Tuscany
From Riomaggiore, we caught the train to Pisa, where we waited on the platform for half an hour for the train to Florence.
The weather had deteriorated; we were now in showers and low cloud. Great areas of the plaza in front of the railway station were being pulled up and repaired, and the traffic seemed chaotic.
However, in the afternoon we found the bus terminal and caught the bus for Poggibonzi in the hills south of Florence, which wound its way down the highway in the valley and then past a huge World War II cemetery and up into the Tuscan hills, reaching Tavernelle after about an hour, where we got out and started to look for our Youth Hostel.
Tavernelle in Val di Peso, to give it its full name, was one of the localities liberated by the Maori Battalion during the allied advance up through the Italian Peninsula during 1943 and 1944.
The next morning we bussed back to the city and booked in for a tour in the afternoon and then took a sightseeing trip to Fiesole in the north-eastern hills above the Arno Valley later in the morning. The weather continued showery and overcast, and we could see little from Fiesole because of the mist.
Each time we travelled to and from Tavernelle we crossed the river and looked across to the Ponte Vecchio
In the afternoon we travelled out into the Chianti Hills, looking at the little town of Greve, centre of the Chianti region, where the famous red wine comes from. It is just across the valley from Tavernelle, on the hills to the east.
After we strolled about the town for a while, the bus took us to an old winery, where we were treated to a wine-tasting session, and taught how to distinguish the more expensive qualities from the cheaper ones.
All the members of our tour were from different countries, but by the end of the afternoon were chatting away merrily like old friends.
It was late in the evening before we caught the last bus of the day back to the Youth Hostel!
PS: Check out this Facebook page for information about the Taranaki Cathedral Community Café on Tuesday mornings, in support of the Ebola programme of Doctors Without Borders.
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