San Marino and One Last Marcia

Yesterday we drove to the other side of the mountains, from Tuscany to Emiglia Romagna. There was a mostra scambio Dom read about that promised lots of car stuff. It proved to be a bit of a dud and more of a giant swap meet with only a small car section. We still enjoyed wandering around and looking at interesting things. I keep telling Dom I could fill up a container full of old Italian furniture, garden art and other objects and sell it all at a profit in Seattle. One of these days...

After we finished at the swap meet we drove up to the Republic of San Marino. Like Vatican City, it is an independent country entirely surrounded by Italy. It is a winding drive that takes one most of the way up a spiky mountain.

 The view of the countryside from the top is pretty spectacular. 

 It is a craggy area with lots of escarpments and upthrust hills.

 The town is fortified but it is all so clean and neat it reminded me of Disneyland.

 We did not see a lot of the town. When we arrived at this piazza we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant under the awnings on the right.

 While we were eating, Dom commented that the temperature seemed to be dropping. Soon it started to rain. 

We thought it would roll through pretty quickly but it didn't. Not only did we not have umbrellas, I did not even have a jacket. We waited for about fifteen minutes until it lightened up and then started to make our way back towards the car (so much for seeing San Marino) keeping under the shop awnings as much as possible.

I stopped in a shop and by the time I was done it was worse--heavy rain, thunder and lightening. We continued on under the awnings until they ended. Luckily, there was a gelateria there. It seemed like a good time to indulge (although hot chocolate might have been more appropriate). We sat inside and watched it rain. All of a sudden it got louder! Hail the size of large peas was pelting down.

 Hail

 I started to get worried about needing boots.

 Gelato and hail do not seem to go together but we managed.

 The hail stopped and the sun came out but it was still raining!

Finally, the rain was light enough that we felt safe heading for the car. We made it without getting too damp thanks to a lot of awnings along the way.  We headed home and we were not too far away before the sun came back out and it was a dry journey back to Capannori.

This morning we got up and headed off for our last marcia podistica of the spring. It was at San Cassiano a Vico, one of our favorite walks not just because it is totally flat.

 The walk route takes us along one of the many artificial stocked lakes in the area. The fisherman were out early.

 The lake looked lovely in the early morning light. I did not notice the reflection until I downloaded this picture.

 Along the way I saw this OLD bicycle leaning up against a large rosemary bush. It looked like someone had created the scene but perhaps the bike was just left there long ago.

This sweet faced donkey was happily munching the weeds along the side of his enclosure. 

Nearby the donkey a setter spaniel was having a wonderful time racing along the inside of the fence and barking at the passing walkers. He moved too fast to get a good picture.

This brings us to the end of our spring 2013 stay in Italy. Tomorrow we clean house and pack up. On Tuesday we head for Nice, France where we turn in our car and spend the night. Our flight to Amsterdam is on Wednesday at 6:25 am. From Amsterdam we head straight to Seattle.

This trip has been immensely fun but it seems to have flown by. We hope to be back in the fall.

A presto!

The Beauty of Isola del Giglio

Isola del Giglio proved to be a beautiful spot. No doubt the sunny warm weather colored our perspective but it truly is a picturesque locale. There were many flowers in bloom. In fact, the rocky hillsides were covered with blooming shrubs. I definitely got carried away with taking pictures of flowers and other photogenic objects. Here are the best of them.

 Pretty cove with local hotel perched above it.

 The mainland in the distance.

 Sea washed stones

 A pocket garden

 A grapevine just leafing out growing across a trellis

 A closer look at the grape leaves and tiny grapes

 Some sort of Chrysanthemum? 

 An old boat 

 The beach had some interesting rock formations

 The spine of a dinosaur?

 I read that the island is predominantly granite. It is rocky with scrubby shrubs, many of which were in bloom.

 A snail attached to a granite boulder

 I think this is what we call "Mock Orange." It certainly smells lovely.

 Geranium

 I think this is a type of Morning Glory, a lovely blue flowering vine.

 Hardy ice plant

 Red poppy

I don't know what this is but it is a pretty trumpet shaped flower, almost magenta in color, but not trumpet vine.

I love this mock jasmine and its perfume but it was not quite in bloom. The plant was covered with buds.

There are lots of lemons on the island. Here are a couple with the buds of future lemons.

A lovely rose to finish things off.

Visiting Isola del Giglio and the Costa Concordia Wreck

A week ago (on Saturday, May 4th) we drove down to Monte Argentario in order to take the boat to Isola del Giglio. The boats leave from the town of Porto Santo Stefano which is close to Orbatello. Of course, Isola del Giglio's main claim to fame these days is that the Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground there in January 2012. They are still in the process of removing the wreck and that is one of the reasons we went there.

