Geeky Yet Waterproof

When we arrived in Livorno, Italy this morning, it was pouring rain. So it was good that today was the day we’d go on a Shore Excursion (an official tour from Holland America), because that would mean we’d have a charter bus!
There were several different shore excursions today, such as one going to Pisa, one going to Florence, etc. Ours was for Cinque Terre, or “Five Lands”.
Cinque Terre is a series of five villages located on the edge of the sea, about an hour and a half bus ride from Livorno. The five villages are, in order, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa.
Thsee towns are surrounded by hills and cliffs, so the bus ride there had some great scenery. The hills are so steep that most of them have been terraced to prevent landslides.

Our tour group first stopped at Manarola. We spent about 15 minutes there wandering around, then we all walked half a mile along the edge of a cliff to Riomaggiore. In this village, all the buildings seemed to be stacked on top of each other, because the cliff on which they were built was so steep!
We took another short break here, just long enough for me to buy a piece of real Italian pizza, which was quite heavenly. Then we all took a 15 minute boat ride to the next town, Vernazza. The boat was rather small, and the ocean rather angry; I was surprised nobody fell and broke a rib!
When we got to Vernazza, our tour guides left us on our own for two hours to find lunch at our leisure. Grandma Nini, my mom, Isa, and I had calamari, spaghetti, and stuffed mussels for lunch. And everything was so good! The waiter was a big boisterous Italian who spoke no English, but we were able to communicate with him well enough to order our food (and a second serving of calamari).
After lunch we had some time left over, so (for €1,50) we climbed a watch tower on one of the hills overlooking the village (where we shouted “Bongiorno!” to all of Italy). From the top, you could see all of Vernazza way down below, and in a different direction all the cliffs overlooking the ocean. No wonder it’s called a watch tower…

When we were done exploring, our group took an underground train back to La Spezia, a town near Cinque Terre. From there we rode our charter bus back to Livorno where the ship was docked.
During the bus ride, we happened to pass by the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Unfortunately, it was too distant to get a good picture, but it was really cool to see the famous tower in person.

Tomorrow in Rome, we’ll be disembarking the Noordam for the last time. Since tonight was our final night of the cruise, the whole crew put on a little show in the ship amphitheater. Of course all of them sang, since they’re all Filipino and Indonesian, and the ones who aren’t are members of the Noordam Singers and Dancers!
It’s sad to be leaving the ship, but I’m looking forward to seeing Rome more than any other city we’ve visited so far. I’ll definitely be adding a lot more to my collection of 3000 photos of this trip!