Ayrshire+ Photographs

The Thursday saw us at the walled town of Lucca.

These first few photographs are of the cathedral San Martino, begun in 1063 by Bishop Anselm (later Pope Alexander II) with the nave and transepts being rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 14th century, while the west front was begun in 1204 by “Guidetto” (Guido Bigarelli of Como), and consists of a vast portico of three magnificent arches, and above them three ranges of open galleries adorned with sculptures.

The walls did come as a bit of a surprise – they were a lot wider than I expected.

This is a torch holder found in the Piazza Napoleone.

Just another street view….

The San Frediano church facade of the church is decorated with a lavish thirteenth century mosaic.

The Wednesday saw us up in the heights going to the Orecchiella National Park.

We stopped for a coffee and rest break in the little village of Corfino.

The war memorial was striking against the blue sky……

…. while the view was stupendous.

The view from the park was pretty good as well!

Tuesday was much better weather, so off we went to spend the day in the most Scottish town in Italy, Barga. A large percentage of the Italians who settled in Scotland came from the Barga region and more than a few Scots-born Italians have returned and married there. A Scots accent is quite a usual sound in Barga!

This is a view from inside the town, looking over the Serchio river valley.

This is the Duomo San Cristiofano built between the 9th and the 16th Century, but requiring restoration after the 1920 earthquake.

This is the path at the top leading up to it!

This is a detail from the front of the 12th Century Ambo found within the Duomo.

Just in case you thought we had left steep steps behind in the Cinque Terre ……

Interesting non-horizontal old bridge.

By mid-afternoon, the intensity of the light was washing out the colours on the buildings.

Guess what? More stairs!

I wonder what the original total design was?

The Monday was a bit of a damp day, but did that stop us? Not a bit! We drove along the Serchio river valley to Bagni di Lucca.

The tourist office is located in what once was the Casino, built in the 19th Century when Napoleon’s sister and his court used to frequent the thermal springs here. A lovely lady in the Tourist office took us on a short tour, apologising as it was being got ready as a European Election voting station.

The main thermal springs are up above the casino. This view is over the town itself.

While this view is looking down towards the Serchio river valley.

The Saturday was spent travelling by train from Levanto to Pisa and then to Pisa Airport where we picked up a rental car and drove into North Tuscany up above Lucca.

The second week was spent at Borgo della Madonnina in a beautiful little conversion called La Stalla. I cannot praise the Borgo highly enough.

These photographs were taken on the Sunday, but you don’t get to see the bedroom since we’d already spread our clothes all over the place by that time.

Nearby, close to the town of Borgo a Mozzano, we find the Devil’s Bridge which was originally constructed in 1046-1115, but the present appearance stems from the reconstruction by Castruccio Castracani (1281-1328), of the nearby city of Lucca, in the first years of the 14th century.
The proper name for the bridge is Ponte di Maddalene and it was built at the behest of the Countess Matilde di Canossa, who had considerable influence and power in this zone of Tuscany, the ‘Garfagnana’. This medieval bridge is in the classic style, which occurs with a high frequency in Tuscany, called a ‘donkey back’, but it has the unique characteristic of asymmetric arches.
A local popular legend explains why it is also known as the Devil’s Bridge: a master mason had begun its building, but quickly realised he could not complete the work for the fixed day. Fear of the possible consequences led to him asking the Devil for aid. The Devil accepted and completed the bridge in a night, but charged in return the soul of the first to cross it. The mason, full of remorse, confessed his sin to a priest in the area who advised him to send a pig across the bridge first. So the Devil was defeated and disappeared into the depths of the river.

The Friday was another less strenuous day since we were travelling on the Saturday and had to pack.

We started out along the dreaded walk to Monterosso on which I had suffered the first day; mainly to prove to myself I could do it without dying and also to see the scenery this time!

I’m only posting 1 photograph from that walk, others will be up on flickr in due course.

We ‘lazed’ around the town and were visited by this white wagtail which was busy feeding it’s young up on the roof. Crisps must be good for them since shortly thereafter the young ones hurled themselves off the roof and made it to the ground.

I put lazed in inverted commas as we actually did do a walk about to discover the oratorio of San Giacomo constructed in the 16th Century.

Also the clock tower with the medieval wall of the town. During the night hours, when you couldn’t see the clock, at every quarter hour it struck the number of the hour with one bell and then added 1, 2 or 3 strikes of a different bell for 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 45 minutes respectively. It didn’t keep you awake, but was very pleasant to hear if you woke at night.

This is a photograph of the inside of the church of St Andrew, the tower of which I showed earlier.

Last, but not least, is a photograph I took in the evening from the Corso Italia. I’ve no idea what the building is.

The Thursday was a little lazier.

I took this photograph in Levanto as we headed off to get the train to Sestri Levante.

Why Sestri Levante? My wife was on holiday there with her parents when she was 14 – not yesterday (possibly the day before tho’!!).

It may have been a town and fairly level, but we still covered a good distance. This is a photograph of the Palazzo Fascie.

This is the Hotel Balbi, probably one of the most expensive hotels in Sestri Levante.

This is the Grand Hotel, which is where my wife stayed.

This is more modern, but I did like the friendly expression on Neptune’s face and he is pointing towards the sea!

As a last photograph for this day, we are back in Levanto in the late evening – the photo is unedited.

So to the next day when we took the train along to Monterosso al Mare and started walking to Vernazza.

Monterosso is a fairly ‘long’ village in comparison to the others and is in fact spread round two bays, separated by a headland which is tunnelled through.

I know this is a concession beach, but now you see why they are much neater than ours!

We are now approaching Vernazza from the other side from yesterday.

The view of the bay is dominated by the Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia, built in 1318 on a pre-existing 11th Century building. The belfry is 40 meters.

Then back to Levanto by train. That was our apartment on the upper floor.

When we got back to Levanto on the Tuesday, we stopped at a cafe/bar for a little refreshment before heading back to the house.

Let me introduce you to Michela (who likes ice-cream) and her remote controlled electric car (operated by her father).

In the evening, we wandered down to the beach area. I won’t comment except to say I thought I managed to deliberately achieve a couple of ‘arty’ shots.

This is a photograph of the place we booked to eat at the next night – Totano Blu.

This is a late evening photograph of the tower of the church of San Andrea (Saint Andrew), built 1222, consecrated 1463, extended at a later point in time and restored at the beginning of the 20th Century. It is panelled alternately in white Carrara marble and local green serpentine.

On the Tuesday, we caught an early train to Manarola and walked up to the Church of the Nativita di Maria Vergine or di San Lorenzo which was built around 1338.

The separate fourteenth century bell tower was an ancient defensive building.

From there we cheated and caught the little bus up to the village of Volastra (the original Roman Settlement) from where we walked along the high vineyard path towards Corniglia.This photograph is looking back towards Manarola. It is just possible to make out the lower coastal path we walked yesterday.

From not much further along the path we had this high view of Corniglia.

Yet another view of Corniglia from further along the path.

Once we had got down to the village, I took this photograph off the ‘main street’.

This is where we had our snack lunch -very nice too.

Surprise, surprise! More steps….

After lunch we continued on to the next village, Vernazza. This is a photograph from the path looking down on the village, but we left that to explore the next day and went back to Levanto by train.