The lovely apartment we are in (called La Casa di Giada) is in the smallest village we have ever stayed in. A fairly busy road runs next to the house. We did not enjoy walking along this road as there is dense bush on both sides, so there is nowhere to walk, making the road is dangerous.
We need to go back to La Spezia today to do touristy things. Our manager Daniele has given us very detailed instructions on how to go into town and back on the local buses. We crossed the road to the bus stop and his mother came over to check on our plan, but she has no English, so she looked at our papers and gave us a thumbs up and OK. The little blue bus arrived on time and was nearly full. We bought tickets and told the driver "stazione". We made the mistake of assuming the station was the last stop, but he drove straight past the station stop and was over the other side of the shopping town before we got to talk to him. We never found out where the buttons were to get him to stop. We told the driver we would be on the bus tomorrow (domani) again and would want to get off at the stazione.
We had borrowed Daniele's map and used it to find our way back. We had all day and our aim was to wander around, so there was no big issue. We still arrived at the station in time to see our 10:06 train arrive and leave, so we were able to establish where our first class carriage would be and that saves a long rush along the platform. There is no indication beforehand on the platform where first class will be.
We queued up at the ticket sales and and handed our Eurail Pass to the ticket lady who, despite our loud protests insisted on filling out the "last day of use" line. She warned us that there was a 50 euro fine but when she handed it back she had miscalculated and put the wrong date, so she had to change it and we were not happy with her officiousness. She charged us 40 euros to reserve seats on the fast train from Pisa to Genoa and return, so we could meet Dave and Angie on Saturday for a few hours. Two steps ahead with our plans for Friday and Saturday.
We strolled back down the carless shopping street and bought a "platane" from Ecuador for breakfast tomorrow. They look like bananas but are cheaper. We shall see how edible they are. We thought the castle looked the best prospect as an interesting activity and saw a free lift and cable car from the main street that would take us up. It was called the Castle of Saint George and was built in the middle ages, but we never saw mention of a dragon anywhere. A very helpful man sold us tickets at the senior's discount price of 4 euros each and gave us an introduction to the various museums in the castle with excellent English excellent English. The first museum we went to had Roman relics owned by collectors.
There were bones from a bear, a hippopotamus, and a mastodon.
The second museum had tombs, statues and small items. It seemed to have been built from whatever rocks and building materials were available. The walls had a rough appearance but were a minimum of two meters thick and it was obviously a very strong fortress in its time. This was the first castle we have visited in UK/Europe for this trip. We worked our way up to the top level and had a very good view across town to the harbour and the Bay of La Spezia.
We took the two lifts back to street level and found our way to the waterfront where a German Cruise Ship was docked, called Mein Schiff 2. The bow can be seen in the first of the two photos above. It is in front of the container dock where the cranes are. We noticed German tourists in the town.
To get back home we had to get two buses and we were worried about being stranded at La Foce where we were told to change buses. We boarded the first bus and told the driver our plan to catch the second bus towards Beverino. A lady sitting nearby said "I am going to Beverino, follow me." It all worked well as several others were doing the same change over. We have found in Italy that members of the public are always very helpful and sympathetic of our lack of local savvy. The two taxi drivers we have used have been great. Some of the official employees can be too officious.
For dinner we will go back to the rustic restaurant across the road. From the outside it looks not much at all. Peeling paint, ripped curtains, unpaved driveway, but inside it is delightful, the waiter is very helpful and the food is excellent and delicious, as well as reasonably priced. The locals turn up in numbers.
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