Cinque Terra

We have had two beautiful days here - weather perfect - warm, no wind, blue skies & sea. The tourist season has really started here and the trains and streets are full of people from all nationalities - but everyone is pleasant and willing to chat if you want. Yesterday we caught the ferry and explored a couple of the towns - they are all quite different even though they are all perched up in the cliffs! 

       

We have refined the way to while away the day - cruise to a town, have a look around, find a place to sit and enjoy a coffee, milkshake or beer then hop on the ferry to next town, stroll around and look for a nice menu for lunch. We have had some beautiful meals -  lots of seafood, pasta, risotto and of course pizza - all delicious 

            

Here we are today at Manarola - we were overlooking the bay and enjoyed watching people jumping off high rocks into the sea - reminded us of the jumping rock at Wannangatta! (Can you spot the boy in green bathers?) This seemed to be the best swimming spot and was very popular! 

               

This morning Darryl and I got up early and set off on one of the walks - we caught the train to Vernazza and the plan was to walk back past two towns to meet Greg and Anne for lunch. We enjoyed the walk to the first town and it was so pretty and not too strenuous but quite a few steps! All worth it for the beautiful views.  However once we started on the second leg we firstly had difficulties finding the correct trail then we heard all these conflicting stories from fellow walkers about it being closed. We lost a bit of time here and eventually set off but the stories were correct and it was closed due to a landslide! We knew the section from here is closed but when we bought our pass yesterday we weren't told about this closure! We could have walked 3 hrs inland but decided to catch the train and cheat the last bit! 

          

    

      

Tonight we will enjoy our last night here and watch the sunset like last night - it's a pretty popular thing to take wine and snack down on the rocks to watch sunsets. We just have to look out our window! 

            

Tomorrow we catch a couple of trains, whizz through Milan and pick up the hire car at Como. Then lucky Greg is the nominated driver - the lady said we are 16kms from Como but allow an hour as the roads are narrow and traffic can be heavy!! Greg can't wait!! He also has to remember to drive on the right hand side!! 

We really have enjoyed this little bit of Italy - and our legs are getting used to steps everywhere! 

We are over half way through our month now - this time in 2 weeks we will be in Doha then home - how the weeks fly! 

Hope everyone at home is good xxxxxxxxx from Marg and Darryl