So, as you read in Part 1 I boarded my train from Florence in an amazing mood.   I felt so alive.   I was smiling.   The weather, although forecast to rain, was sunny and the skies were blue.

My first stop was a quick stop to Pisa.   I know some people stay there for awhile and take in the city but, for me, there was only one thing I wanted to do – see the leaning tower of Pisa.

I hopped off the train, grabbed a bus and within 15 minutes I was at the tower.   I took my pictures and headed back to the train station.   It was all done so quick that I had time to stop for a crepe of Nutella, white chocolate and banana – yum!

It’s comical how I just swooped in and out of Pisa but I knew that was the plan and that’s what I did.

Next stop:   Cinque Terre

For those who don’t know, Cinque Terre is a collection of 5 small fishing villages nestled in the mountain sides along the coast in Tuscany.   There are both easy and hard hiking trails joining them all as well as an hourly train that goes between the cities.

My original plan was to drop off my big, heavy backpack for the day at Monterosso (the most northern village) and then pick it up at the end of the day on my way to Genoa for the night.

That was the plan…

Well, as you’ve surely read in my blogs: my plans never seem to pan out quite the way they should.   Sure enough the train station in Monterosso didn’t have a luggage storage so I was left with the instant reality that I would indeed be travelling through all these villages with my whole backpack.

Ugh.

Hiking – ah, no.   I had to alter my plan and was reliant on trains between the villages which left roughly every hour so I had an hour in each village to spend.   The other thing that changed was my ability to climb up the hills into some of the villages to see everything.

But, you know what?   I made the most of it.   Sure I didn’t see most of what was in each village but I spent alot of time watching the water, sitting under trees and eating at cafes.   All the while I would reflect on things including what had happened earlier in the morning.   Thank God I went back and talked to her otherwise my reflections all day would have been about what could have been and regret.

Instead they were about the great joy in doing something crazy like that and how even if nothing pans out – it doesn’t matter – because the act itself was what it was about.

By 7pm I had visited my last village and was boarding my last train for the day up north to Genoa just for a quick overnight stay before heading to Nice and the south of France tomorrow morning.

The last couple of days have been real eye openers for me and I feel like my vacation is just now starting which is crazy to say as I’ve been out here for 6 weeks already but I am so excited for this next leg of the trip because I think it will be alot more days like today and THAT is a good thing!