Cinque Terre

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Caught the train from Milan to Levanto (seems to be a few Aussies doing the same thing) On the way from our train to our hotel we found our travelling companions John and Louise having lunch in a bar opposite our hotel, so we dropped our bags and joined them. We explored the town in the afternoon and had dinner in a local restaurant. Dot fell in love with Levanto!
Next morning we stocked up on supplies for our lunch and hit the trail. Up it went! The higher we climbed the more spectaluar the views. the cameras were running hot. We trekked for about 3 hours , reached about 300 metres above the turquoise Mediterranean before descending into Monterosso.
We quickly found our hotel and headed for a dip in the sea. After an hour on the sand (actually Gravel full of cigarette butts) we all showered and headed of to meet another one of our friends, Cherril, at one of the local restaurants. Dot also fell in love with Monterosso!
The next day Russell went for an early morning dip before we caught up with our friends to set off for another day climbing in the mountains. Up the steps we went, into the national park through vineyards and orchards with spectacular scenery and 101 photo opportunities. Smile! There was continuous thunder and the threat of a storm but we only had a slight shower before we reached our next destination of Vernazza. We are amazed at the stunning beauty of this village and had a well earned Gelati (YUM!) whilst watching the activities around the harbour.
Since it was a Wednesday night and our usual RE Hash running night, we set off at 6.05pm for the Inaugral Venazza RE Hash run, much to the amusement of the locals. Dot loves this coastline so much she has now changed her name to Dorothea Della Levanto!

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