Hospitality of Florence

Sometimes my posts do come in non-specific order - it's just because some experiences are brighter and some need more time to process. So, there is a huge gap to cover - from Friday to Sunday.
After milongain Bologna followed a milonga in Florence which was in less cosy place, and the gap between dancing experiences was wider too. But first things first - before going out to dance our feet off, we experienced a real italian hospitality. It was my first couchsurfing experience as a guest too. I guess staying with a person you already know helps a bit. After exploring a Callenzano town (which if not for the cars parked there could fool you into thinking that you experienced time travel and ended up in medieval times), we visited a park with freely roaming rabbits, lots of hungry ducks and one turtle. Then followed a park with a giants statue, an overlook to Florence from a far and a dinner. Which had to be somewhere in a restaurant,  but ended up at hosts home. It had tobe a pasta bought from a shop, but turned out to be a specialy for us homemade pasta with a bottle of fine wine. So, our host is an excellent cook.
The next challenge we had to face - finding a parkingplace next to milonga. It took nearly 10 minutes - not bad for a first timer. And then dancing dancing dancing with live music and some acrobatic moves.

Hello and Good bye Bologna

At this specific moment - my feet are screaming and hurting like they had walked the whole day. Because they did - half day in cersaie fair, half day in Bologna. One thing for sure that half day in city center wasn't even barely close to enough - so, when there isn't enough time, you just walk without looking at the map, finding street musicians, street arcs and buildings older than the previous ones, ordering dinner in my poor italian without asking "parla inglese?".
One thing i know for sure - I must come back to it sooner or later. Of course, better sooner than later.

And yet to make this end of vacation more painful - an early flight with 1 stop awaits me.

One question which bugs me - how italians can sleep with just thin sheet-like blanket?

Milonga a la Bolognese and other stuff

Transition from Milano to Bologna went smoothly. Transitioning from Bologna to Monzuno - was more interesting. So, me and my friend rented a car - which turned out to have a 1.2l engine! And climbing mountains with it isn't very fun - but I guess I never drove into so steep hills and it's just a matter of time to accustom to a different horizon level.
As I say - our home now is in a deep deep village high in the mountains. With a beautiful view over Apenines and an incredibly starry night, if there are no clouds. So, I guess a little pain with a car is worth it.
But when there are low clouds in the sky - in the mountains you end up in the cloud. It feels like a fog, but you know it's a cloud. It may rain down below, but not in the cloud itself. And it's not very fun to climb a hill or mountain. There is zero visibility - there is no perspective for your goal. It gives you a creepy and mysterious atmosphere. And maybe to experience it for once - is quite ok.
But the other day turned out to be the opposite of the foggy one. The sun was burning as much as 27 degrees. We rode to Rocchetta Matei, which was closed, and then to Pistoia - we took the scenic road, but it allowed us to ride as fast as 60km per hour. Pistoia turns out to be a lovely city, with the population as much as in Kaunas. A compact old town, not too many tourists (or they were hidden somewhere), a bit an army of beggars considering the amount of tourists.

And on our way home - I forgot to check "avoid toll roads" in my google maps and we came home earlier than we would have the other way. I wanted to ride a highway in Italy, but all those toll booths were a bit frustrating. But they say - the best way to learn to swim is to be thrown into a water. The more you are preparing, the harder it gets to find the courage. But it turned out to have some other positive side effect - the plans we had for tonight went more smoothly. We did came home late, but we spent less time on driving and more on dancing in a fresh air.

Milongano

So, it's my fourth(and last) day in Milano. Me and my friend, we are already sitting in a Lampugno coach station caffe and waiting for our bus in Bologna. I can't say we've seen the city a lot, but that wasn't our goal. However the experience was more that amazing. By some lucky coincidence we ended up at tango nuevo milonga. For both of us it was a biggest milonga ever, but that wasn't the most amazing thing. The Tdj playedbotg old and new music, that was well fitted for the environment and created the unforgettable atmosphere. This amazing atmosphere was created by Tdj Fabrizio Ferranti Auslaender. Although with milonga itself the evening would have been perfect, it was even better. Before milonga we went to a classical music concert in a church Certosa di Garegnano, where we listened to Brahms and Arvo Pärt pieces, performed by Voce degli Archi with Mario Brunello itself. And we had a company of a classical music lover(he told us so much about the piece, musicians), which showed us both the concert and the milonga place.

Villa Santa Croce mountain

The second and the third day in Villa Santa Croce was more calm compared to the first one.
On the second day - it was raining, rather badly and such weather stayed for the bigger part of the day. Going somewhere without getting wet - was impossible. But we still made it for a short walk to the local mountain and visited potato field of our hosts.

