Tuscany Trip - Part 5 - Camaiore and Viareggio

When picking a place to stay for this trip, it was quite hard to decide where to locate ourselves. We tend to like being in the non touristy towns, away from noise and close to climbing. So, for this trip, we chose to be in Camaiore, a town of about 31,000, close to the sea,  right by the best climbing in the area, and less than an hour from Pisa and Lucca. 

The town had everything we needed. Supermarkets, stores, good local restaurants, awesome markets, and of course, gelato. Plus, a nice downtown area complete with park for the kids.We were lucky to be staying in Camaiore right when they were having a huge pepper festival! Every single type of pepper could be found, and all kinds of fun gifts and handmade items with a pepper theme were being sold as well.

 

Walking down the pedestrian only downtown of Camaiore

Just down the road from Camaiore lies a  larger famous seaside resort town called Viareggio. We parked right by the marina our first visit and couldn't get over all the yachts and sailboats in the marina/port. Unreal! Some honestly looked like cruise ships, but were private yachts. Who owns these boats?!

On the main strip parallel to the beach are numerous expensive clothing stores and restaurants, all with private clubs and private access to the beach. So bizarre. You can't just walk out on to the beach easily like you do in the states. You have to pay and go through a private club to get access. Luckily, it was the off season, and hardly a soul was at the beach, and the private clubs were mostly closed up. We found a small public entrance at the end of the promenade and  then a private club playground that was open/free since the beach season was over, and the kids had a grand time for an hour before we settled down to eat lunch.

Sand Angels

 

 

 

When we weren't visiting the towns and cities of Tuscany, we were happily resting and exploring the mountainside where we rented a villa. Just a short hike up the hill from our villa was a neat castle tower we enjoyed hiking to with the kids. Along the mountainsides fruiting trees were ripe with oranges, lemons, persimmons, pomegranates, olives, and figs. So awesome to be able to pick fresh fruits from the trees and gobble it up on the spot. We caught frogs and lizards and interesting insects many hours of our day, and collected wood for outside fires. Boccie ball games filled up many evening hours along with "hide and seek" and "ghost in the graveyard". In the daytime, while resting around the villa, I enjoyed playing around with my new  lens and practicing some photography skills on my little ones. Each night, I enjoyed cooking dinner using all the fresh ingredients we'd buy at the markets and grocery stores (pesto, Parmesan, olive oil, pasta, olives, and the list goes on).

 

No two doors are alike in Italy...

The front door to our villa. I have a thing for doors...

These flowers grew all over the forest floor.

 

Outdoor showers were Cooper's favorite.

Boccie Ball Games

Playing with a Lizard

And each night, after our busy fun filled days together, the kids would enjoy a bath , snuggle in bed for books, and fall quickly to sleep, worn out from a full day's play. Sublime.

Only one more post to go...

Tuscany Trip - Part 4 - Cinque Terre

Although the Cinque Terre is not in Tuscany (it is in the Liguaria region on the Italian Riveriera), we decided since it was only an hour north and had heard such great reviews, we'd check it out.

Certainly glad we did. Since the five coastline villages are only accessible by train, foot, and boat (they are part of the Cinque Terre National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site), we decided we'd take a ferry ride from Lerici to visit. Online I read the ferry would leave and return from Lerici one time a day in October, so we made sure we arrived early to purchase our tickets only to find out they were only running ferries out, not back (because they said they didn't have enough passengers to warrant a return trip)?!

Without a train station in Lereci, we'd have to take a train from the Cinque Terre towns back to La Spezia, and then catch a bus. We took our chances and hopped on the ferry passing the steep cliff side towns of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza and finally hopped off at the last and supposedly most beautiful, Monterosso al Mare. Over the centuries, people have built terraces on the rugged landscape right up to the cliffs overlooking the sea. Can you imagine having kids and living in one of those houses? I started sweating and freaking out just imagining scenarios with my little ones.

The ferry ride was a bit long, but quite worth it for the views from the sea. I was hoping we'd see dolphins or other wildlife, but perhaps we were out of season.  A big reason the towns are so charming is the lack of corporate development to the area. Without cars reaching the destinations, it really keeps the towns authentic, however, they were swarming with tourists (and almost all were English speaking).

In Monterosso, we arrived just in time for lunch.  We headed into the old town and found a perfect town square with a plethora of restaurants to choose from and adjacent,  a wonderful park!

 After a stroll through town, some gelato and shopping, we headed over to the train station to purchase tickets for our return journey and played on the beach. The highlight of the day was when Cooper took off all his clothes to play in the water. So adorable. Thirty or more tourists were taking photos as he danced around and screamed as the cold water lapped his ankles. 

 We managed to catch a train and a bus back to Lerici without a hiccup, and both little ones fell asleep on the bus. Since it was close to dinner time, we decided we'd hang around Lerici for dinner and explore the town a little. I'd read about Lerici in a New York Times Article titled "An Italian Beauty with Foreign Suitors", and the article was pretty spot on. Lerici is beautiful, and just as enjoyable as the Cinque Terre towns, but without all the tourists. We played at the park by the marina at sunset and Cooper made friends with some cute little local Italian boys who were impressed at his climbing skills, while Lily slept away in her stroller. After the park and nap, we ate dinner in the main square overlooking the marina at sunset.

Happy to have pictures to remember our days. I can almost taste the limoncella and smell the salty air...