Hello - Have just arrived tonight in Ostia Lido (just down the road from Ostica Antica, the great archaelogical site). We left Cinque Terre this morning and deviated into Pisa so we could see ol' Leany. But first, onto Cinque Terre - a stunningly-beautiful area of Italy & one I would recommend to anyone that loves to be in pretty places near the ocean. (To read more about Cinque Terre go here.)


SATURDAY 4th Nov
Had a lovely breakfast first of all (most important meal of the day of course) of yoghurt, banana and some plain yet tasty focaccia - I improved it about 100% with the addition of vegemite!!

We all went for a walk along the first bit of walkway between Riomaggiore and Manarola. It was lovely, stopped halfway for coffees/beers above the ocean. Got to Manarola & had a look around then we decided to keep going upwards on a different track to have a bit more of a view. It was a bit of a hard slog through some goat-tracks in between farmer fields and trees, and for a while there it looked like we were lost. But despite calls from a member (Dan) to turn back, we found the top of the path and continued along horizontally (thank goodness) and got some great insights into how the olive growers harvest their olives from the big nets that run under the trees. We completed the loop back through Manarola and back to Riomaggiore along the same walkway - right on sunset!! Fantastic. Stopped for another drink at the same cafe.
View of the hills above Manarola - ocean to the right in this photo.

Are we lost? Nah the map says there's a path...

Johnno, Dan and Lei coming down the steps

Lovely how the buildings reflect the sunset colours



Sunset on Via dell' Amore (Lover's Lane)

After our sunset upliftment we ended up bumping into the girls I met on Friday in the main street. They said to come up later. Happened to run into them about 1hr later, ordering pizza. We were on our way (with numerous bottles of wine in tow) up to there place for drinks. Stayed up at there apartment for a good few hours and the conversation was brilliant.
Tessa, Libby, Johnno & Dan (the girls' apartment)

Lei, Tanya and I

SUNDAY 5th November

All of us embarked on the 12km or so walking trip between Monterosso and Riomaggiore. Caught the train to (the most northern) town of Monterosso and had a quick walk through town. Lei and I then walked along the coast track which was very hilly and through mainly heathland. It was a tough walk with lots of big steps and I was well & truly puffing throughout it. Think that bit was about 4km. Mum and Dad said that when they were there in September, it was quite busy and they met lots of people along the path. We didnt really cross too many - maybe 20-30 along the whole walking track that we did?? Mainly Italians too. And some women were wearing heels - what the??
Johnno and Dan posing on one of the beaches in Monterosso.

Quaint church in Monterosso - with 2 saints made of mosaics

View of Monterosso in background.

Strange sight - the sign on the bucket requests people to feed the homeless cats with what's in the bucket. Lei went a bit closer and cats began materialising out of the bush towards her.

Vernazza in the background.

Then we got to Vernazza - that was Lei and I's favourite town. Has a big castle and tower overlooking the small port and it just had a lovely feeling. Was bigger than Riomaggiore (but not as big as Monterosso - the largest of the 5) and had a few more gifty shops and a great Gelateria. It is the Gelateria where the one called Salt on the Tweed Coast, NSW came from. The story is that a bloke and his family set up the Gelateria and it was running for a year before a Currumbin girl backpacking, bought an icecream. She fell in love with the son who was working there. They decided to move to the Tweed and start their own Gelateria using the same recipes from the Cinque Terre shop. They're now married with kids and his parents have visited Australia too. Ahhhhhhh what a story :)

Beautiful Vernazza. Can see the tower to the right, we didn't climb it but the signs boasted views of all 5 towns.

So after a quick walk around there, Lei and I headed off to the next town of Corniglia. The boys left us for some reason, wanting to walk quickly or something? It was great spending the time with Lei though. She's a good walker though, so I had to work hard :)

We then knew that the track between Corniglia and Manarola was shut-down because of a landslide. However, we'd heard from others that people were still getting over it... Sounded daunting though and it was dark by the time Lei and I got to Corniglia, so we caught a train to Manarola to at least do the last part of the walk. Saw Dan at the train station and he said that Johnno had decided to walk on from Corniglia to Manarola over the landslide. Lei was a bit worried, naturally, but on meeting him again we learned that the landslide was nothing more than a small pile of rocks and dirt. Johnno emphatically told us that one guy with a shovel could clear it in about 1 hour and the toughest bit about crossing it was getting around the temporary fences that had been erected. Why the Cinque Terre park managers don't just get in there and clear it (sure, and possibly put up some reinforcing on the slope or whatever) is beyond me. Such a hassle for visitors whose main goal is to do the full 12km trail.

It was beautiful in all - wild coastline (kinda like the Great Ocean Road - no apostles of course) and views of terraced crops.

So once Lei and I got to Manarola we were pretty hungry so we popped into a pizza shop. We shared a piece of the best spinach pizza I have ever tasted - it was divine. We then walked back to Riomaggiore along Lover's Lane in the dark - didnt see a soul. Then back to the room for dinner & a well-deserved night's sleep.