Posts Tagged ‘italy’

  1. Lago di Como

    June 5, 2013

    View from the hotel in Bellagio.

    The distance between La Spezia and Bellagio is the longest we’ve had to cover when going to the next destination. The shortest path is just under 300km, but a significant chunk of it goes through twisted mountain roads where you cannot go anywhere near the 130km/h that are allowed on the Italian Autostrade. In fact, we were going to omit Autostrade (equivalent to freeways in North America) completely due to smaller roads being more picturesque and us having limited road experience in Italy. With the GPS set to avoid freeways, our route was estimated to take close to 6 hours to complete. Continue reading…


  2. Cinque Terre

    October 20, 2011

    End of October and whatever Indian Summer we had in Toronto – it’s all gone now. Cold, rainy and gray appear to be the the themes of today, but I’d rather remind myself of another somewhat rainy day. Unlike today here, that was in Cinque Terre and while humid and ultimately rainy, it was warm and colourful.

    Upon waking up in a hot, non air conditioned hotel room we were anxious to get out into the villages and see how they fair in daylight. We headed to the now familiar train station and got tickets for the furthest one – Monterosso al Mare. The train station at La Spezia is actually advanced enough to accept credit card payments for tickets in an automated dispensing machine. On the previous night when we were returning from Riomaggiore the manned kiosks were already closed and all that was left was a single automated ticket selling machine that had a tiny screen to make your destination selection, a couple of buttons and a slot for coins. Coins was all it accepted and we were really lucky to have some (usually I’m the one to try to ditch coins as soon as I can and on most occasions I therefore do not have any). Shortly after we spent some time figuring out how to buy the right tickets with that machine, a couple of girls went for it as well and were getting quite frustrated (I don’t blame them). We eventually helped them out, and were slightly surprised at their surprise that we spoke English. I mean what, did they think we were Italians? At that hour?

    But back to this morning. As I mentioned, it was looking cloudy, but even the gloomiest day on an Italian vacation is more fun that the funnest day in the office. No competition.

    We passed all the first four villages and finally exited the train at Monterosso.

    Monterosso al Mare – view off of train station.


    Continue reading…


  3. To Cinque Terre

    September 20, 2011

    Leaving Milan was a great feeling. Not that there is anything wrong with it in particular, but we desperately wanted a change of pace and scenery. And that we had! The road from Milan to La Spezia is a fairly long one, and since driving in Italy was still a new skill, and driving a standard transmission even more so, we told our GPS to avoid the Autostrade and take the smaller roads. This also allowed us to stop occasionally to enjoy the landscapes and take more photos.

    One of the frequent features of the landscape were hills and mountains (we were going across the Apennines after all) and more often than not these hills were covered in vineyards.

    Something resembling a small church near the vineyards along the way.


    Continue reading…


  4. Milan, Lombardy

    September 16, 2011

    The next morning our breakfast was much less exciting as we had to get out of the hotel and back on the road early. As it turns out, in Italy you pay for your stay upon check out, not upon arrival. Just gotta keep that in mind and not leave without paying by accident. 😉

    There was still enough time to give the town a last look around and take some photos. The weather was finally sunny, and the few clouds that were visible only provided for a less boring sky.

    The clouds seem to act as an extension to the soft mountain peak.


    Continue reading…