A short walk to the local mountain peak. Just in time before the big cloud started crying. See the pale gray mountain in the distance? It's Vesuvio. Although it was on my initial plan, this is as closest as I could get to it this time.

Mountain peak - a perfect place for a cemetery. Closest place to the heaven.

And though we used paths, it was no walk in a park. Because I wanted to take pictures, I always stayed behind. Walking and shooting - seemed rather reckless.

According to our hosts, it's not even a village - it's just one street! Impossible to get lost, but hard to get there.

If you die in Italy, everybody gets invited to your funeral with a similar posted, which I happened to see quite a lot during the trip.

La Cipresseta

On the same day of visiting Matese mountains our hosts took us to a place called La cipresseta(near Fontegrecca). It's hard to describe what it is, but I will try. Most accurate description would be - a cypress grove with small waterfalls, bridges, benches to sit down. Next to this grove there is a sort of stone house (for me it looks like castle) with a poem engraved onto wall. A poem for cypress queen, unfortunately in Italian

A fragment of stone sculpture/installation. These stones are actually installed on a iron wires.

Matese mountains and lake, Letino Town

Mmm... persimmons, figs picked straight from the trees for breakfast - this is how our first day in Villa Santa Croce started. Finally, we saw how narrow the streets and roads were - if two cars were coming from opposite directions - they would definitely have to slow down, in rare cases - one of them would have to go backwards until there is enough space for two cars to pass by.

This is actually good thing, when you slow down, you have enough time to great with anyone in the other car. And in most cases, in these small villages and towns, there would be someone you already know in the other car. And drivers seem to be polite to each other, they are not in a hurry, they just enjoy the fact that they met somebody on the road, that they already know.
This region of Italy - Campania is famous for mozzarella(real mozzarella di bufala!). So, that very morning we were taken by our hosts to a small  mozzarella factory. It is owned by the friends of our hosts. We were given blue caps and aprons and could see the process of making by ourselves. Afterwards we tasted fresh mozzarella. It couldn't be fresher!

Into Matese mountains! I wouldn't want to drive there. All this beauty is so distracting, I would probably end up of the road.

After the show and getting some cheese for that day's lunch, our trip continued to Matese mountains. Driving slowly through curvy mountain roads, stopping at small villages, by noon we reached the lake of Matese. The landscape was the meal for our eyes. And we had a pick-nick basket there, enjoyed the warmth  of the sun.

Matese lake in Matese mountains. Just few weeks before this place was full with migrating birds, or so I was told.

On our way to Letino town we met this shy beauty. Locals call it chucho!

After filling our stomachs we set off to Letino town - a place awarded the orange flag - an acknowledgment mark of life quality and sustainable tourism in small towns of Italy. Having local guides pays off - one of us got to sit next to the driver in an Italian Ape and experience the ride through narrow and steep streets.

Italian Ape. I call it claustrophobomobilis. This one is used for gathering waste and trash from the steep and narrow streets of the town.

Then we went to castle, which appeared to be closed, but the views from there were still gorgeous.

a view from the Letino castle

We came from the wrong side. We actually had to climb this stony hill.

The castle was closed. We tried calling, but nobody answered. One of us knew where the key was kept, but we didn't use it. But this photo is about beautiful mailbox, not about castle doorbell.

Letino town has a bar called "Che Guevara", where the locals meet for the cup of coffee and to discuss the local news.

Arriving at Caserta

On Tuesday, the 29th of September we took the train to Caserta. 3 hours of  sitting torture again. But I must admit, we are getting used to them and the time flies by a lot faster. Most of the people sleep, but I for some reason can't get any sleep. 
So, After arriving to Caserta train station we were taken to Villa Santa Croce, where my friend's friend lived. It was already late and, yes, dark, we could barely feel that our car was ascending a steep hill. We would see the beauty of the landscape only the next day. It was late, but we were treated a full Italian supper, almost five meals - after eating pasta, some fish-spinach burgers, salad and fruits, we passed on desert - ice cream at 11.30pm was too much. But we had some home made wine. We had our local guides for tomorrow, switching off the alarm clock before going to sleep - was the right thing to do.

