We left for Lerici on Sunday, October 7th.  It was a long (about 2 1/2 hours) but direct train ride from Florence to La Spezia.  From La Spezia, we had to take a bus to Lerici.  We were figuring this out as we went along.  The people who worked at the train station told us that we had to get off in La Spezia.  But once we got there, we had quite a time trying to figure out the bus system, how to purchase bus tickets (which we now know are sold at Tobacco stands), and which bus to get on.  La Spezia is pretty small compared to Rome and Florence and there weren't many people that spoke much English.  The bus stop was right outside the train station and as we were trying to read the bus maps, there was this couple making out right in front of the sign with no intention of moving or stopping.  This was a lasting joke of ours throughout the rest of the trip.

Somehow we figured out which bus to get on and we loaded ALL our luggage into the back few rows of seats.  As we got closer into Lerici, the bus really started to fill up.  We had no idea what bus stop to get off, didn't know where we were going after we got off, and had no idea how we were going to get off fast enough with all our luggage (the bus driver really didn't stop long for anybody).  Luckily, there was a man sitting next to us on the bus who we finally attempted to ask.  He spoke great English and knew exactly where our hotel was.  He was pointing out our hotel as we were driving and told us which stop to get off at.  We laughed as we stepped off the bus because our hotel was right in front of the bus stop - you couldn't have missed it if you tried!  Plus, as we soon learned, Lerici is very small and I think this was the last stop on the route.  But it was very nice to have someone help us and we were very relieved that we were able to find our hotel so easily.

Hotel Shelly was very nice.  Joe and I were on the 4th floor and Mom and Dad were on the 3rd, pretty much directly below us - both with great balcany rooms overlooking Lerici Bay  and the Gulf of La Spezia (Golfo Della Spezia).  It was an absolutely beautiful view.  Click here to see more pictures taken from our balcony.
We got settled into our hotel rooms, took showers, then decided to go for a walk around the bay.  Lerici Castle was at the end of the bay to the left of our hotel and the main town was in between our hotel and the castle.  The Castle had been turned into a Geopalentology Museum which we toured.  Click here to see more pictures of the Castle and Museum. That night Joe and I found a little Irish pub and we stopped in to have a pint.  They had it done up just like Irish bars with the wood bar, the guiness decorations, and the Irish drafts.
The next morning we got up, had a nice breakfast at the 6th floor breakfast area, and then headed off to find the boat to Cinque Terre.  We learned that the first boat headed out at 9:00 am and then you could be picked up at any of the 5 towns at any time until 4:00 which was the last ferry going back to Lerici.  So we got on the 9:00 ferry and headed to Riomaggiore, which is the first of the 5 towns.  On the way to Cinque Terre we first had to go past Portovenere.  Cinque means 5 and Terre means lands.  The 5 towns in order are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.  Click here to see a map of the area.  In Cinque Terre, we were dropped off at Riomaggiore and then hiked along the coast from one town to the next until we got to Vernazza where we stopped for a late lunch.   When we got back to Lerici, we all were pretty tired so we decided to rest for a little while.  It wasn't until about 8:30 or 9:00 that we decided to go get some dinner - however, we weren't extremely hungry so some of us just wanted desserts and some of us wanted to split a meal... we didn't realize this was offensive in a nice restaurant.  The waiter laid out 5 place settings and served us some bread while we looked at the menu.  So then we ordered and Dad and Sarah got desserts, Joe and I split a meal, and Mom ordered a light appetizer.  The waiter seem disturbed by this and took away Dad's, Sarah's and my place settings and silverware.  He also came back and took away some of the bread he had given us.  We all thought that was very strange and watched to see if he was going to give our bread to a different table.  So after that we were a little worried about asking for our silverware back so Joe and I just shared the plate and silverware for our meal.

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