Today we took advantage of the walking tracks in the Cinque Terre. We purchased a two day pass, which allows us on and off the paths, trains and buses during the period, and heaven forbid you forget to validate the ticket before getting on the train. Several people we have met have copped the 50Euro per person fine for not validating their tickets on the trains. The conductors are brutal, and have no tolerance for tourists claiming not to know! We trained to Riomaggiore, the first village of the Cinque Terre (Monterosso is the 5th, and walking is supposed to be easier in the direction from Riomaggiore. Easy, smeasy! Though there are some serious hikers around, and we have also seen many people (mostly ladies, I must add) in their 60’s and 70’s in their hiking ... read more

We had two lucky breaks today. Traveling from Venice to Cinque Terre involved several changes of train, so when planning we had decided to stay overnight somewhere on the way to break up the travel. Parma was a small town on the way, so we decided to book accommodation, blessing in disguise. We had not been able to book online the train to La Spezia, so we decided before leaving the station to book the train for the following day. Whilst in the long line up, many people were indicating frustration at not being able to see on the boards what platform to go to for the La Spezia connection from Parma, due in only about 15 mins. It seems there is a train strike today, so no train connections to La Spezia were going ... read more

Due to getting lost crossing Venice on foot to the Vaporetto stop for the 3 islands we ended up only having time and energy for the Islands of Murano – famous for its Venetian glass, and Burano – famous for its coloured houses. We saw some incredible glass items, sculptures, chandeliers, vases and jewellery. It is sad that there are now cheap Chinese copies of Murano glass all over the world – even here there are shops with the Chinese fakes. There are some really exciting modern chandeliers and lamps in several shops, but hundreds of the traditional Venetian glass chandeliers (it helps that all of the ceilings are so high here), and at first sight many seem quite tacky if I dare say (in case anyone Italian is reading this and is mortified). Lit though ... read more

We decided to skip the abysmal breaky today and start our day with an all day ferry ticket and went to Bellagio for breakfast – croissant and hot chocolate. As it was close to 11am John thought an ice coffee would start the day just right. It was an espresso cup with one of those slushy machine icy things in it, not at all resembling the ice coffee’s/chocolates from home! Next ferry took us to Verenna, which would have been a beautiful spot to stay, but we think from memory it was difficult to get to the hotel from the train with bags. Beautiful beautiful town, lots of photos attached. John had read about a castle which was high up behind the town, so we decided to walk up and asked a local for directions, and ... read more

Our last day in Stresa was misty and sad to leave. We had more dramas with the new local sim which I won’t go into, we are all sorted now after nearly 2 full days of working on it and speaking to different people, and translating txts from the provider. We had organized a private transfer from Stresa to Cadenabbia on Lake Como, which we were thankful for as it was a convoluted train trip with several changes, and it was a good chance for us to learn about the toll roads and road rules (or lack thereof) from Fabri who had also taken us on the 3 Island Tour a day or so earlier. It was misty/foggy when we left Lake Maggiore and even more foggy at Lake Como (2 hours drive away) when we ... read more