Viareggio, Italy

Once we crossed into Italy, we were in unchartered territory with no ability to communicate and the real journey started. It was a pretty stark difference driving from the serene mountains of switzerland into the highly populated, less beautiful valley of Italy. Yet, we were still so excited to be in Italy and go to new places and see new things.

A picture of the steering wheel of our Peugeot 5008 that I took while bored in the traffic jam

Our first destination was the western coast of Itlay, a beach city called Viareggio. We had to drive for several hours before we got there and we took a small detour near Genoa to see the picturesque, Cinque Terre. This was my idea and I was so excited about it. I had read a lot of reviews and other commentary on the area and I knew that it was a must see. The problem is that Cinque (translated 5) Terre (lands) is a cluster of 5 coastal villages with remote access to them. Yes, they have roads to drive to them but it is not recommended by anyone to actually drive on these roads. However, there is a main road high above the villages that connects them all and is much more drivable. This was my plan. Follow this road so that we get the views from afar and don't have to stress the tiny 1 lane roads that lead into the villages.

This is the view that we were searching for! We got it! You can see the village down below, right on the coast. It was amazing!

The amazing didn't last that long. It took a turn for the worse when the main road was closed off near the second village and we were forced to take the road down to the village. Great. We got to the bottom of the road near the village and then the road started to ascend again back to the main road on the other side of the village. We started our way up the hills when all of a sudden I went to change gears and the clutch wouldn't come out more than half way. I am not an expert driver and don't claim to know anything about engines so I had no idea what was happening. I tried pushing it in several times and releasing it. I tried pushing the gas to the floor for more power. Nothing was working. The car was not moving and the clutch was not functioning. Then, smoke started to come out from under the hood. That's when we knew we were in trouble. I pulled the car over to the side of the already really small road. A guy came up behind us and offered to help us. The bigger problem was that we were in the middle of nowhere, near a tiny village at 7:00 on a friday night. It's not like there was a mechanic around. This nice guy offered to drive me to the next village, which was bigger. I was not willing to leave my family there with no phone by themselves. He had no cell coverage, so we couldn't make a phone call. He offered to drive all of us to the next village but we wouldn't fit in his car. I thanked him trying to help us and let him on his way. I decided that I would try to walk back to the village and try to get some help. I got into the car and we rolled down the hill backwards a little ways to a pull off where I could turn us around. We then decided that we would say a prayer. One of the most earnest prayers we have every said together. We seriously needed some help! We asked that we could get out of this area and to our final destination that night. By this time it had probably been 15 minutes since the car malfunctioned. I turned on the car one last time and played around with the clutch, letting it in and out a few times. It seemed to be functioning normally now. It was a direct answer to our prayer!! We decided to try to go up the hill again and get out of this area while we had the chance. It worked! The clutch worked, the car worked, and we drove out of there. I have no doubt that we were blessed that day.

A view of us driving along the main road.

We had only one goal at this point-- Get out of here and get to our hotel for the night. Our adventures were not over for the night. We got to the next village turn off and we got lost and accidently took the road that went into the village. At one point on the winding road down, there was a portion of road that had crumbled away so it really was a 1 lane road. They had a light set up and we had to stop at it until it turned green. Once it turned green, we proceeded down the hill until several meters down when we ran into 2 cars trying to come up the hill. We can't figure out why they had a green light at the same time as us, but it was not good. The Italian lady in the lead car was NOT happy and she was letting us know with her hands and her mouth. But it wasn't our fault, I was following the green light. Well, we tried to squeeze down the road while she sqeezed up the road. It was going okay until we heard a thump and then a small scratching noise. The side of our car had a meeting with the side rail and then it was over. By this time, Trisha and I were both so stressed out that we just wanted to get out of this place! We got down to the village that we didn't want to go to, thinking that we would be able to pick up a road that took us to the next village. Not so. Dead end. We had to go back up the way we came and try to find the main road again. I almost lost my cool! Luckily the way up was uneventful. I just kept praying that nobody would be coming down as we were going up.

Finally we made it out of Cinque Terre and onto a real road!

I still love the views that we got and now we have lot of memories but I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon.

The scratch

We made it to Viareggio much later than planned but we made it in one peice and for that we were feeling pretty good. We were ready to start relaxing...

Viareggio is a major tourist town that lines the beach of the mediteranean. Apparently many Italians vacations here. I chose to spend time here because it has sandy beaches with an extensive boardwalk lined with shops. I really wanted to spend some time at the beach and because we spent much of our 3 weeks on the go, I wanted a place to relax for a bit. This was the perfect place.

We got a discount on the beach, where we rented an umbrella and some chairs. We spent most of the time actually on the beach towels near the water.

Trisha and Sam. Sam loved playing in the sand and running in between the sand and the water

Sam eating pizza at a shop on the boardwalk. He had lots of pizza in Italy and he loved every minute of it. This kid loves pizza!

The boardwalk

One of the many hotels that lines the boardwalk

Our view of the ocean from our hotel

Looking from the beach back on hotels. Our hotel is the white one on the left

The walkway to the water

Me and Kate

Sam playing in the sand

Me playing with Sam in the water. He loved being thrown about and splashing into the water

Trisha (sporting her new, Italian shirt) and Kate at a nice restaurant where we had dinner

A night view of the ocean from our hotel room

Sam fell asleep like this next to Trisha

Because we got to Viareggio so late the first day, we only got 1 day at the beach before we had to move onto to our next destination. It was just enough time to relax and unwind!

We left Viareggio on Sunday morning, August 5th--Sam's 2nd Birthday! We drove 30 minutes inland to Pisa, where we stopped to see the famous leaning tower.

Sam chillaxin' in his new hat while we strolled him around

The leaning tower with cathedral in background and Trisha and Kate in foreground

Me at the tower (with a guest appearance of Trisha's finger)

Our little Katie-bug in her carrier

All of us standing in front of the leaning tower.

Another view of tower and cathedral

On our way driving to the leaning tower we passed a McDonalds just outside of town. We decided that since it was Sam's birthday we would stop at McDo after visiting the site to get Sam a birthday lunch. He was dead asleep once we got the food. I think he ate it a few hours later when he woke up.

More on Sam's birthday and our time in Rome coming soon...