Toscana, Italy Trip: Day 1
Wednesday, October 14, 2006
Our bus arrived an hour late at the bus stop behind the main train station in Karlsruhe, much to the displeasure of the 20 or so people waiting to begin their journey to Toscana, Italy. While waiting, we tried to make the best of it by introducing ourselves to a few of the other travelers.
After the loading our bags on the double-decker tour bus and finding seats, the Croatian driver pointed the bus south and we were on our way. We made our way down Autobahn 5 (A5) to Basel, Switzerland (CH), then switched to A2 to Luzern (CH). Luzern is basically the doorway to the Swiss Alps.
There are two possibilities of traversing the alpine region you can take the St. Gotthard tunnel or ride over the St. Gotthard Pass. As traffic was backed up for miles at the tunnel, the driver elected to take the winding St. Gotthard Pass. Now, I have been on some winding roads before, but when you add a couple thousand feet of elevation change to this, it quickly becomes an adventure, especially in a large double-decker bus!
As we wound our way up the pass we quickly learned how good our driver was, I could not imagine driving a large bus on these winding, narrow roads, can you?
After traversing the pass we again rejoined A2 and continued our way south past Bellinzona and Lugano, eventually crossing the border into Italy around Como. Highway A2 became A9, which joined A8 and eventually A1 around Milano (Milan). We continued on through northern Toscana passing Piacenza, turning southwest onto A15 shortly before Parma, then onto A12 around La Spezia.
Finally after nearly 12 hours we arrived in Cinquale, situated in Versilia, between Marina di Massa and Forte dei Marmi on the Riviera Della Versilia (part of Toscana Riviera).
According to our travel flyer, Cinquale has “…a spacious beach to one side and to the other, picturesque villages and valleys of the majestic Apuan Alps which overlook the awe inspiring spectacle of the marble quarries.”
Here is our first picture of the city, with the alps in the background.
There are reportedly over 800 hotels along the Riviera Della Versilia, ours was the 3-star Hotel Storyville. About a third of our travel group stayed at this hotel, the rest were split up into two other hotels depending on which travel package they purchased. After checking in we had a late night dinner (10:30 p.m.) and fell exhausted into our bed.