Cinque Terre & Lucca


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Europe » Italy » Liguria » Cinque Terre
June 13th 2019
Published: June 13th 2019
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A three hour drive to the hills just inland from the five coastal towns that make up Cinque Terre. We drove for 15 minutes to Telegrafo where we started a walk down to Riomaggiore, a beautiful scenic walk down to the sea dropping over 500 metres through rocky paths and steps through vineyards and churchyards and eventually making it to the end (well apart from the hike back uphill before dark at 9pm)

A beautiful town stretching up the hillsides in the bay with multi coloured housing.

Next day we drove to La Spezia to catch the train which went to all of the Cinque Terre towns. We went to Monterosso del Mare and after a wander round, hiked from there to the next town of Vernazza where we met Steve and Julie, old friends from Olney who had come out to join us for a few days. Lunch by the marina and then another hike with them from Vernazza to Corniglia.

We had booked a meal that night for the four of us as the restaurant had a good reputation. And indeed it was very good - the starter was a great mix of mussels, prawns, etc indeed everything I don’t like - fortunately they swapped it out later for a fresh pasta and cheese dish which was superb followed by sea bass - lovely

We were told there was a pool but 2 days in we hadn’t seen it so Sue and Julie went searching for it. Eventually they found it about 200 steps above our rooms! Needless to say we didn’t bother getting wet.

Next day I dropped Sue, Steve & Julie off at Telegrafo to walk down to Riomaggiore - the walk Sue and I did the first day, while I drove down to La Spezzia to catch the train to Corniglia where I would meet up with them for lunch - nice to have a morning to myself if only to write the blog for Ferrara which was already late. There was however a slight mix up. I was in Corniglia and they thought I was in Manorola - oops. A quick wander down 490 steps to then train station and I was there in 20 mins. I still maintain the 3 of them were wrong and not me!

We then went out on a small boat and spent a couple of hours with a marine biologist exploring the coastal towns from the water - very nice if a little cold by the end.

On Steve and Julie’s last day at Cinque Terre we caught the train to Vernazza with the intention of walking to to Monterosso. However Sue had a problem with her ankle so decided to go back into Vernazza while Steve and Julie carried on. I went back partway with Sue to make sure she could get down before turning round and continuing the hike. We met up with Sue a few hours later before Steve and Julie went off to Pisa.

We then didn’t wander too much in order to not overtask the ankle and the following day saw us head off to Lucca a beautiful walled town via Porto Venere where amongst other things there is a grotto in honour of Lord Byron because apparently he could swim a long way!

We stayed in a very nice Airbnb in a pretty central location which was great for walking the city. Once again we met Steve and Julie as they had come across from Pisa and we wandered the city with them - and after 5 days walking the hills of Cinque Terre we had an early night.

After spending the morning and early afternoon just wandering in Lucca we set off for a one night stop in Siena.


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13th June 2019

Liguria
Fantastic few days walking the hills , even it one day it was 86 flights of stairs ! Great blog and nice to be there and part of it.
18th June 2019
View towards Riamaggiore

Beauty around every corner
Simply a beautiful setting to another wonderful day.

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