May 6, 2012 - Cinque Terre

Our time in Northern Italy continued with a day long tour of the Cinque Terre with another excellent local guide, Frederico Giani from Genoa. He met us at our hotel and we travelled by train to the Cinque Terre region. This area is a series of towns on the Ligurian coast. It is part of Italy's national park system and is known for the amazing terraced mountain sides and hiking paths connecting the 5 cities: Riomaggiore, Manola, Carmogli (I think) , Vernazza and Monterosso. You can reach the towns by ferry , train or walking ( a long ways)....

Aug 17, 2011 - Ciao Italia!

Greetings! Today was our final day by the sea and Italy as well. We have to say we are very sad to leave the place we've called home the last week and a half. On our final day in the cinque Terre we geared up our engines and prepared for the 5 town hike. Unfortunately some of the paths were closed due to landslides so we only got to hike about half. We did get to go on the via dellamore aka lovers lane and place our lovers locks along the trail. We finished off the day with a dip in the ocean and some rock tanning. Always a delight! We are...

Aug 15, 2011 - Cinque Terre

Today, we took the train to Vernazza. It was interesting because our easy train ride became very confusing... We haven't had any trains run on time yet. This is very unusual, normally the trains are insanely efficient. It's hard because everyone is on holiday and the trains are running double time. Our train was delayed 40 minutes or longer so we had to go to Pisa, then connect to La spezia, then connect again to get to Vernazza. Amazingly, even with all the transfers we made it to our destination an hour early. So Vernazza is the fourth...

Jun 30, 2011 - My dear Cinque Terre

Warning times 2: I am back-dating this entry. I am writing on a French keyboard, where q,w,a,z,m, and the comma are all flipped around. Forgive me if I have errors. From Florence we went to Vernazza, one of the towns that make up the 5 lands (or Cinque Terra). The first day was mostly travel and beach... actually, it was ALL travel and beach. The town itself is 1 street. One. With a lot of little side alleys branching off from it and leading to the majority of the housing in the town. It was built in a little valley so, in order to reach...

Jul 23, 2010 - Day 17

Day 17 What a better start to our day! I apologize again for the distressing e-mail and we would have e-mailed to notify you all that we found our documents much sooner but the internet café was closed at 11:00 p.m. our time the night we found them. Had to wait until the next day! Thanks for trying to help us, Mom…….sorry you had to call all the way to Italy. Our hostess, Anna Maria was so nice about it….she wouldn’t take any money for the calls on her cell phone……I don’t know if it cost her anything, but we’ll add a little extra to her...

Jul 23, 2010 - Day 16

Day 16 Well, we have just experienced the lowest low and the highest high. Sorry about the alarming e-mail but I was so distressed and we had no way of calling anyone that I panicked. Let me walk you through our day yesterday so it makes some kind of sense. We got up and had an awesome breakfast at this little restaurant that Rick Steves recommended called “Il Pirata”. The owner there makes the most incredible Scicilian pastries. He had family Christmas postcards from Rick Steves and his family proudly displayed on the restaurant wall!...

Jul 21, 2010 - Day 14

Day 14 Well, we travelled all day on the train to Vernazza, Italy. We actually made it but it was thanks to this nice older lady that Dad helped find a seat on the train for. She told us to get off the train at Genova when we had no idea that we had to. Apparently two trains were being combined into one.......maybe the information was given over the loudspeaker in French.....no help for us. Thank-you, Madame! We got to Vernazza, Italy around 7:30 p.m. and found our hotel. Actually, it's a pensione (boarding house, sort of, but pretty...

May 27, 2010 - Rome

We have not blogged for a couple of days since we have been sooooo busy. Yesterday (Thursday) we arrived by train to Rome and spent ALL DAY walking and seeing everything near the Colosseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps! Had dinner in Piazza Navona. Everything that night was sooooo romantic, we got back to our room and...crashed - So tired (it was midnight). Today, we go see the Pope at the Vatican (yes, Eva arranged even that!) and that other church...what is it called...The Sistine Chapel? We also have a tour under St. Peters...

May 20, 2010 - Vernazza Today - Florence Tomorrow

Just a quick update...Arrived after 34 hours of traveling. Had a great day on Wed. and Thursday was even better! Sunny and warm. Hiked through several of the five towns then took a water taxi back. Not too many crowds, but many Rick Steve's USA partners! GREAT food, and GELATO! Yummy Chow for now. Off to Florence monyana (wait, that's spanish).

Sep 13, 2009 - Ciao from Cinque Terre!

For those that don't know, the Cinque (5) Terre (towns) are a collection of - you guessed it - five towns on the Mediterranean, south of the Riviera. As one person told me (and he might be reading this) imagine Big Sur with a trail along the cliffs, with warm, turquoise water. The area is spectacular! We've been here three days. The main attraction is a trail that connects the five towns. Yesterday (Saturday) we hiked from the town of Vernazza, where we are staying, south, to 3 of the other towns. It was about a 5-mile hike, ranging from...

Jun 6, 2009 - Cinque Cinque Cinque

We awoke this morning to rainy weather and to see the locals still moving the boats out of the harbour and onto the piazza but I had one thing on my mind – traditional Sicilian pastries for breakfast! We arrived at Pirata to a warm welcome from Luca, who spent most of his time in the kitchen last night – they must alternate roles. Luca greeted me with a 'hello beautiful', which is always a nice way to start the day! We then got the same query from Luca that we did from Massimo – are we married! When we said no, Luca looked at Daryl and...

Jun 5, 2009 - The Cannoli Brothers

Today we hiked from Vernazza to the neighbouring town of Corniglia. Alhough the hike was only about 90 minutes, 60 minutes of it were spent climbing up the man-made rock stairs... It was heavy going and we certainly worked up a sweat! The views on the way were just breathtaking and made the hard work well worth it. We also saw plenty of examples of local flora, including clumps of poppy flowers, which look like crepe paper but feel like silk. The track to Corniglia is a popular one and we passed a number of other hikers on the way,...