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| outdoor kitchen and pizza oven |
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| slowly sinking in the 33 degree heat |
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| breakfast time at camp fishtello |
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| standard |
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| geezers |
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| sammy looking pleased even though i just paid €20 for these two ice creams |
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| florence - my dream boat city |
After Portofino we decided to get an airbnb for s couple days so we could offload the bikes and do some washing, and get to sleep a lil better not being in a tent. We booked this place a 20 mins drive from Levanto which is on the coast and close to Cinque Terre. The temperature in the mountains is juuuuust that little bit more bearable wth motorbike gear on hahah.
Intermission
Last year Greer and I were going to stay in Riomaggiore which is the first of the 5 little villages of 'Cinque Terre'. I'd seen a picture of one of them on a bus, we thought we would go to Pisa, Florence and Riomaggiore for the week, and so I googled, 'how to say Cinque Terre'. Keep in mind this is a place in ITALY. So google tells me you say it like 'Sink Tear'. What I fail to notice is that it has given me the SPANISH pronounciation of the two words. What ensues is me passing the incorrect sounds on to Greer, she talks to her workmates who are from Italy, I talk to a friend who is like WHAT THE FUX THIS GAL ON ABOUT, said friend pisses them self laughing, and corrects me. Sigh, anyway.
We spent the days swimming in Riomaggiore, eating gelato in Monterosso, laughing at Manarola ennnnna Manarola and going to some little beaches recommended to us by the airbnb people, Bonassola and Framura. It turned out to be more like a bed and breakfast, as the lady baked some breads and made chutneys and jams and while it was kinda steep in price for the breakfast/lunch/dinner, it was quite an experience to eat with some super hippy Italians, get the down-lo on the markets and beaches and just general life of the regular peeps of Italy. They told us a story of how the fire fighters only get paid when they go on a job, so sometimes the firefighters have friends light little fires and call them in. There are so many beautiful beautiful little settlements and hills and views up there, and so many tomatoes hahaha. On the way out we rode the high road around the tops of all of Cinque Terre, which was a really nice road along the top of the hillside and also a totally new way to see these little towns squished between the hills.
More camping by a new beach (Marina di Pisa) followed by going to actual Pisa (woot) getting some leaning tower snaps (wayyyy to many) and then...leaving....turning back northwards....the exact halfway point of our trip in time and distance...we were about an hour out of Pisa when I broke it. So, I have this lifelong fear of gravel ever since I was younger like 7ish, and my brother and I were riding our bikes on this gravel driveway in Patearoa, before I knew about the physics of corners + breaking + gravel = sliding the hell off. So anyway I was avoiding some gravel due to this silly fear and then also avoiding this cavernous (normal) gutter, pulling out of a gravel picture taking area when I just fricken dropped it. Musta dropped it hella funny cos the belt snapped, I paid for a mechanics whole holiday (anyone wanna start a towing business I hear they make bank). I never thought I'd have to utter the words, 'how the hell am I haemorrhaging so much money' but here I am, saying it. Anyone need a kidney? I have one for sale. Lucky we decided to keep costs low by camping Hah! The new belt was going to come quicker from the U.K. so we ordered that. Here is s picture of me when the package arrived :
Since we got 'stranded' while Italy had their public holiday and no one was open, we headed in to Florence to be tourists (I still didn't get to go to the Uffizi Gallery - two years in a row. Next time.) I got toallly ripped off for two gelato, I missed the sign for the big waffle cones that said €10 each, dear god back to the haemorrhaging comment. To be fair it felt like a kg of ice cream but still. Florence is just amazing, even from the hills approaching you can see the Duomo from miles away, and the city itself feels so classic and I dunno, unchanged even though there's all of us tourists running rampant. More beach days, more leaning tower spotting (as we had to drive past a few times to various garages and hotels) and finally FedEx dropped the package at 10am on Wednesday, and the only BMW garage in Italy that was going to open before August 21st opened, and it was fixed by 12. RESULT.
Now to make up for some lost 'lost?' time.
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