La Spezia Question

[Hlitner]

Sounds like if we book this, I'll have to write a report. The wrench is that the cruise went up by almost $700 this morning. I'll have to see if it drops down a bit. I should've pulled the trigger this weekend.

 

buggins0402, flexible is all about what we are.

 

Slider, I would know all of that prior to going and have my options ready.

 

Hank, we're young, active, and adventurous... maybe that makes us too optimistic, but I love adventure.

 

LOL. We are old (seniors) active and still very adventurous. You would not believe where we drove our rental car during April's visit to Livorno (up in the mountains far from any cruisers). We managed to handle 31 European ports (on this one cruise) without taking a single excursion...which is our norm. We will be making our first visit to Iceland next month....and as is typical of our style we simply rented a car for when we overnight in Reykjavik The thought of being stuck on a tour bus gives us the "willies."

 

Hank

[Jenna1983]

As someone who's been to Pisa and someone who ended up in the hospital in La Spezia (my to my knee fiberglass cast had to be bi-valved) instead of Cinque Terre (again, it was the plan to go until I broke my foot 48 hours before flying to Europe & still was when I arrived in Italy LOL)- CT is still my dream to see and Pisa is not that exciting. Saw it my first trip to Italy and I'm okay not going back.

[gasmaster58]

I'm the OP and just want to report back what we did. We did end up going to both CT and Pisa. I had 11 people in my extended family ages from 12 to 72. I did start out the day with an open mind, not insisting on doing both. Again, our port time was from 12 noon to midnight. We left the ship about 12:30 and got back on board at 11:30.

 

We walked to the station and took the train to Riomaggiore, then to Monterosso next (not by choice, the train went straight there without stop), then to Vernazza and Corniglia. We spent a lot of time in Rio ( walked all the way up the church and down to the marina) and Vernazza. We even had some fried calamari and gelato.

After Corniglia, we decided to skip Manarola. It was really hot that day and very crowded. By that time, we'd walked for more than 9 miles (not the grandparent thought) so we're tired. We're planning to go back to the ship but I looked at my watch and saw that it's not even 7 o'clock yet. At La Spezia train station, we checked the schedule to Pisa and realized that we'd have enough time if we wanted to go and that's what we decided to do. We spent about 45 minutes there. Everyone in our group thought that it's completely worth it to go to Pisa.

 

Yes, it's a "been there, done that" kind of a place but you can only say that if you're actually been there, done that, correct? Would I go back? No. There are many other places that I would not go back either such as The Great Wall, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, Neuschwanstein Castle etc. but it does not take away the excitement you have the first time you see them. I don't know if I missed a lot not going to Manarola but I would go back to CT.

 

There is one thing I would change is that I would go to Pisa first and then go to CT. It would be not as hot with less crowd later in the day and I would be able to experience CT at night.

[poncho1973]

Thank you so much. It sounds like you had a full day, but a good one. That one thing you'd change is pretty much what we'll try and do when we go, the morning Pisa thing and see what else we get done.

 

I can't wait to try it.

 

It's mind-blowingly amazing that you and people from 12-72 did what several folks here said was FLAT IMPOSSIBLE. You must all be superhuman! HAHAHAHAHA ;););) Those grandparents are animals!!!!

Edited July 6, 2016 by poncho1973