Italian Riviera

Day two in Cingue Terra did not go as planned. The plan was to take the train to the northern most town and hike back along the trail that hugs the cliffside. Turns out, that because of the rain they've been having, the trail isn't hugging tight enough and part of the trail was closed because of a slide and the rest was closed because it was just too darn slippery &/or dangerous. I still made a visit to each town, I just took the train instead of hiking. Monterossa has a virtual aquarium (closed) and the anchovy salting exhibit which is a 10 minute video (in Italian) showing the salting process of anchovies. It's probably a bit more exciting during the season when they actually have anchovies to be salted. I still managed to fill 90 minutes wandering around the town. The next stop was Vernazzo. They have a castle or rather castle ruins. I made the climb to the top for the misty view and then had a nice chat with the ticket taker lady on the way back down. She must get kinda of lonely in the ticket booth this time of year. When I asked her to suggest a place in town for lunch she said "You only have two choices. The pizzaria on the left or the pizzaria on the left." I chose left. Corniglia was the last of the five I had to visit. Near the train station is a sign proclaiming "[Climb the steps to the heart of Corniglia. Amazing things await]!" Aren't the square brackets the ones you use to signify that you are paraphrasing? Well, if they aren't then you should know that I'm paraphrasing. I climbed the 382 steps to the heart of Corniglia and awaiting at the top was pretty much the same sign but written in the past tense.
So I had done all five towns and still had a full day. Turns out that Pisa was less than two hours away AND there's a letterbox there. So my last day on the Riviera, Italian style was spent in Pisa. I didn't see a real obvious TI at the train station but I knew where I wanted to go so I purchased a little map and made a beeline for my destination. It was almost a direct shot from the train up through the middle of town. Turns out that pretty much anything you'd want to see as a tourist in Pisa besides the tower is right there in the same Piazza which is the heart of the old town site. The Cathedral, the Bapistry, the Compostela and two museums are all a stones throw from one another. Everything was there except the letterbox.
I'm surprised that the tower is still leaning. Based on the amount of photographic evidence that must be available worldwide, everybody has had a hand in pushing that tower back up! I witnessed dozens of people holding it up, at least long enough for a snapshot. Me. . .I climbed up to the top and jumped up and down on the downhill side to see if I could ge an E-ticket ride back down.
So that was almost the end of my time in 5 Terra. I had an afternoon train to Milan so before I left I stopped at the post office to send a package stateside. (No, it wasn't Christmas stuff. Sorry, it was just a collection of things I've been saving for building a scrapbook.) Anyway, I was standing in line with my phrase book at the ready and a local asked me where I was from and said he'd help me with my transaction. I don't think it would have been that difficult but he seemed to have his heart set on helping. Afterwards he gave me a tour of the church which had been closed when I tried to visit previously. The most notable thing about the church is that the figure of Christ on the crucifix above the alter has his head turned to his left. Nobody knows why? I declined the offer to see his wine cellar and headed to the trainstation. It was a wet rainy day. Good for train travel. I arrived in Milan found the hostel and crashed because I was soaked thru by the time I got in. Out of time