Seaside Villages

We have a rental car and we are using to reach places outside of Lucca that we couldn’t easily get to by train for a day trip. We visited sea villages along the Tuscan and Ligurian coast. Fortunately a straight and fast autostrada goes up and down the coast. I only had to suffer the narrow, winding, hilly roads and bazillion ‘roundy round’ roundabouts when we exited to reach a town. The itinerary was: Bagliasco (featured) to visit a local German ex-pat that specializes in hand-formed ceramics; Sestri Levante - Santa Cruz’s (my town) sister city and home of the Hans Christian Anderson fable writing contest (which I won for Santa Cruz last year); and Lerici our neighbor’s ancestral town and where they go to visit in Italy every year. Each town had colorful houses hugging the beaches and cliffs overlooking a turquoise-azure sea, a healthy dose of tourists, restaurants specializing in seafood. We have a rental car and we are using to reach places outside of Lucca that we couldn’t easily get to by train for a day trip. We visited sea villages along the Tuscan and Ligurian coast. Fortunately a straight and fast autostrada goes up and down the coast. I only had to suffer the narrow, winding, hilly roads and bazillion ‘roundy round’ roundabouts when we exited to reach a town. The itinerary was: Bagliasco (featured) to visit a local German ex-pat that specializes in hand-formed ceramics; Sestri Levante - Santa Cruz’s (my town) sister city and home of the Hans Christian Anderson fable writing contest (which I won for Santa Cruz last year); and Lerici our neighbor’s ancestral town and where they go to visit in Italy every year. Each town had colorful houses hugging the cliffs overlooking a turquoise-azure sea, a healthy dose of tourists, restaurants specializing in seafood.