Affittacamere Ca' Dei Lisci Riomaggiore

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

... an hour for the direct train. We were tired of the rain so we hopped on the first train. Got off on the next stop, the correct station and waited briefly for the train to Riomaggiore. Due to our slip up we were now going to be stuck with our luggage for the rest of the afternoon since our hostel only allowed check in either before 1pm or after 4pm. It was 1:30pm when we arrived in Riomaggiore finally. Rain was in the forecast in Cinque Terre so we found some cover after exiting ...

... over and over.<br><br>But the best thing is that it all works. The fellow motorists all get it. They pay attention; they move over, they do not have any issues being overtaken. It just all moves down the road in an awesome efficiency. I love it. We covered ground from Venice to the Ferrari Factory, from Florence to Rome and Rome to Portofino in times unheard of for United States motoring. Anyone that loves to drive must give it a go sometime. <br>

... bed every few nights... for your benifit of course! <br><br>It took two trains and three hours to arrive in La Spezia and another quickie up the hill to Riomaggiore which is where I am now. The most southern of the 5 lands. I was sitting on the train just enjoying the view, of mountains in the distance and houses speckled throughout farms, until we went through a tunnel, and I saw some flashes of light ahead and ...

<br> Tuscan Riviera Portovenere<br> 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&#8230; eating sleeping and watching the boats go in and out&#8230; not much English here but we are not hungry or thirsty so all going well&#8230;.<br> Tomorrow we are off to the South of France.. 3 nights planned in Nice.. Really looking forward to it but have loved Italy&#8230;

So, just as seasons come and season go, plans are made and plans change, sometimes for the better. The original plans for Cinque Terra didn't work out so well, so we (my folks and I) ended up on a proper excursion. The original excusion plan was to take a boat from La Spezia past each of the Cinque Terra towns, and then back again. Great pictures from the ocean, but not a lot of time in many of the towns. Because the seas were ...

... the tiers of buildings to a very small door that was our room. It was a tiny place with way too many people in it but it had a kitchenso we cooked ourselves a yummy pasta dinner. I know there is a stereotype that all Italians eat is pasta and pizza but seriously, that is all we could find in Florence and all the little supermarkets have little else. Good thing we love pizza and pasta!<br>We only had one full day in Cinque Terre so we spent ...

... up early the next day and c*nqu** Cinque T**re. They wanted t* d* the 5 h*ur hike and g* t* this place called P*rt*fin*. I said, why n*t, i'll j*in. S*, we wake up, get the 9:30 bus since we w**e just t** tired t* get up f*r 7:20 between the ****ing cl*ck t*w** ringing ev**y h*ur. i swear, the friar must be drunk, it was ev**y h*ur f*r like ****en 5 minutes. I c*uld see back in the day, y*u need t* kn*w what time it is. But, i g*t h**e using the **********en INT ...

... thought it was pretty entertaining!So after getting settled in we took a walk to one of the cliffs with some wine and watched the sunset.<br><br>The next morning we hiked 4 of the towns with a guy we met from Calgary! We were pooped and decide to do the walk from 4 to 5 the next morning. I made a vegetable pasta for dinner and then we went for a walk along the harbour and met a bunch of people who we sat with for a bit then decided to put our ...

... overlooked the harbor. We walked past lemon groves and grape vines to reach a lookout view of the town to the east and the sea below. The hostel we stayed in was practically a modified apartment with a Kitchen and bathroom, it allowed us to shop at the grocery store and make pasta, with some bread and cheese. It was a nice meal, much cheaper than anything we could have bought at a restaurant. We wanted to be rested for the next days hike so a little after 9:00 we called it a night.