It was a bit sad leaving Venice. I loved it. We took the 20 minute ferry ride to the station and were soon on our train heading for La Spezia via Florence and Pisa.
The buildings seemed more modern in this part of the world. Probably due to rebuilding after the war. In the country there were more Mediterranean designs. There were mostly tunnels till we reached Florence. Olive groves and vineyards were plentiful and we started to see hedges too.
The towns had more appartments.
More and more hilltop communities appeared.
Conifers and cypress trees on the hillsides.
Pinus pinaster in the towns.
Lots of graffiti.
Many solar farms (no winds farms tough).
As we got closer to La Spezia the distant mountains had snow on them. We're thinking they may have been the mountains we tunnelled through earlier.
We'd been a bit concerned about the location of our hotel. Reviews had said it was close to the station but when I looked up 'get directions' on our booking advice it said 29 minutes walking. Maybe there was another station in LS (or maybe I put the wrong parameters in the search!!)
We decided to just wait till we got to the station. And Voila!!! Over the road, accessed by a tunnel right to the door, was the Mary Hotel!!!
It was only a three star place but it's quiet, clean and breakfast's included (and about 1/3 the price of other hotels available).
The pic shows a modern art sculpture that looks like a Christmas Tree made out of cut out figures. You can also see the pale lemon Mary Hotel (above the bus) over the road!!! Our room was middle top.