Blogs from Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy, Europe - page 36

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 ... read more

We woke this morning to another cracker Lucca day. We had been here long enough and I was keen to get on the train. Lucca is a great place to visit, but TBH, it could be done in a day. There is nothing really too special here (apart from the mummified lady in one of the churches...creepy). It is steeped in history, but this far down, we are kind of numb to the history of everything now. The terraced houses and cobbled streets used to buzz us out, but now we are craving the comforts of a city again. We soon got sick of all those stairs! A 2 hour train ride and we arrived in Levanto. The trains here are really cool. It's pretty easy to figure out how to use them and once you ... read more

On Friday we gladly left our room behind in Rome to hop on train for the lovely towns known as Cinque Terre. These are 5 small towns on the Western coast of Italy nestled among cliffs along the shore. We took a bus to the train station then hopped on a 7:35 train to La Spezia and arrived at 11:52. We then took another train shortly after to the 5 towns known as Cinque Terre. There seemed to be a nice hostel in the 2nd town, Manarola, so we stopped there at hiked up a hill to a very nice hostel, and the only one in town! We left our bags but couldn't get into our rooms until 4pm. This hostel was very modern, quiet, and clean, and it maintained that by having some strict rules. ... 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

I actually went twice while studying in Florence. Once at the beginning of July and then again at the end of the month right before returning stateside. The beach is beautiful, and nestled right up against the rocks. The "sand area" is a combination of sand and then rocks along the water's edge. I brought back a bunch of tiny rocks and plan on getting them polished because they are all beautiful and completely different colors, I've never seen anything like it! Monterosso really isn't that far from Florence, especially for the view! It takes about 1 1/2 hours worth of train rides... with a frantic transfer thrown in there as well. The first time I went, my jaw dropped as the train went along the side of the mountain.. seeing the pure blue water out ... read more