Hotel Sorriso Vernazza

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 ...

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…

... Barcelona was La Tomatina--the most epic annual food fight in the world held each August 26th in the nearby town of Bunol, where people from all over come together to hurl tomatoes at each other. Also on my to-do-before-death list, but sadly it will have to be on a future August 26th.
After two days of travel and an obscene amount of headaches I met up with Phil at the Barcelona-Sants train station. Shara was still in ...

... in the town, we noticed some paintings hanging on a door. When we went to look closer, we pooled all the money we had on us and got one for each of us. My painting is probably my favorite thing I have purchased on the trip thus far! When it was our turn to take showers, we went up to get ready for dinner.

We strolled around looking for a place to eat dinner for a while and finally settled on a place up the street from the water a little ways ...

... town and the ocean as well a a visit to the cemetery. Jim and I had an aperitif by the harbor and were then ready for supper which was at the tower ,even higher than our rooms, did not think it possible, nothing to great so not to be visited again or recommended. Marty found a gelato place which took his breath away, I guess it was ok. A little night time photography and then bed.

... only about 15 minutes) we got back on the freeway for the Cinque Terre section on the Italian Riviera. We finally got to the town of Levanto where we parked our car to catch the train, and had to rush to get our bags. In the process we forget both the camera AND the most important thing...directions to ...

... seats for Wil and John to finish waiting for the laundry. Wil comes down and orders some food then goes back to sit with John. Alaina and I eat more sardines, bread and soup and finally the guys come to eat their main courses. What a great, exhausting day! After dinner we took turns taking photos of the stars from our balcony. The sky is so dark here and the stars and planets are spotlights in the sky! What an amazing place!