Hotel Marina Piccola Manarola

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 ...

... so we decided it was best to settle away from the centre of town for a change and park in a residential district about 1km away... much more tranquilo!!

Splashed out on take away pizza for dinner but ate it in the shop and washed down with a bottle of beer. We became the hot topic of conversation when owners and local patrons found out we were Australian and were ...

... some shops and then all of a sudden there it was... the sun! We walked down to the beach and searched for pebbles before making our way to Vernazza.

The next town along with Manarola (where we are staying) is a bit smaller than Riomaggiore and Monterosso but just as, if not more beautiful. Vernazza is probably known mainly for its large scale (compared to the city) boating docks that wrap around the entire marina. The girls and I stopped for gelato before making our way ...

... trucks, yet the trucks are prohibited from traveling in the fast lane except for passing other trucks. For the most part the trucks are restricted from traveling faster than 80 kilos per hour on the highway (about 50 mph). This creates the threshold speed that the slow lane progresses at. Less trucks on the road can mean that this lane picks up a little. Entering the highway takes a bit of courage. The onramps are short and there is no time ...

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…

... I hung out at the beach. After spending the day in Monterros watching cliff divers and working on my tan, we headed back home to get cleaned up. We took the rest of our wine and 3 glass and headed down to the harbor to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous. We ate some dinner and headed back up the hill towards the apartment. In the main (and only) square of town, which was only about 80 x 80 feet, there was a guy playing the keyboard and ...

... or take the train to Vernazza, the last town. I told Mom that it was the most difficult of all the walks and it was the most rewarding with the views. After thinking it over and changing her mind a few times she opted to go for it. We had two full water bottles and plenty of light left. It normally takes 2 hours but I encouraged her to stop and rest a lot and take her time. Boy that was a real hike. It reminded me a bit of ...

... in Vienna) came up and started signing to Mom in British sign. She couldn't read it very well and finally after a few minutes I said, can you speak English so I can interpret? He was shocked that I wasn't deaf so we had a chat mostly about his younger days when he knew a lot of deaf and blind people. He advised us to take the bus up to Corniglia as it would be a brutal climb on foot. Indeed it is approximately 400 stairs to get up ...

... For example one place I was interested in was 176 stairs in a nearby town. So, when you figure that 13 stairs is a typical floor in Canada, 176 stairs adds up to quite a few floors if you do the math. Back to my story now...We followed the directions from the train station. Go through the tunnel, turn right, walk for 13 minutes with no steps and the hotel is located next to the church. Mom read this and thought, "Great, no ...