Cinque Terre 2

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[youtube=aDkGMdiOHGQ][youtube=X-7YrK4b-1k]

Hi all,
Feels like long time no see!

Just had 4 or 5 fantastic days in and around the Cinque Terre Coast.

Didn’t have any internet at the hotel, or wireless in town, so only had a couple of quick goes at an internet café.

The Cinque Terre is primarily made up of 5 small coastal towns, all within about 10km of each other. We started in Monterosso, staying at the same hotel I stayed at last time I was here. ‘Andrea’, the owner was still there, and helped us with finding other accommodation in other towns, the best restaurants to go to, etc.

We left the car in Monterosso on the second day and caught the train to the furthest town, RioMaggiore, on Wednesday, then began ‘the hike’ back to Monterosso via the other towns.

It is a beautiful place, but the hiking was pretty hard going with a couple of days of clothes etc. on my back! - You can actually do the whole walk in about 6-7 hours, but we decided to do the first half one day, and the second the next.

The path from RioMaggiore to Montanola (definitely spelt wrong) is called the ‘Via Dell Amore’ or ‘Path of lovers’ (?), and was fantastic. We had a look around the second town, then went part of the way to the 3rd town, Carmiglia, stopping for lunch. We got to Carmiglia mid afternoon, put our bags into the apartment we had for the night (which was dirt cheap, and really excellent - thanks Andrea) and explored the old town.

This started with an hour or so trying out ‘Mario’s’ - the guy who we rented the apartment from - wines at his wine bar. He makes them himself, and they were bloody nice. Pity we can’t bring any home (The suspension is starting to fail in the Peugoet from all of the shopping in the boot!)

We then went and bought another bottle of white, some cheese and bikkies, and sat out on our balcony in the sun for a couple of ours. Dinner at a restaurant on the hill rounded off an awesome day.

The next day, after a slow start, we walked to Vernazzo, had a look around, then ended up catching the train instead of walking the last leg back to Monterosso - it had started to rain and my shoulders were thankful!

A cruisy arvo and early night were in order, then a sleep in started off the next day nicely.

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Photos

Hotel view
Not bad, not bad.......

Giant Asparagus
That's the best way to describe the cactus type plants dotted along the coast

Stairway to heaven
There was 328 steps here (the sign said so at the top:) to finish of the last of the first half of our hike. Just what I needed with 15kgs of pack on my back!

RioMaggiore
One of the two 'larger' towns - very picturesque

Babe on the beach
Just one I spotted.....

The White Whale
Rare sighting of Moby Dick, beached at Monterosso. Notice the expanding mid-riff, containing twice daily inputs of Gelati, Hot Chocolate, pizza and pasta