Vittoria & Orlandini (E Dipendenza) Genoa

... the Med before taking us inland and through the olive groves. <br><br>On arrival at Portofino we were greeted with a similar village to those in Cinque Terre but not quite as quaint. Not sure what all the fuss is about...Santa Margherita wins our vote.<br><br>Back at Scooby for lunch of bbq chicken wraps and biscotti for dessert, then onto the autopista to lovely Lucca. <br>

... leaving you with a bright cheery feeling, the sun is shining and there are palm trees everywhere. Anyways back to Genoa the soon to be ground hog's day of our trip. We had checked, checked and double checked our ticket to make sure we knew of any transfers and where they happened. We made sure we were in our rightful seats even we have had to many experiences of getting in trouble for being in the wrong seat and we are tired of playing musical chairs. As we ...

... 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 ...

... the sun went away behind the clouds before we could actually watch it set. Instead we shared a bottle of wine at a restaurant near the marina and listened to the waves crash.<br><br>In my travel book we had ran across a restaurant that was in Manarola and had pretty good prices. Dinner was delicious as I have come to expect in Italy. Ravioli for me, (favorite) and a really weird fried seafood platter for Laura equipped with 'little fishes', calamari, and prawn (shrimp). It was a ...

... 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>

<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;

... breakfast and parking. The hotel was listed as a 3 star, but it would be struggling to get past a two. The staff were friendly enough though and there was WiFi connection. The entrance to the hotel was down an alleyway and at first I thought there was no parking, which would be a problem as we didn&#8217;t want to leave the bikes unattended on the street. Turned out that the parking was behind the hotel and the entry was down the alley and right past the front desk ...

Looking very overcast today! We have been so lucky with the weather and hopefully it will hold off for tomorrow because we are doing the Cinque Terre hike which will total about 5 hours in the mountains. The Cinque Terre (or 'five lands') are five quaint, brightly coloured fishing villages perched precariously on cliffs overlooking the ocean. We are staying at a dodgy hotel in Monterosso (one ...

... After taking a lot of pictures of the harbor, we grabbed a bite to eat at a burger place (we figured we'd go cheap for lunch and all out for dinner). From lunch we walked over and stood in line at the attraction booth where you get your tickets for various museums and excursions on the harbor. We all wanted to go into the Aquarium and the Maritime Museum (Renzo designed both), luckily they had a package deal for 22 euro for the two of them (11 euro a piece). The ...

... us and over the 3 days we were there, we all ended up cooking together and walking the trail together. It was an awesome environment, and absolutely beautiful scenery. We spent our days walking parts of the trail and generally enjoying the atmosphere. Each night we would cook up our feast, drink our mega bottles of wine and then head to the trattoria for a few more drinks and to meet other travellers. The Cinque Terre has got to be up there as a must visit for everyone I reckon.