Nov 8, 2010 - Cinque Terre, Italy

Today we woke up to heavy rain. After breakfast, we met our van driver and left Florence and the rain behind. As we drove north, the sky cleared up and we met the local guide for our tour of Cinque Terre on the coast. We visited four of the five hill towns including walking along the sea coast wall between two of the villages. It was quite windy, but we did not mind as it was NOT raining! After the second village, we boarded a train for a short ride through the mountain to reach the third town. After watching the Mediterranean Sea crash...

Oct 15, 2010 - Cinque Terre, Italy

Friday, October 15, 2010. Drove 140 miles to the coastal town of La Spezia with the objective of sightseeing the Cinque Terre, 5 small and medieval towns clustered along the coastal cliffs. We’re staying at the B&B Il Gelsomino owned by Carla and her husband, Walter. It is so high above La Spezia it seems to be the last house on this mountain. The drive up would give one vertigo with all the twists and tight turns. We finally got to what we thought had to be a few hundred yards of where it should be but no sign of it. So we parked at an...

Oct 3, 2010 - Cinque terre adventure

We ventured out on the cinque terre trail, one of them was closed off due to a landslide. The 5 towns are train minutes apart. We ventured into 4 of the 5 towns.. All offering a slightly different venue. Lemon groves evrywhere (massive lemons!) and vineyards along side the mountains...wouldn t want to be picking those grapes!  Both of us were not huge fans of the red and white cinque terre wine.. Not our favorites, but the limoncino was a hit. Well we have to say although cinque terre is beautiful, the hiking trail gorgeous as it follows...

Oct 2, 2010 - Cinque Terre Italy

Oct 2 Cinque Terre Italy A travel and settle in day! We hitched a ride with John and Pody up to La Spezia Italy, an apprx 5.5 hr crazy drive with Pody Andretti at the wheel.. Thank god Terri took back a gravel! The ride was quite beautiful, passing by cities such as Monaco, Cannes, Nice... Found the train station in La Spezia where we took the train to reach Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, meaning 5 villages, that sit on the cliffs off the medittereanan Coast line... Looking for a place to burn off some of the bread and cheese we consumed in...

Sep 27, 2010 - Cinque Terra, Italy

Left Volterra drove through La Spezia, left the van at the train station and took a 20 km.train ride to Corniglia on the coast( no roads) Walked up 372 zigzag stairs from the train stop, got a room overlooking small plaza. The town sits on a point overlooking the coast. Note: Been unable to upload photos by WiFi( weak connection) When we able to upload photos look for the camera next to the entry date on past and future entries. We left Corniglia the next day and stop at Manarola for few hours then took the train back to La Spezia.

Sep 22, 2010 - September 22, 2011

Today was our last day in Monterosso. There are 2 ways to get from the beach side of Monterosso to the old town. One is through the tunnel and the other is a longer, but scenic path. Today we took the scenic path and visited the Convent de Cappuccini, a monestary. A healthy climb to the top but with beautiful views of the Liguaran sea and the old town of Monterosso beaches. The monestary was quaint with lovely paintings on its walls and a beautiful altar. In the afternoon we took a train to Florence, where we spent sometime in a lovely...

Jun 25, 2010 - Cinque Terra - hiking time!

Our camping escapades continue in Cinque Terra! We tried to leave Bern early the next morning but when we got to the train station we discovered that the train we wanted to take to connect in Milan was sold out. We therefore had a nice 5.5 hour wait in the Bern train station and it was kind of lucky we did. Erin went to the pharmacist to ask what she should use as a bandage for a cut on her foot that was bothering her for the past week and a bit. After a quick look at her foot the pharmacist sent us out the door and to the nearest clinic to...

Jun 25, 2010 - Sunbathing on a Rock

Today, we relaxed again on rocks by the ocean. It was very peaceful. It was nice to do nothing for one more day before we moved on to a tourist destination. For dinner, we walked down Lovers Lane. Lovers lane is an easy walk between two of the five towns and it is right along the ocean. It was gorgeous. We watched the sunset again and then went to bed to get ready for an early morning and a day of traveling.

Jun 24, 2010 - Hike between the towns

Today we went on the hike between all 5 of the towns in Cinque Terre. We took the train and started from the most northern city, Monterosso. We knew that was going to be the hardest part of the hike. We got started and it was really more of a stair climb than a hike. I got quite the workout but the views were beautiful. It was nice to see the ocean the entire time we were hiking. After the hike, we were all tired so we just sat on a rock and watched the sunset.

Jun 23, 2010 - Relaxing on the Beach

Today we slept in then took a train to the Northern most village called Monterosso. It is the only village with a good beach. We rented a sun chair and relaxed there all day. The beaches were not smooth sand but that rocky kind of sand. The water was aqua and so refreshing. I am very proud of myself because I didnt burn even after not seeing the sun for months. We watched the sunset again at night and found ourselves somewhere new to stay for the night. We ended up staying with Mario who was such a cute Italian man who spoke no English. He...

Jun 22, 2010 - Early morning

Today we woke up at 7 am and enjoyed an early morning in Venice. It was awesome. We sat on a canal next to a seafood and produce market and watched the delivery boats go back and forth. We sat and had breakfast for about 3 hours until we had to catch our all day train to Cinque Terre. I was sad to leave Venice but happy at the same time because it burnt a hole in my wallet. We got into Cinque Terre at 6pm and enjoyed a bottle of wine and a gorgeous sunset. The town we are staying in is Riomaggiore. It is a very small, quaint town that is...

Jun 22, 2010 - Cinque Terre, Italy

We left Neuchatel super early so we could grab the morning train from Bern to Milan. With a group of 6 and at least 8 big bags not including backpacks making tight train times has been a challenge. We missed a few trains in each station by a minute or two. In Milan we got on the wrong train which was super slow and stopped in every little town along the coast. The views from the train are amazing though so we were ok with the error. The train from Swiss to Milan passed by some amazing scenery. So we left Neuchatel at around 7:30 am and we...