Thursday, 20 June 2019

Day 45 - Monday 17 June - Florence to La Spezia

Monday 17 June

We hadn't managed to see the baptistry yesterday, so since we were ready early enough, we popped down after breakfast.  There really isn't a lot to see, but the mosaic roof is beautiful and gold and sparkly.  It must have looked great with the huge silver altar that we saw in the museum.


 The original floor is about 2m down.

The  gates of paradise (but only a replica of what we saw yesterday.)

The train went at 11:53.  It was a regional service, and we took up 2 seats with our bags, and we had 4 seats.  We reached about 150kph, which was pretty good, as we stopped quite often at local stations.  We arrived at La Spezia at about 14:30, and were met by Cosimo, who took up up to his attic.  He was very friendly, and showed us maps, and made suggestions as to where we could go on this short visit.

So we took up his suggestion, and caught the local bus to Porto Venere, about 20min ride from town.  It reminded us of Quiberon.


We walked through to the old church on the point, but didn't climb up to the castle.




 These are 3-d saints on the doors.

People were swimming off the rocks, and there was a foot jetty with a ladder.  We had changed at home, and went in for a swim.  It was cool and refreshing, and the water so clean.

 

It took a while to get ourselves dressed again hiding behind the sarong.  It was dinner time, so we had pizza beside the sea, and watched some very big boats come in.


Then we walked along the foreshore looking for a bus-ticket seller.  Lucky we went back to the drop-off spot and got tickets there in time for the bus.  

We looked for icecreams after we left the bus, but all the minimarkets were closed.

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