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Sunday, September 7th, Portovenere, Italy
 
   
Yes, we are back in Italy and the girls are milking us for every ice cream they can get!  Not that the ice cream in Corsica was bad.  They milked us for French ice cream as well!  Luckily, I have learned that only every very- seldom-once-in-a-while can I get an ice cream too!  Oh, to be young again, and seemingly immune to consequences! 
 
   
Aside from good ice cream, our last stop in Corsica, Calvi, also had a fantastic stretch of white sandy beach.  We enjoyed our last few days of hanging out with the Natives there, before they took off westward for Barcelona and we headed northeast towards La Spezia, Italy.
   
Leaving friends is always hardest on the kids.  The four of them built sand castles on the beach, fashioned bows and arrows to defend them, swam and went wake boarding behind Gone Native's 30 horsepower dinghy.  I even managed to get up on a slalom water ski, after many false starts! 
   
It is always easier to say goodbye having already made plans to meet again.  We have set a goal to share Halloween and Cassie's birthday in the Canaries.
 
Zia hung out for a few more days after Gone Native left, just enjoying the settled weather and beautiful anchorage.  Every day plane loads of French Foreign Legion troops would practice their parachute jumps over the airfield beyond the trees. 
   
We also got to watch the firefighting planes practice their water pick ups not 200 yards in front of us and the neighboring 100 foot charter catamaran.
   
 
With a little bit of favorable breeze in the forecast, and an agenda of boat jobs to try to take care of in Italy, we took off for Lerici, in the Golfo dei Poeti near La Spezia.  Lorenzo, a soon-to-be cruiser who is from the area, although currently living in London, had stumbled upon our website in the spring and decided to contact us via email when we I first mentioned cruising in this area before leaving the Med.  He made a bunch of great recommendations for places to visit. Lerici was one of his suggestions and we found a great anchorage and wonderful town and castle to explore.
   
 
Being only 30 miles away, we decided that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was one of those sights that the kids would remember seeing for many years to come.  We have spent a lot of time in Italy but have seen very few of the typical tourist attractions.  It is nice to visit someplace they recognize.  We took pictures of all of us in the corny pose holding up the tower, but Cassie's turned out the best.
                                    
We didn't even climb up the tower.  It was more the adventure of getting there and just seeing the ridiculous spectacle of this beautiful bell tower leaning over at a preposterous angle.  With no tourist information office to help advise us, my rusty Italian and bold inquiries had to suffice.  The tobacconist (you buy your bus tickets at tobacco shops in Italy) replied that the best way to get to Pisa from Lerici is by bus to Sarzana and then by  train from Sarzana to Pisa.  We must have just missed a train when we arrived at the station and we found ourselves with two hours to kill.  We wandered around the old walled city of Sarzana and found a nice spot for lunch.  No one was in any particular hurry and we had a very pleasant day. 
                                  
 
After walking through the old section of Pisa to the Campo dei Miracoli, the girls immediately plopped down in the shade of the tower to sketch and write.
   
We did inquire about going up the tower but the next available tour wasn't until 5:30 and we didn't want to wait around for two hours just to climb up it.  We visited the church and baptistery and enjoyed watching the throngs of tourists as we lazed in the grass.
   
After all was said and done, we were back at the boat well before dark and happy for the adventure.
 
   
Portovenere, across the bay from Lerici, was also recommended by Lorenzo and proved to be well worth the visit.  The colorful village is flanked by a beautifully restored castle and wall, and a lovely church perched atop the rocks on the point. 
   
The town is quite busy, being one of the starting points for boat excursions departing for the Cinque Terre region just to the north.  We hoped to do the trip in our own boat, but dedicated a day to exploring Portovenere itself.  The church had hosted a wedding that morning, and the flowers were still adorning the interior and we caught sight of the bride and groom posing for photos in front of Byron's Grotto.  We climbed down to get our own shots of the dramatic coast as the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and waves crashed against the rocks. 
  
 
We'll set out tomorrow to visit the Cinque Terre, or Five Worlds.  This group of five little fishing villages cling to the very edge of the rocky coastline and were, until relatively recently, only accessible by boat or donkey.  The old track through the hills and vineyards has been converted into a footpath which is today a popular hiking trail linking the five villages.  I'm not sure how much of the hike we will be able to drag the girls along, but hopefully we'll get a taste of it from whatever portion we are able to walk.
   
 
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Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind enough to host the website on his server.
 

 
   

 
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