It was a beautiful day; probably the best day of our entire stay. We left early and discovered that one of our favorite bar/pastry stops has cornetti and sfoglie fresh out of the oven at 7 am. They were scrumptious and the coffee there is always good.

The drive down the west coast of Italy between Pisa and Rome is one we always enjoy. It takes a little longer but the area is less industrial than going through the center of Tuscany. There are rolling hills and glimpses of the sea from time to time. Being late spring everything is a dozen shades of green with the trees and flowers just coming into bloom. I especially enjoy the wild red poppies that splash the landscape with ribbons of color along the roadsides and occasionally whole fields of scarlet.

We arrived in Porto Santo Stefano earlier than expected (that's what happens when you drive like the Italians!) and just in time to catch the 9:45 ferry to the island. It is about a 45 minute trip.

 The ferry was not crowded. We sat inside right up front. Dom is always happy to be "messing about with boats" especially when someone else is at the helm.

 We could see right into the cockpit. The seas were calm so the captain was pretty relaxed. Put 'er on autopilot and wait!

 We could see the wreck from quite a ways away. I never got a very good picture of the island but it is not large and it sticks up out of the water like the top of a mountain peak.

The wreck got closer and bigger,... 

 ...closer and bigger,...

...closer and bigger,...

 ...until we passed right by it.

 This is what it looked like as we passed by into the little harbor at Porto Giglio. There is quite a bit of equipment around it for the salvage effort.

 It is nicely labeled so you don't miss which ship it is.

Going into the harbor a lot of people on the ferry were taking pictures as we passed by.

 This was an interesting vessel. It looks like offices or dormitories.

 Here you can see just how close the wreck is to land. Possibly the captain was trying to bring the ship alongside the port breakwater.

 Our ferry captain docked the boat using remote control. He backed it in and made good use of the bow thrusters.

Once we arrived on the isola, we wandered around through the village. The old building that houses the port office (and probably has for hundreds of years!) drew us closer.

Someone does a nice job of keeping the front of the building picturesque. Note the plaques on the wall above the door. The ones to the right and left list the war dead from WWI and WWII. The center one commemorates the wrecking of the Costa Concordia.

It says something like: In memory of the rescuing of more than 4,000 passengers from the Costa Concordia the night of 13 January 2012, the people of Giglio joined together to exhibit an example of a civil and dependable society. When the ship grounded the people of Giglio took out every boat possible to help rescue the passengers and then opened their homes and hotels to get the people warm and dry.

There are quite a few boats in the small harbor. The island is a popular destination for hikers and scuba divers. You can rent small boats and go explore the many beaches that dot the shore. Giglio has an area of about 3 square miles. There is another small village on the opposite side.

From the breakwater you can, again, see how close the wreck is to he small harbor.

We walked around the village and found several picturesque prospects.

The wreck keeps popping into view.

There were LOTS of photo opportunities. I got carried away taking flower and nature pictures so I will do a separate post devoted to them.

We wandered back into town. Even, or especially, there the wreck dominates everything. I saw these older gentlemen chatting and it brought home how much the Costa Concordia has impacted their everyday life. A shopkeeper told me there are more tourists for this time of year plus all the people working on the project.

We saw a lot of people from our ferry wandering over to this part of the beach which is about as close to the wreck as one can get without scrambling along the rocky shore. Many of them took pictures of themselves with the wreck in the background.

We had coffee with the Costa Concordia...

...before doing our own picture taking. Dom says, "Now THIS is an off!" He means off course or off track.

Me!

Us! (Possible Christmas card photo)

The plan is to tip the wreck upright, patch it up, pump it out, and haul it away to be broken up. The area is all a protected marine park so they do not want to break it up here. It is debatable if all the work necessary to move the wreck is less environmentally invasive that just breaking it up.

After getting "up close and personal" we wandered around the harbor some more.

Here is one of the local dive boats. We had lunch nearby and watched a whole crowd of people getting ready to go out on it for an afternoon dive. 

After our elevenses we wandered up the hill and took more pictures. There is an extensive network of trails all over the island. However, it was hot and we were hungry so we headed back to town.

We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the harbor. It was perfect weather for al fresco dining. We watched boats go to and fro from the wreck. It looked like the workers were getting off for the weekend. At a nearby table in the restaurant we heard three people speaking English and from their conversation they were all working on the project. They all spoke with accents. English is definitely the lingua franca of the world.

After lunch we wandered around a while and had gelato. We ran out of things to do and had to wait until our ferry We sat on benches near the port and read, dozed, and watched the earlier boats come and go. The above ferry loaded vehicles through the nose when going toward the mainland. 

Here is a picture of Monte Argentario from the island. It is a popular vacation spot for Italians but a bit off the beaten path for most travelers.

This post will be followed up by another with the more pictures of Isola del Giglio and its flora.