There's No Place Like Home

After our whirlwind trip (seriously, everyone who heard about our travels accused me of not letting my dad have a vacation because we spend so much time travelling!), I hopped on a plane back to the homeland. This trip had two purposes: 1. A new visa so Italy can't kick me out just yet. 2. Welcome my new sister to the family at my brother's wedding.

Now I love Italy, but Vancouver (the West Coast really) is in a class of its own, and after a year away I was really looking forward to getting back for a few weeks. The first stop upon my arrival was sushi. No joke. Even though I was jet-lagged to the point of slurring my words and occasionally going cross-eyed. Because this:

The rest of the trip was a whirlwind of Japadog, overly helpful bus drivers, me apologizing like a good Canadian when doing something like asking for a glass of water at Starbucks, randomly bumping in to people I haven't seen in ages, going to see the hilariously inappropriate Avenue Q (if you ever get the opportunity, SEE IT), dining with the geese in Powell River, evening swims, whale watching from the patio, thai food, boozy brunch, seeing everyone's new babies, taking 8 (yes, EIGHT) ferry rides, getting my auntie fill with my two adorable nephews, and watching the wedding of the year.

What is a Leg Horn?

Last stop on the great seaside tour of 2013? Livorno! Or, Leghorn in English, and we all know how I feel about that. I spent a solid half an hour looking at a map wondering what Leghorn meant.

This town was entirely new to me, and I was a bit nervous after a friend's review. Actually, her exact comment was, "Why on earth are you staying in Livorno? It's soooo boring!" Livorno served as a home base for the Le Spiagge Bianche in Rosignano, and a day trip to Pisa.

Le Spiagge Bianche was a different beach experience than what we were used to. Blue water, white sand, and nary a beach umbrella in sight. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but the white sand is a by-product of the factory located right behind it, and/or a gift from the factory owners to make people forget about the related polution. There's no life to be found in the water, and the first thing my dad noticed is that it doesn't smell like the ocean. At all. Creepy, but once you move past that then it's pretty easy to enjoy the day there. It's just such a different experience from the other beaches where you're crammed on to one small strip of public beach - 4kms of public beach in Italy is a rare find in my opinion!

Balanced out with this local experience was a super-tourist day in Pisa. You can look at as many photos as you want, but nothing quite prepares you for how weird it is to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And all of the people taking photos!

All in all, Livorno as a home base worked well. And they have some goooooooooood seafood. Try the fish stew!

 

 

L'ultima fermata del grande viaggio al mare di 2013? Livorno! Ma chi ha deciso che si deve dire Leghorn in inglese? Perchè non possiamo dire Livorno tutti?

Questa città era completamente nuova per me, ma ero un po' nervosa dopo che una mia amica ha detto che ero pazza stare a Livorno. Non c'è niente da fare! Secondo lei... ci siamo fermati lì però per andare alle spiagge bianche a Rosignano, e poi a Pisa.

Le spiagge bianche sono come nient'altro che ho visto in italia. L'acqua azzurra, la sabbia bianca, e nessun ombrellone. Non mi ricordo benissimo, ma mi sa che la sabbia bianca viene da una fabbrica dietro, ed è stata forse un regalo dalla fabbrica per far dimenticare alla gente che la fabbrica danneggia l'ambiente. Non vive nessun pesce nell'acqua, e la prima cosa che ha detto mio padre è che non si sente l'odore del mare. Per niente. Stranissimo. Ma quando si dimentica di questo è molto facile godersi la giornata là. È un mondo diverso dalle altre spiagge dove la spiaggia pubblica è un metro quadrato con 200 persone - trovare 4km di spiaggia pubblica in italia non è facile!

Dopo una giornata italiana (pochi turisti alle spiagge bianche), siamo andati a Pisa per un giorno turistichississississimo. Puoi guardare mille foto del torre di Pisa ma non ti preparano mai a vederlo di persona. E poi tutte le persone facendo le foto è una cosa troppo divertente da guardare!

