Casa vacanze il Gatto Corniglia

We will be staying Riomaggiore (one of the five villages) and have booked our accomodation already at Casa Lorenza  We will be staying in apartment Nettuno.

What shouldn't we miss while we are here?

Partie tot ce matin pour se rendre a monterosso, premier village de 5 dans le parc national des cinque terre. Apres 1h40 de train, nous voila au deprt du sentier qui relie les 5 petits villages. A flanc de montagne, nous avons traverser plusieurs champs de vigne et plantations d'olivier de village en village ...

As the traffic had been horrendous yesterday we decided to hit the autostrada and pay the tolls to save our sanity and hightail it to our next destination. 130kms and 10 Euro later we arrived in Santa Margherita Ligure, which is just up the road from Portofino.

This place is a bit larger than we are used to and Italian towns all have small car parks and narrow ...

... train.

There was an information center right off the train and the lady laughed at us when we mentioned finding a place to eat lunch. I had read and she reiterated that many places close at 2pm and then reopen for dinner around 6pm. Contrary to her advice we found a place to eat and milked our time there with sodas, pizza and of course desert. A quick train ride from Riomaggiore to Manarola and a steep hike to the top of the city brought us to our hostel. The weather was ...

... and stopped for lasagna and cannolis for lunch and more photos in Manarola.

Cinque Terre was such an alluring excursion. The weather was perfect that day, as the locals had their laundry out drying from their windows high above the pedestrian walkways, the fishermen dropped their boats into the coves with a pulley to hunt for dinner, and we enjoyed a laid-back day.

Tuscan Riviera Portovenere
Had seen it on Getaway and looked very pretty.. Found a hotel with sea views and have spent 2 nights here resting , climbing around local castles… eating sleeping and watching the boats go in and out… not much English here but we are not hungry or thirsty so all going well….
Tomorrow we are off to the South of France.. 3 nights planned in Nice.. Really looking forward to it but have loved Italy…

... valley. The outer edge of the peninsula is marked with large cliffs facing the sea with a formidable fortress with a watch tower at its center. The inner edge surrounds the bay with tall multi-color buildings surrounding the marina will small fishing boats scattered across the water. There are still many cultivated terraces around the town that look even steeper than before. I was regretting haven eaten such a large brunch before a monumental walk, but I was ...

... towns of the 5Terre were like a siren's song to slow down and suck up the local life. It helped that they have some sand beaches to lay out on -even if the sand is trucked in these days because the ocean's errosion is so strong here. The first day we spent the afternoon on the small public beach in the old town. My attempts at swimming were comical thanks the absolutely brutal waves and rocky pebbles under foot that didn't allow for trying to ...

... for three nights, but as the hostel was pretty much the only accommodation in town we approached the desk with some trepidation. In the end we got lucky, as happened so many times on the trip. The lady had booked me in for two nights under ‘Trurw’ instead of ‘Drury’, but had evidently not understood that I was not alone and had not booked Lyndsey into the female dorm, which was now booked up. Fortunately for us ...

ok, too many questions about food...I am going on a hike today, in and around the small towns that make up Cinque Terre...but, ok...food...if you insist...

am resisting the non-urge to have pizza, at least until just before leaving Italy...enough food for now...back to it in a minute...

Spent the past two days hiking, relaxing, stepping over cats...did I mention hiking?...relaxing? Corniglia is in the middle of the five towns (hence Cinque Terre ...