http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Italy , Liguria en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:30:20 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:30:20 +0000 I've been in this hotel during the month of August with my family. The two sisters managing the hotel and the staff are really wonderful and they made everything to make you feel at the best.Food is greatMy wife found herself very well at the wellness center with massages and beauty treatments while my children and myself enjoyed too much in thalasso swimmingpools.HOTEL CARAVELLEDIANO MARINAw http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Diano-Marina/blog-460974.html I've been in this hotel during the month of August with my family. The two sisters managing the hotel and the staff are really wonderful and they made everything to make you feel at the best.Food is greatMy wife found herself very well at the wellness center with massages and beauty treatments while my children and myself enjoyed too much in thalasso swimmingpools. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Diano-Marina/blog-460973.html Dias 87 a 89 No existe um lugar chamado Cinque Terre. Existem apenas centenas de pequenas vilas localizadas na costa Mediterrnea da Itlia. Algum espertalho escolheu cinco delas inventou um contexto histrico qualquer para tal escolha e fez uma grande propaganda. Como resultado milhes de turistas invadem as tais cidadezinhas que aps o vero viram cidades fantasma j que ningum efetiv http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-457019.html Day 1112 Sanremo to RiomaggioreWe efficiently zipped around Sanremo on Saturday morning seeing the sights and liking the town better in daylight. It was overcast so we didnrsquot get in any beach time and took the noon train back down the coast to Riomaggiore one of the Cinque Terre towns. It was a five hour trip but the scenery was just as great the second timehellipwe got into Riom http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-450187.html Arriving in La Spezia by train we walked around for awhile until deciding on a nice hotel to say at... My One Hotel... We were restless from a long train ride so headed straight out to explore... What we found was gorgeous... La Spezia is a quaint old town and we honestly didn't hear or see any english speaking people... I guess coz its the end of the season We stopped by a lovely little wine ba http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-449996.html Thank goodness Gretchen has masseuse skills as I awoke at some ungodly hour of the night with the worst cramp I have ever experienced and she eased my pain enabling me to get back to sleep.The trial of Cinque Terre yesterday we do not want to experience again.The day dawned bright and clear and a great improvement on the overcast of yesterday and after talking to Leighdaughter 1 onlineshe pers http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-448432.html Friday 23rd OctoberA day from hell on the Cinque TerreOur hotel high up on the hill meant there was no traffic noise and we had a very good nightrsquos sleep in preparation for what we expected could be a physically challenging day.It was cereal and croissants for breakfast and a cup of strong coffee that should hold us for the morning. The plan is to have lunch at one of the villages as we do t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/Corniglia/blog-448275.html Thursday 22nd OctoberThe Leaning Tower of Pisa and onwards to LericiIt absolutely bucketed down in the night and if we hadnrsquot been in a room upstairs we might have had to evacuate before we were carried away in the flood.Perhaps that was why everyone checked in here are in units upstairs.As it was there was a mysterious pool of water in the middle of the separate loungedining area with no o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/La-Spezia/blog-448140.html Cinque TerreThe train ride wasn long from Pisa and it went though a bunch of industrial towns and tunnels... until suddenly we came out of a tunnel and saw the sea. It was gorgeous and we couldn wait to get off the trianBeachWe dropped the stuff at the hostel and went straight to the beach. The sun was out but it was still a little chilly and I decided to wait until the next day to go for a s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-446083.html Leaving Florence by train to Monterosso took 3 hours and cost 19.10 Euro each. We only had 1 day and an overnight stay in Cinque Terre on route by train to the south of France. Truely it is worth staying at least 34 days and if you have time to spend more I would.We stayed at A Ca du Gigante's apartment in Monterosso and enjoyed it so much. Perhaps next time I would stay in the old town. The apa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-444305.html The tour of Italy has flown it is a memory packed week of historic sites and history of the clever Romans dating back to the 5th Century when it all came ot a sad end with the attacks of outsiders to the empire. Wars and interactions with the neighbouring Germanic and Balkan civilizations is reported to have resuted in a down fall of the Empire. Highlights were the Trevi fountain Roman ruins http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/blog-443535.html Genoa 25th27th September.Arrived in to Genoa in the afternoon after driving through the picturesque coastal hills of northwestern Italy. We checked in on board Saudade for a three night stay. The boys were up early to watch the AFL grandfinal live. After that our tour guides Polly and Mike took us to Rapallo where we got a ferry to the beautiful village of Portofino. A drink in the piazza http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Genoa/blog-442876.html Hi everyone Between days filled with Tuscany and poor internet reception we have been remiss in updating our blog. So here we are now in our last week in Italy.We have had such an amazing time it's hard to describe. The countryside is so beautifullots of open space vineyards olive trees and rolling hills with quaint hilltop towns with narrow streets to the south of us like Montepulcia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/blog-441771.html Much catching up to do. I left off on my last blog in Barcelona before getting a manicure. When I finished writing the blog and went back to the room Bonnie was in no shape to go with me so I ventured off alone for my mani pedi. Apparently you need to make reservations to do so and the place I ended up was a 20 minute walk and very expensive. I returned to our hotel and grabbed bonnie on the way t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-440126.html Vanmorgen lsquouitgeslapenrsquo tot 7 uur om daarna stuk door het koele bos te wandelen met Wapper en Dino. Zij rennen erop los en wij moeten toch wel flink klimmen de heuvel op. Pfff en dat rsquos ochtends vroeg terwijl we nog zorsquon 600 km gaan rijdenhellip.Na het ontbijt in het hotel gaan we weer op pad. Vertrek vanuit Badenweiler is om 9 uur we hebben een tussenstop in de Zwitsers http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/La-Spezia/blog-439867.html Day 518 110909 Steps 25612Up early we tucked into the free breaky and across the road to the train station purchased our Cinque Terre pass only to discover the train had been cancelled and we had a couple hours to kill til the next one. We stopped by the supermarket for lunch supplies and returned to the station with the other couple hundred tourists. We jumped off at Monterosso the first an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-437036.html August 31 2009 Cinque Terre ItalyWhat a difference a day makes. We go from crowded and dirty Viareggio up the Italian coast to the most beautiful part of the Riviera The Cinque Terre. She is made up of 5 little villages overlooking the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean.We took the first bus we could from the campground to the train station at around 930 am which was late for us as we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-435743.html Two things we first noticed about Italy a the terrain is extremely hilly Jonesyrsquos nightmare and b the tolls they charge for using the motorways are extortionate. After emptying our pockets of what Euros we had left we arrived in Lerici only to be turned away from the first campsite that we came across. Thankfully they did as we then went to a beautiful campsite on the top of a mountai http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/blog-434834.html This is the place everyone told me I had to go in Italy. All the Americans anyway. I am happy to say they were right it is an incredibly magical and beautiful place. It is in Liguria on the northwest coast of Italy. Cinque terre means something like 5 towns earths or soils literally because there are 5 little towns connected by footpaths in this national park. I had been in this region befo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-426128.html July 25I shed a small tear as I left Munich behind and headed down to the Liguria region of Italy and to the city of Genoa. I desperately missed the ocean and I wanted to spend a day at the ocean and just relax. I also figured Genoa was as good a place as any and I check another UNESCO World Heritage site off the list. In Genoa the UNESCO site is Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi de http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Genoa/blog-424676.html