Things are a bit of a blur on the Enrichment Voyage. Basically, for the month that we're traveling, it's the same number of ports as we had on the entire Spring Semester compressed into four weeks. Stays in each port are for a day or two, and time at sea is reduced to short hops across European seas versus lengthy extended ocean passages (it's been fun to tell the travelers as we're gently bobbing that we were at sea for nine days to reach Japan and hit ocean swells of 8 meters that threw tables, chairs, and people off balance...).
So, with lots packed in, I'm finding it hard to sit down to write and describe my visits. Since visiting Monaco, we've traveled to Livorno, Italy and Cadiz, Spain, followed by a revisit to Casablanca, Morocco. I'll post some Spanish and Moroccan pics and text soon.
Italy was beautiful. A quick nutshell summary: we hopped on a sea ferry to Cinque Terre, which is a stretch of five ocean villages along some steep rocky coastline. Each of the little villages rises from the oceanfront with narrow alleyways between tall apartments and storefronts. Each village has a church, too. Day one in Italy was our coastal trip, and we were not far from Florence but opted not to go into Florence because, well, with 36 hours in Italy, it would be more of a tease to see just a sliver of Florence versus a closer view of a couple smaller Italian spots.
Day two the Ramsey/Catzes split up for separate trips. Ellen and I took a bike tour of Lucca. Not much of a workout, but it was fun and, hey, there were churches and cathedrals in the old fortress village. Sandy and Jasper were in Pisa and got to climb the Leaning Tower (no pics since I wasn't there). Lucca had lots of cobblestone streets surrounded by fortress walls, and we cycled on top of those walls for a loop of about 5k and then dropped down into the heart of the city to look at the architecture. In the center, we noticed that the buildings were curved into an oval with the lowest floor having arches looking out into the courtyard; this had once been a Roman amphitheater with gladiator fights. Wicked cool.
Italy has–surprise–fantastic food. Our first evening, we had some pizza and inexpensive wine at a pizza spot that was perhaps on the fast-food level; it was early and we couldn't wait until 10pm to eat, so we took what was open. The pies were quite good with thin crispy oven-baked crusts and seafood, pesto, pepperoni (Jasper's a bit of a traditionalist), and artichoke toppings. On day two, we never did find the restaurant our guide recommended for cacciucco, which is a fish stew using various "leftover bits" on top of thick bread soaking up a rich red wine broth. So, we found a seafront restaurant with cacciucco on the menu and dug in. Ellen got a nice pasta dish with lobster, Jasper got the kids meal with pasta and steak and profiteroles, and Sandy and I got the cacciucco. It was a bit of a splurge, but it was delicious, and we realized with pricy places such as Paris and London coming up we'd not be able to be so extravagant. I think I can skip a week or two of eating anyway at this point.
We miss everyone at home and are getting really antsy to get back to our home, work, school, bikes, and our friends. It was nice to ride but the easy pace of the tour along with short blasts on the spin bikes just doesn't cut it for my cycling jones, so it's going to be tough to toe the line at races once we're back. Take it easy on me, please...
Ciao for now.
Seaside town in Cinque Terre.
Here is unexpected artwork in a fortress in the town of Livorno. The installation has colored sawdust, and as you walk around the colors get mixed. Looked to me like it had just been installed, so we noticed some places where people had left the lettering alone and other places where visitors had mixed up the colors.
Seaside cat.
My new singlespeed. Ellen's stead is in the background. She had gears. Each of our bikes had squeaks. And kickstands.
Mosaic on the outside of an Italian church in Lucca.
The Poli bike shop in Lucca, with vintage photos of Italian great Fausto Coppi and old races. The shop had lots of rental bikes which carried the shop name. Some of the higher-end Bianchi and Fondriest road bikes kept their brand names. Shawn, can you warranty this tandem?
Lobster and pasta.
Jasper prepares to dig into his pepperoni pie. Mine has pesto. Yes, please.
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