Canadapuckbunny

Lazily woke up at 10am and headed to Italy for lunch. Yep. Drove to Italy for lunch. It's only a half hour from Gio's to the bordertown, Ventimiglia, so we let our trusty Italian tour guide lead the way. Naturally, the food was great and after lunch we went to an Italian outlet mall where I picked up 2 pairs of Italian leather shoes for 60 euro! Amazing. Plus, they threw in a cute pair of flip flops too! On our way to Gio's place in Villefranche sur mer we stopped in Monte Carlo, Monaco to walk along the piers of big boats. We thought there was money in Portofino but its small fortunes compared to Monte Carlo. The boats were insanely large, the stores were of the Gucci and Hermes level, the hotels were stunning ... read more

We woke up in Vernazza to a thunderstorm and then the train we needed to get so we could catch our train from Montorosso to Genoa (and then to Nice) was 55 minutes late (note to future travellers: Italian trains are notoriously delayed) making all our connections impossible to make. It looked like we couldn't leave Italy! And as we sat at the Vernazza station waiting for the commuter train to take us the 3 minutes to Monterosso we watched our skookum Genoa train whiz right passed us. It was a good-looking train and we can't describe the frustration of needing to be on it, knowing it wouldn't stop at our platform and knowing that we just needed the stupid 3 min "lift" to get it. Argh! To make matters worse, once we actually got to ... read more

Did I mention that when we sleep we keep the windows open and hear the waves crash on the beach when we drift off and when we awake because the sea is literally 30 metres from our room? We're going to miss that. Did I mention that we ate at another restaurant last night that was perched high on a cliff and the sea was so rough yesterday that its swirling and crashing was our scenic backdrop? We're going to miss that too. And did I mention that the food and wine is incredible, from the simplest focaccia to the anitpasto, primo, secondi and dolci 4-course meal? That too will be missed. Today we just chilled. Hung out in Vernazza for a bit and then headed to Monterosso for lunch. Ate surfside and then wandered around ... read more

Got another slow start to the day. Partly because I've been fighting a sore throat the past couple of days and am feeling kinda crappy and partly because we're getting into the Italian Riveria lifestyle. It's going to be tough to leave. Being in the Cinque Terra is like being on a vacation while being on a vacation. Our biggest decision is where to wander, what to eat, go to the beach, or swim in the sea. Today we decided to visit the last of the 5 towns, Riomaggiore. We decided to walk between Manarolo to Riomiaggore as it's only a half hour along a trail called Via dell'Amore (translation: lovers lane). It is stunning as it winds along the cliffs high above the sea. It didn't disappoint. Riomaggiore didn't either. It has achieved third place ... read more

Today was a late start! Didn't leave for Santa Margherita until 1pm - guess we're getting into the Ligurian lifestyl! Santa Margherita is, of course, beautiful. It's much bigger than the towns we've been in the past few days but no less charming. We really don't think Italy can do any wrong! Now back to the notion of S. Margherita being larger. When I say larger keep in mind it only took us a couple of hours to explore it and then we decided to take the boat to Portofino, another small but beautiful Italian town. The difference with Portofino though is the $$$ it attracts. The boats are like Jimmy's (Pattison) +++ and the quaint little stores of the other towns in Liguria are replaced by Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Cartier. It's laid back wealth ... read more

After a wonderful dinner last night at a restaurant perched high above on a cliff, we headed back down the many steps to find that an Italian band playing Pink Floyd covers had set up by the water. We ordered a bottle of wine (yes! John and I shared our first bottle of wine ever together!) and sang along with the band. They were actually pretty good and the crowd was right into it. They wrapped up around midnight so John and I wandered over to some rocks - I later learned he had the walk and place all planned. We sat for a bit just talking and the next thing I know John is proposing! I don't even think I said yes right away - I was too busy crying and hugging the life out ... read more

Our first sleep in Vernazza was a little disruptive between the clock tower in front of our window that rings every hour and half hour from 8am to midnight to the late night revellers in Piazza Marconi which our room looks over. Didn't matter though because it would take a lot to change either of our minds about how superb this place is. We took the 3 minute train to Monterosso this morning. It's the biggest and busiest of the 5 towns but it was by no means "busy" by our standards. It has the largest beach in the Cinque Terre which is the primary reason for its draw. Plus, its the first town so many people start the trail between Monterosso, Vernazza, Coniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore there. While in Monterosso we stopped for a piece ... read more

Today ended after 7 hours of train travel but the trip was breathtaking. It took us along the Mediterranean coast through Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Genoa, San Remo, Santa Margharita Rigure to our final desination, Vernazza , in the Cinque Terre. We had to change trains in Monterossa, literally 3 minutes from Vernazza. John personified the Incredible Hulk by jogging with both our 40lbs suitcases through the train car when we discovered at the last minute that the door of our coach wouldn't open! Actually, John did a great job with carrying the bags up and down ALL the stairs in each station - we had to change trains 3 times!! So, first impression of Italy? We both LOVE it. It is everything (so far) that I've dreamt of. The language around us is like a ... read more

K. We're done with the French! For the most part we've been positive and optimistic, after all we're visitors to France but we're ready to move on. Tonight we went off the beaten track - away, again, from the restaurants with menus that are both french/english and laminated with pictures of the food they serve. Yes, once again, we moved away from the tourist trap restaurants and ordered in french - after all we are guests of the country so the most we could do was show some respect and order in their language. But you know, you just can't win with the french. If you don't speak french at all they say "I speak english in your country" (we witnessed this first hand with a poor british couple) and if you do speak french they ... read more