Then we hopped the train to go back to Vernazza which has an amazing cemetary. Then it was on the train to Corniglia. This village sits on top of a rock cliff and has no easy access to the sea. There is a shuttle bus which takes you to the village itself from the train. This village has a very good white wine, a gelato flavored with basil. Sounds weird but actually tasts really good. We had lunch here. Ken had bruschetta topped with anchovies and Marilyn had bruschetta topped with pesto. The next village was Manarola. We debated about skipping this one as we were running out of time, but decided not to and it turned out to be the most scenic and our favourite. The last one was Riomaggiore. The five villages were built on the sides of the mountains for protection. Invaders could not get at them from land because of the mountainous terrain.

After Cinque Terre we went to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower.

Scenes from Monterosso al Mare

At the train station

The beach

Buildings along the coast 

Scenes from Vernazza

House for sale on the stairway to Heaven

 Terraces among the buildings with vineyards and other plants

 Terraces on the hillsides above the village

The cemetary - Graves are above ground

Some are also in ground

Our lunch at Corniglia

Scenes from Manarola

Scenes from Riomaggiore

PISA

The leaning tower is actually a part of the church square in Pisa Italy. The structure in front is the baptistry, Next is the main church. The leaning tower is actually the bell tower at the back. All church squares had a baptistry, a church and a bell tower. The bell tower here was build later than the other two. An architectural mistake resulted in one side sinking as the foundation was to shallow. They tried to fix it but not properly so the tower ended up leaning for good..

The world famous leaning tower of Pisa

If you are wanting to go see it now, it is to late, Marilyn straightened it out.