Traumtourtag 4

Hello—I'm staying at Hotel 900 and they serve breakfast in the room, which is decorated quite cozy with antique furniture. I can highly recommend it!

Today, we're heading to the most important pilgrimage site in Tuscany, the Santuario Delle Madonna della Grazie monastery. We'll take the Lamrossa bus to Montenero, and from there we'll continue with the funicular - which, by the way, operates automatically without a driver, which was quite surprising to me😏.

The monastery is adorned with plenty of gold and silver, with marble columns and decorations everywhere. But what impressed me the most was the picture gallery, with painted pictures of accidents and disasters that were survived, attributed to the Madonna. Touching stories of rescued children and sailors in stormy seas. And there were countless of them—is there some truth to this belief?

Who knows.

Afterwards, I went for a little hike again, climbing 200 meters up to Monteburrone on rocky paths through the forest. Gorgeous views of Livorno and the sea. But my legs were shaking on the descent to Montenero—11% slope over 1.5 km!

To finish off this eventful day, I had an Aperol in the sun and had a very nice conversation with the waiter at Bar il Sole. And finally——my ice cream 😋😋😋

Lesson of the day: faith is something intangible.