Tuscany and 46th Anniversary

Days 17-20

Tuscany and 46th Anniversary

With our days along the Amalfi over, we have been many places in the last 4 days.  During our long drive north, we diverted along the way and stopped in Pienza.  

This is a town that is picturesque from a distance and also looking out to the countryside.

We didn’t know it, but way back in Medieval time, this town was rebuilt as an ideal model for renaissance towns across Italy.  That was in 1462, before Columbus discovered America.  Here is a picture of Shari modeling the beautiful town of Pienza.

I can’t tell you much more other than one of the streets is named Via Amore (Street of Love) and that they have a great spaghetti called Pici that we discovered on one of our first trips to Italy.

We spent most of the day driving from Sorrento to Lucca and did make it to the lovely city by early evening.  We had to park our car outside the old city walls as the streets inside the walls are almost exclusively for walking and biking.

While we still had the car, we used Lucca as a home base and took day trips.  The first such trip was to Volterra, a town Shari had seen with Grace on their trip two years ago. 

Every town we visit provides new chances to try new foods or the specialty of the region.  What caught our eye was the following:

What you are seeing is polenta (Italian corn meal I ate growing up), porcini mushrooms, gorgonzola cheese, and lardo.  As a chubby 10 year old, I was occasionally called Lardo.  In the picture it’s the six white-looking things in the upper part of the plate.  It’s cured fat from the backside of a pig, sometimes known as fatback.  It was a first for both of us, and we both found it very tasty.  Shari thought it was tough, however.  In any event, when you take a little of each of the four ingredients and eat them in unison, you have one delicious bite of food.  The first three ingredients are sufficient for a great taste.  I don’t think I can find lardo at Harmon’s! We turned our car in at the end of the day.

The next day, we were off again….this time by train… to a new place for both of us - Portofino.  We knew that many people like it, but we were not sure why. Portofino is north of Cinque Terra, an unforgettable place along the western coast of Italy.  We learned that Portofino is really a small suburb of Santa Margherita (S.M.) which has a train station that you claim is your destination when buying tickets.

I hope you don’t think I made this photo up - it’s real.  Among other things, the photo shows an unusual blend of symmetry.  The other thing I originally looked for was the super organization at the beach.  

People think their destination is Portofino, but Santa Margherita is a beautiful town, and for us, it is the more attractive.  We came by land, but many come by sea.  I told Shari I would not recommend learning to operate a boat here.

95% of the action is in Santa Margherita.  But, we had to see the notorious Portofino, so we heard you could walk to it. It was supposed to be a 5K walk, but there were distractions.  Near the western edge of Santa Margherita were these building with this unique appearance.  Even with all the motorcycles in front of it, it stood out.

Then there was the rock that arose from the sea, and it has this tree.  A seagull landed on the rock while I took the photo to give you a sense of scale. 

We eventually did make it to Portofino, and it, too, is picturesque.

For us, this was no ordinary day.  We traveled by train with multiple stops to get to a place we’d never been before.  Then we walked what we thought was a long way just to find out what Portofino had to offer.  It was part of our way of celebrating our anniversary.  This was us at the pier in the very small port of Portofino.  We had a lot of fun getting there even though there were a few challenges. 

It was all worth it - all 46 years of marriage!