From: Rainer
Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 27
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 01:34:10 EST

Tuesday, 10/20 -- part 27

The morning at the Prinzipessa is a sunny one.  Breakfast at the hotel
is a waste for the bread and water you get for 25,000 per person, so we
skip it and eat the fruit in our room and whatever else we've acquired
so far.  We take a walk around the villa -- lots of gardens.  Lucca
seems tropical.  There are palm trees, oranges, olives, and bamboo.
Also chestnuts and pines.  It seems inconsistent, considering that
yesterday we crossed the 45th parallel again.  We're at the same
latitude as Salem and it's so tropical.  But it's very pretty.  We hope
to see some new birds in this area, but find nothing exciting.  Most of
the noise comes from the starlings.  We did hear an owl last night
through the open window (after the rain stopped).  But we couldn't
identify it.

We pack up and leave.  Settling the bill was a bit of an issue.  Since
there should be no other charge than the juice from the minibar I was
surprised at the additional 284,000 lire that appeared on the bill.  The
hotel was not exactly full.  There were only four cars in the unguarded
parking lot last night.  The charge is for a phone call.  A very
expensive phone call.  I tell the lady at the font desk that we didn't
use the phone and ask if she can find out when the call was made and to
where?  She makes a phone call to the next room explaining that she's
checking.  We stand there in silence waiting for an answer.  She makes
another phone call.  Vera comes down to find out what's taking so long.
Was there trouble with the Visa card?  No.  There was trouble with the
bill.  The lady has a computer next to her with a screensaver that says
"La Villa Prinzipessa" in huge letters.  However, all her checking and
looking is in this large, handwritten ledger book.  Not much is written
on the large pages.  There are rubber bands separating days or weeks.
Finally she gets an answer from the voice on the phone.  She erases the
telephone charge saying that is was placed from the our room during the
previous stay, not ours.  Geez.  Pretty incompetent if you ask me.

We don't find the laundry Vera found in the phone book and plotted on our
city map so we tour the old town center and climb a nice tower from the
1300s that allows a great view of the city and surrounding hills.  We
stop for lunch just at the edge of Lucca.  The place is empty and we
struggle for the second time with an Italian menu and a crummy dictionary.
As a result our food choices are simple.
The food is okay and we finally get on our way to Pisa, only 15 km over
the hill.

Pisa is much nicer than expected.  The weather remains beautiful and the
leaning tower is visible from far away.  Pictures are good.  People
are happy.  Monika wanted to see the tower of Pisa and is really
excited by this visit.  We all are more impressed than expected.  Lots
of folks have told us about the efforts to keep the tower from falling
over.  You can see the efforts, but it is still an impressive collection
of structures.

Leaving Pisa Vera realizes that her coat is missing.  We decide that it
must still be in the old villa, so we head back to 
to Lucca which is not really out of the way.  We recover the coat and head
out towards Portofino, our planned jumping off place for Cinque Terre.

The drive back past La Spezia toward Cinque Terre is much nicer today
than it was yesterday.  The scenery is very pretty with the mountains
along one.  We're still too far from the sea to see any water on the
other side -- but we know it's there.  We decide to drive a long the
coast as we get closer to Portofino and find Santa Margherita Ligure
quite by accident.  We decide to stay in the Hotel Laurin, which we
just happened to drive by.  The hotel is very nice.  The price is right.
We have a terrace attached to our moderately sized room overlooking
the little harbor and offering a view down the coast to Cinque Terre.
There are analog phones, even with phone line adapters provided by hotel.

You have to pay for parking, though, from 0800 until 2000.  There is
no hotel parking area.  There's ample space on the street in front of
the hotel, but there's a bit of a struggle with the parking meters
and accepting bills and coins.  But it's a minor hassle.

There are lots of restaurants along the main street through town
along which we drove in.  We walk to a near one and have a great
dinner -- beef filet, fresh grilled fish, and pizza.  Everyone is
very pleased that our Italy visit is finally turning out to be a
pleasant one.  The prospect of staying here for another couple of
days is also good.  We've learned this over and over again on this
trip -- stay away from the big cities.  All visits to villages have
been wonderful.  All visits to cities, with the exception of Paris,
have had issues and problems.  Live, travel, and learn.