Motel Miro Savona

Flew to Milan from Dublin then took the train to Savona to board the cruise. Quaint little seaport town which I wish I had more time to explore. Forgot to take a picture of the ship! Not sure how I feel about a big cruise ship (3,800 passengers) but the price was right so thought I would experience it!

... of fresh air and great scenery. We bumped into an old man foraging for funghi. We had a wee convesation with him as he had a little English and was obliging when Kim asked to take his photo. The church was closed when we got there but it was more about the hike than the destination.

The hike took longer than we expected so we missed our run, but managed to squeeze in another capuccio at our local before we left.

Sadie and I left beatiful peaceful Florence to mean unhelpful Genoa. We have been so spoiled in our travels up till this point. We usually have a bit of train trouble but nothing that can't be fixed or solved within an hour. Well landing in Genoa was not the case. The train ride up the coast was breath taking, I wanted so badly to jump off the train and stay a few days in one of the coastal towns. I think for my next trip to Europe its a must. The houses are so ...

... the 11C and there aren't any Roman ruins because the Genovans needed to build somewhere so they just built on top of the old stuff! Anyways it is built on a hill and the modern part is at the top and to get there you travel over little tiny streets and even smaller alley like paths where the buildings appear to almost meet at their tops. We also saw the 16th C palaces nearing the ...

Destination 404

km197'196

A wonderful winding route via a inland section have lead me from Pisa to the coastline around Genova. But since in that part of the environment it was very hard to find a spot for bushcamping I took the toll freeway to prevent to get stuck in the chaotic traffic of Genova and headed north into the highlands of the northern region of Genova. A beatiful spot at the top of a mountain has provided perfect views to sunset and sunrise, but a bloody cold night!

... them like that any more (thank f**k!). I can't even remember how to ask for 2 beers (which is my current minimum requirement. It's 3 when Jamie's around). The lack of lingistic skills I have would be acceptable in most circumstances, but travelling with a Yank who is fluent in 2 languages that most Americans are even aware exist?!? Now that just doesn't seem right.

so left avignon today with thoughts to head to cinque terre, but due to traffic jam only made it as far as arenzano. found a cute pensione and jason was getting sick of driving so seemed like a good place to stop. tried a few others but was like walking through a sad run down old people town so didn't make it more than 5 mins there. well, happy hour time now, so will write more later....

So, the long haul back. Fortunately, there is an excellent motorway all the way up to Ceriale (we have decided to call in at camping visited on way out). Unfortunately, we hit our first real traffic jam halfway up! Mustn't grumble - after the miles we have done. The beauty of ...

... about 4 hours ...major sites were some churches and several large squares. I caught the tail end of a hari Krishna parade and then managed to catch a good risotto dinner and a few glasses of wine. What i noticed and appears to be a trend around Italy is selling ad space around all of the major architectural and tourist sites...the great church in town had a billboard for the local cell company...sort of like making St. Patrick's ...

The Cinque Terre region is one of my favourites so far. The Cinque Terre consists of five villages along the dramatic hilly coastline, perched above the sparkling sea. We chose the town of Vernazza to use as a base to explore this area and we were so glad we did. Vernazza is absolutely stunning. All the buildings are pastel or terra cotta coloured and the village is so small and quaint with family run shops, focacciera and gelateria lining the main street. The beach in ...