In Florence

It's Thursday, and I'm late with my posts. So, much has happened since we left Cinque Terre. So, I'll try to remember as much as possible in this post.
The adventures started before we left the five lands. We missed our train from La Spezia to Pisa. How this happened. In Italy trains are late quite often, but if you are buying tea or coffee before boarding your train, the one who is late will be you.
So, we bought tickets for next train which was an hour later. And for the ride from Pisa to Florence we still could use our regional train ticket. On the other hand, when we arrived to Florence we didn't have too much time before we could head to our accommodation location. First place we went to was tourist information center and we found a Lithuanian girl working there - she gave us not only the tips what is worth to see in Florence in such a short time, but also told us how to get to our place.
We stayed at Clara's place, which we found on airbnb. Clara is a 60 -ish Italian woman or should I say mama. She doesn't speak English very well, but you can still figure things out somehow. She even let us leave our bags the next day, so we wouldn't carry them with ourselves while enjoying last hours in Florence.
The weather in Florence was not too friendly, it was not raining, but the sun was shy and hiding behind the clouds, the wind was strong and unexpected. We ended up walking here and there. It was Monday and most of the museums were not working anyway.
First thing we did - we went to eat - to the market near Piazza del Mercato Centrale - it looks like a huge cantine where you can taste different regional foods from all over Italy. We were just fine with spaghetti and gnocchi and a cannoli for dessert.
Lots of squares in Florence have street musicians playing one or another instrument. We listened to a guitarist from Poland performing Italian songs, a accordionist with a slavic name playing tangos and to the cellist at the Uffizi gallery piazza (he was performing classical music, I think it was the suites of Bach that he was playing). It was my birthday on Monday, so, finally we went to have dinner and drink some wine.
Next morning we decided to explore the other side of the river Arno and see the treasures hidden in the gardens of Boboli and Bardini. Those treasures appeared to be the spectacular panoramas of Florence.
Our train was about to leave right before 6pm, but was late as always. We were going to Caserta and had to switch trains in Rome. with 15 minutes delay and having only 20 minutes to switch the trains - we were not feeling at ease. We ran with our aching feet and heavy backpacks on the backs, and we made it to the train right before it left.
To conclude, Florence is a lot nicer in the evening when all the street merchants are already gone home. And if you add the street music concerts, it makes the city worth visiting. But maybe reserve more than 24 hours for it.

Exploring Cinque Terre

This is my second day of my vacation in Italy, but the first when I'm doing more vacation than transportation.  I'm travelling with my friend and a colleague - three girls in Italy for one week - sounds great!
Yesterday we flew to Milan and after two hours there we took a train to La Spezia. Three and a half hours of torture. The seats were great, but besides talking, eating nuts and candies we got nothing else to do. Just sit and watch the landscape which was not so bad. But we survived and our airbnb host took us from train station to the appartment we were renting. After doing so much sitting we wanted to stretch out our feet - two hours in La Spezia having no clue were to go - but it was Saturday and the city was live with music and few young people. It is not scary at all to walk in the dark - we are three and we are Lithuanians.
So, La Spezia - might not be familiar to most of you, but is a very convenient spot to stay when going to Cinque Terre - it offers a lot cheaper accommodation options. And it's a seven minutes ride with train from there to Riomaggiore.
It was a first village on our day trip. We spent a good hour wandering there in the narrow streets/stairs. One reason for this was because a road from there to Manarola was closed. Manarola is really similar to Riomaggiore, and a road to the next village - Corniglia - was closed too(or at least we were told so). It was getting rather crowded at the train station, so when we arrived to Corniglia, we decided to go to the very last village - Monterosso al mare and do a walking from there.
But after seeing Riomaggiore and Manarola, Monterosso was rather disappointing. Yes, it has a beach and lots of overpriced restaurants(we were not expecting anything to be cheap in any of those five villages). But it's beautiful to look at only from a far. So, we took the hiking route.
First, we were optimistic and affected by stunning landscapes. Then the stairs were getting steeper and steeper. They were resembling less stairs and more large pieces of stone. It was getting rather hot, because of the physical workout and because the sun decided to come out of the cloud. We felt our sweat dripping from our faces and backs. One moment girls wanted to go back and take a train....
But we didn't and we were climbing even more higher the paths where sometimes it was hard to pass for two persons, and most of the time there was no railing to hold on. No joke if someone has vertigo. But with every step we were getting closer to Vernazza - probably the most beautiful of the villages of Cinque Terre. We were feeling a little bit out of place - dusty and sweaty, and tired. But still, we had a pizza with tomatoes and pesto sauce.
So, Corniglia was our last stop. When you arrive there with a train(as we did), you can walk or take a bus up the hill to the village center. The ride is included in train pass. There if you get before sunset, you get to see really stunning views of the sea. So, we were lucky with that too. But while waiting for a bus to come pick us up to the train station, we missed one train and the next one was only after an hour. Then the bus came and the driver said that he won't be going down anymore, and we will have to walk.  It was rather dark, but the stairs to the train station were lit up first, but then we had to use mobile flashlight. This journey to the train station was quite adventurous - we missed the turn to the station and ended up on the dead-end seaside walk. But we had plenty of time before train. And we had our supper already prepared - sort of, we bought fruits and a bottle of Rosso wine in Corniglia and we got a focaccia with cheese for free (there is a tiny thought suggesting that while we were doing our shopping, we missed our bus). All we had to do is to get back to our appartment and have a feast there.