Insomma, Livorno come un posto centrale è funzionato bene. E si mangia il pesce fresco e buonooooo. Provate il Cacciucco!

Would you like a slice of lard with that?

Mmm hmmm... a whole post about LARD. Nope, not that hard white stuff you find in a jar, but we're talking thinly sliced, considered delicious, part of your meat and cheese plate, lard.

For our second night in La Spezia, we ventured off in search of a really Italian restaurant.The night before we had been caught in a total tourist trap where they served my dad what looked like a frozen pizza, and so we wanted something real. Something delicious. Wandering away from the main drag, we turned the corner and found this little hub of activity, full of Italians eating delicious-looking food. We checked out the menu, and for the first time since I've been here I noticed that lots of things were listed with lardo. I was so confused that I had to double check. "Scusa, cos'è lardo?" "Lardo. Lard." Weird.

Anyway, it all looked delightful so we stayed and ordered an assortment of food, one being the meat and cheese plate. Well, when the board arrived, it looked like two types of cheese, and four different types of meat. We dove in and after a few pieces I went in for the thinly sliced piece of white cheese. In my defense, you can buy thinly sliced white cheese at the grocery store. I put it in my mouth and the next few moments were something shocking. It was salty. It started to melt in my mouth. Then a flavour party exploded while I was still trying to figure out what kind of cheese I was eating. This all happened within seconds, after which I swallowed, looked at my dad, and said, "I think I just ate fat." We confirmed this with the server, and really, if I had looked closer, I would've noted the barely-there rind on the outside. But why would I inspect my cheese so closely??

True, fat equals flavour, and this was like a flavour rave in my mouth. But, the idea of voluntarily chowing down on pieces of pure fat is just so bizarre that I can honestly say I'll probably try to avoid it in the future.

Non so come scrivere questa storia in italiano per voi italiani, piuttosto perchè per voi, non è strano mangiare lardo! Quindi, secondo me dovete leggerla in inglese. Beh, no. Per forza dovete leggerla in inglese, perchè non la scrivo in italiano! 

La Spezia and Le Cinque Terre (NOT the 5 Lands)

In case you don't know this already, translating names is a pet peeve of mine. I just found out this year (from a 12-year old), that Christopher Columbus' name was actually Cristoforo Colombo! WHAT! Needless to say, every time an Italian talked to my Dad and me about the Five Lands (Le Cinque Terre) a piece of me died.

Now that I have that off my chest, let's get back to the fun times! We put down roots for a couple of nights in La Spezia, in a great location, and explored from our new home base. On the first day we jetted off on a boat cruise over to Portovenere which I'd highly recommend to all.

The next day we hit the "Five Lands." I have never seen so many people. In. My. Life. We started off at the most Northern town and then worked our way back down towards the end of the day, ending up for a few drinks in this cute mountainside bar in the last town. A good day trip, but in my opinion it's more enjoyable to stay in La Spezia and train out to Le Cinque Terre instead of staying in one of them.

Nel caso in cui non sapevate già, tradurre i nomi è una cosa che ODIO. Ho scoperto quest'anno (grazie a una ragazza di 12 anni), che Christopher Columbus si chiamava Cristoforo Colombo. PAZZESCO! Quindi, ovviamente, ogni volta che un'italiano ci parlava delle Five Lands (Le Cinque Terre) un pezzetino di me si è morto.

Adesso che sono un po' più calma, torniamo al divertimento! Ci siamo fermati un paio di notti a La Spezia, in centro, e da lì abbiamo visto un po' della città, e siamo anche andati a Portovenere (da non perdere se siete in zona!). 

Il giorno prossimo, "The Five Lands." Non ho mai visto così tanta gente. Mai, mai, mai. Abbiamo iniziato nella "Land" più nord, tornando piano piano a La Spezia. Perfetto per un giorno, ma secondo me è più piacevole stare a La Spezia e andare col treno alle Cinque Terre invece di prenotare un albergo lì.