The jewel that is Cinque Terre!

Choosing a first photo to share with you took some doing ... yesterday was a lovely day, but today, well ... take a look at this for a view from having a morning cuppa - no offence to Barry, but the R block coffee cart kind of pales by comparison ...



Riomaggiore

We are not sure what it is about travelling in October, but it seems to turn on excellent weather in the northern hemisphere ... or perhaps we are just lucky! Whatever the reason, we feel even if the next 10 days provides lousy weather we have been blessed (very droll, I know ... it's Italy!) and certainly have several photo albums worth of wonderful photos for memories.



Our base - B&B Vignola

 Yesterday was a very big day for us. We are staying just north of Cinque Terre at B&B Vignola on the outskirts of Levanto. Ever want a recommendation as a base for exploring - this is it ... wonderful and helpful hosts (Ghianni & Karen) and just take a look it - even if you just stayed here you could not help but feel good and be relaxed!

So Wednesday we headed off on the train to the northern most village - Monterosso al Mare - to begin our exploration. Takes all of five minutes on the train! However, we were soon to find out that the path  to Vernazza is the toughest of the easy tracks, but extremely spectacular. Just when we felt like it was getting tough we came on a party of 3 heading in the opposite direction, one of whom was vision impaired and using a walking cane ... OK, so no room for any grumbles! We made it just fine and there are loads of wonderful places to rest along the way - and loads of people like us taking the rests :-). Here are a couple of images to show off what was so fantastic (not expressed lightly) and why Deb felt at the end of the day that she had seen what we came for.

The first one is right at the start of the walk, the second showing the climb ahead about 1/3 the way BUT a hell of a lot of steps up, much of it narrow and steep ... but clearly spectacular given teh view back to where the first shot was taken from sea level!

Monterosso



We were headed for the top
of those vines!



The view back from the top
of the vines.

Of course, once you go up, you normally make it back down again. While there were plenty of smaller ups and downs in between, there is what was at the end of this leg of a wonderful, if tough for us trek ... we were to find out today that this was the much tougher end to tackle first ... no mucking about with warm-ups or any kind of acclimatisation for this pair - straight into it!


Vernazza prior to descent



Vernazza looking back to
where we came from

Like driving in Italy, you come to realise how we are far too precious about so many rules and regulations that stifle our ability to show off beauty like this across our own great country. We were reflecting over dinner tonight about all the hassle currently in play to get a walk/bike path from Ballina to Lennox ... too close to the cliff edge, blah, blah, bloody blah ... and when you see what has been done here, the volume of traffic it takes and just what it shows off, you realise Mark Webber had a very strong point when he labelled us the "granny country". Seeing what the grannies do in these parts every day make you realise how pampered and precious we are about rules and regulations ... I am more convinced than ever that lawyers have a lot to answer for! And we keep electing them to parliament ... ah, what's a blog if you can't have a rave?

So, here are a couple more images from today, even more magnificant weather if you can believe that. This was a mere dawdlw compared to yesterday, with even, paved wide walkways that almost passed for "broadwalks". As you can see we are being very spoiled but lapping up every minute of every day.


Leaving Riomaggiore behind



Boarding the ferry - no worries about
ramming wharves here!



Sure beats R Block!

Manarola

I could go on ... but I forget you have to read this ... and we are here.

So tomorrow we leave this jewel. I am sure these few images give you a sense of why the reputation that precedes Cinque Terre is well earned, in our experience. If you ever get the opportunity, I trust you will have such wonderful weather - like everywhere else though, this would be unpleasant in tourist season - far too many people and way too hot we would caution.

On the road again. Off across to the North East and Vicenza to spend 5 days with Bob & Jenny at their B&B. Planning to train to Venice (at least one day) and have another one just to kick back and ponder how really wonderful this trip has been.