The main reason we spent a month in Italy was for Kees to hike a good portion of the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrim’s route through Italy, similar to the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I hiked the first week with him through the lovely hills of Tuscany from Lucca to Siena. But after that I booked a cute cottage on the outskirts of Siena to have my own week long writer’s retreat while he kept on hiking. Following our first month in Italy, I still had a month of author visits to international schools around Europe and so I had more luggage than I needed for a week of hiking. Our lovely At Home hotel in Lucca (one of my favourite places to stay, right on the medieval piazza of Lucca)) agreed to store it for me. But afterwards I would have to retrace my steps to retrieve my luggage.
So after arriving in Sienna it was time to go get my suitcase back from Lucca. I checked the Trenitalia website and, at a glance, it’s easy to go back from Siena to Lucca. In reality however, it turns into an amazing race Italy.
I leave our AirBnB cottage just outside Siena at 7 AM to walk down to the bus stop. But is this truly the right stop and do I really know which bus to take? I hesitantly ask an older woman who’s also waiting. She takes one deep breath and launches into a half hour long tirade about Italian bus systems. “I-ah waz-ah born in Pisa,” she says with a conspiratorial wink, as if that explains it all. “These Sienese live-ah in-ah de Middle Ages!” I hope no one else at the bus stop understands English as she continues loudly, in her wonderful Italian-English, to explain the bus system, its numbering, which bus goes to the train station, the history of the train system, the economy of Italy. “Thees boos it-ah was not for city use but it-ah was born for students,” she explains the use of school buses being used for city transport while students are in school. “Bastards!” she calls the politicians who cause job uncertainty and who don’t build enough railway tracks. From her waterfall of words I learn more in half an hour during our bus ride together than I have all week.
The way Italians talk keeps throwing me for a loop. It can be in a restaurant or in a shop or just on a street corner. Suddenly we’ll hear this heated debate that gets louder and more violent by the second. The voices sound angry, loud, everyone shouting at the same time. If this was the USA, I’d expect someone to start shooting. Or at the very least I think they’re going to draw knives soon. I want to get out of there, fast, before real trouble starts. But then I – or they – turn around or come around the corner and I realize they’re all smiling, clapping each other on the shoulder, even kissing each other on the cheeks. It was only a simple, friendly chat! I’d hate to hear a real argument in Italian… I’m not sure if there is a law against talking on your cell phone in Italy. If there is, no one adheres to it. The biggest problem is that Italians, talk with both hands. Even while driving….
Driving in Italy can be deadly…
I’m grateful that when I went through school, we had no option but to learn languages. Even in elementary school in The Netherlands we had to learn French. In High School they added English and German. Now, when we hike or roam around Italian towns, we can have a conversation with a German family, answer a lost Frenchman and secretly listen in to a Dutch group’s comments…
When I reach the Siena train station, I say ‘ciao’ to my new friend and verify the train times, buy a return ticket – all in Italian – and embark on my adventure. From Siena to Empoli I whizz by many of the towns we just walked through and see them in a whole new perspective. From the train I notice that the ancient city center on top of a hill has spilled over, like a dripping gelato cone, into the valley below. So that’s where they keep the industrial areas, the train stations, the apartment buildings. We did not see any of that while walking the Via Francigena. Hiking here is sometimes like being in a green cocoon.
In Empoli I changed trains to Pisa, with 30 seconds to spare. When the train pulled out, I recognized several passengers from the previous train on the platform. They all missed this tight connection, probably adding hours to their journey.
Pisa. Many iconic, world renowned sites can be a let-down when you first see them in person. But the leaning tower of Pisa, to me, was amazing to see in reality. Photos just cannot convey the awe that I felt when I saw the tower. It’s not just leaning… It’s ornate, delicately carved from marble. It’s gleaming white. It’s gorgeous. And it is definitely leaning! Só much so that I am amazed it hasn’t toppled over yet.
I learned many things while visiting the site:
– they starting building the tower in the year 1173 and it took 99 years to complete! I could just picture the architects, the artists, the workers hauling marble… How would they have felt when their masterpiece started tilting?
– the tower is 186 feet tall. You are allowed to climb to the top (8 floors up on 294 steps). But I’d be afraid it might topple over…
– the tower actually leans out almost 15 feet! That would be like standing on the railing of a pitching ship on sea…
– I didn’t know that this is where Galileo conducted his famous gravity test! He did that while standing on the tower of Pisa. Galileo was a math teacher in Pisa. When Galileo was young, one of his contemporaries used these words to describe Aristotle’s idea of how objects fall:
There is a natural place for everything to seek, as:
Heavy things go downward, Fire upward,
And rivers to the sea.
– I learned that the tower of Pisa is, sometimes, listed as one of the 7 wonders of the world.
And yes, it is PISA, not pizza! But if I had an Italian restaurant, I’d call it the Tower of Pizza!
Oh and by the way, I do not have a photo of one of us pretending to hold up or push the tower… because about a million people were all standing there, looking like idiots, pushing up the air while their friends where being contortionists snapping silly photos…
From Pisa to Lucca is not far by train. There I walk across the ancient city walls into the historic center, retrieve my luggage and retrace my steps. This time trains take me from Lucca to Florence. From Florence to Siena and back on the bus. What was only a half inch on the map, took about 10 hours!
I loved the historic heart of Lucca.
Back in Siena I settle for the next week into a lovely little cottage. I found it on AirBnB: attached to an old, yellow Tuscan country home on the outskirts of Siena, it has a bedroom, a kitchen corner, a modern bathroom and wifi.
I made the mistake of asking the owner “Did you build this addition?” He laughs, “No, it is 300 years old…” And it’s perfect for a week long writer’s retreat as I have to finish several manuscripts. I stock up on wine, cheese and coffee and am all set to work while Kees continues to walk 300 KM towards Rome.
RESOURCES: