Cinque Terre Walking..

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We got up to a nice brekky in the hotel and then it was off to the station for the Cinque Terre. WE got the train to one of the 5 towns and started the walk along the CT. I have to tell you, this walk is amazing. It's fully set up really well and quite easy to do. On one side you have all the old beautiful terraced gardens and hosues, the other is the ocean! It's so beautiful

Unfortunately, Italy's great weather had broken...we had our first touch of rain, gutted.

We soldiered on though, and had great fun.

We walked round to the next town, this stage it was absolutely hosing down, so we ducked into a caffe for a quick bite. Once it stopped, Jules and I decided to flag the next town and caught a train back up to La Spezia, a bigger city north.

When you are in little towns day after day, the cobbled streets and quaint houses kind of lose their charm and you begin to crave some 'real people' culture for a bit. So we headed to La Spezia to get a taste.....bad move, All Saints Day, Public Holiday...nothing open.....oh well...

Back on the train we got off at the next town along from Levanto, Monte Rosso. There is a really nice walk from this place back to our town, but its apparantly 2hrs.....no problems...

We headed off, and got to a junction, took the left path (as you do) then started walking up rocks and gravel.....obviously off the beaten track a little...

It wasn't until we saw the "DO NOT PASS" sign that we decided it was the wrong way, gutted, we had just walked about 40mins and were quite tired....

WE backtracked, got back into the town and headed for the train station. Met Mel, the tour leader along the way (Australian) and she offered the challenge to go back up the mountain on this 2 hour walk......of course we did.

So we get about an hour up, it starts going dark and we still have an everest sized mountain yet to climb before we even reach the top....After an hour of solid step climbing and realising we all had no water or torches....we decided it was best to get back down to the station and catch the train. Guess we'll have to tackle this one next time. We got some amazing shots of the view, and I managed to leave my ONLY rain jacket up there...clever boy.

Tonight Jules and I found our own little restaurant and had an amazing meal. Following this, headed to 'Cafe Del Mar' for some after dinner wines....it was bliss.

Tomorrow we head to Priocca, vineyards and small town folk....cant wait!

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