Gone Since November: Italy--what a wonderful place!

Cinque Terre

Five fishing villages on the coastline of Italy decided to get together and organize an association between the towns for tourists to come and hike, boat and enjoy the views. We decided to stop in this area as we crossed Italy as people have told us it was one of their favourite parts of Italy. Boy were they right!

We stayed two days in Riomaggorie in an apartment. We stayed in an apartment which was fun as the roads of the town were steep, as the towns are all built on the side of the mountain, and we had to climb up incredibly steep steps inside the building to get to our room. Ang was lucky enough that she could squeak right under the low ceiling in the stairwell.

There is a pathway along the water that allows people to walk between the five towns. The train lines also connect the five towns. The travel time on the train between villages is two to five minutes with a total distance of 10km between the two ends of the towns making the travel time between the towns a quick trip.

We were going to walk from Riomaggorie to the other towns along the water, but the trails linking the towns on the waterfront pathway were all closed. We were not sure if this was due to poor conditions or maybe just trying to protect the path for later in the high tourist season. We walked along the path to the town next to ours, Manarola, which was only a quite 20 minute walk along a very nice path--looking right out over the ocean! We then had to take a train to get to the next village because the path was closed, so we took the train all the way to the end (Monterosso) and started our walk back to Riomaggiore.

The walk between Montorosso and Vernazza was two hours up and down the hillside with some great view of the water and the villages. The walks were fairly easy, but we saw some people walking in slippers and moccasins which would make the trip a little more difficult. We saw one sign at one end of the trails that had a picture of a high heeled shoe with a slash through it, which means people must try to hike in stilettos.

We took the train back to Riomaggorie as the weather changed from bad to worse and decided to enjoy some more excellent Italian cooking. We are really enjoying the thin crust pizza and desserts. One of the great desserts we had was chocolate filled focaccia, which was excellent. Sampling the red wines with every meal is another fantastic part of time in Italy we have enjoyed.

We didn't get the best weather in Cinque Terre, but did still really enjoy these little villages. We will be back when there is more sunshine!!

View overlooking Manarola, the second town on the coast. Look at how packed all the houses are--all the space is used! Then they have a nice area for gardening on the other side.

Pic taken as we are walking the oceanfront path outside of Manarola. Beautiful views!

This is a pic of our street. Hard to appreciate the incline of the hill, but boy did you feel it walking up!

Pic taken from the waterfront path at the other end of the trail, outside of Monterosso.

View from above, as we are hiking from Monterosso to Vernazza. You get some very nice views of the coastline from up there!

Venice

We had planned to travel to Venice from Riomaggoire on the Sunday that the Italian train services decided to have a one day workers strike. The strike was not a full cancellation of services but most of the trains were cancelled allowing travelers to get to where they wanted to go with less flexibility.

Our original train plan was to travel from Riomaggorie to Pisa, Florence and north to reach Venice. With the strike mandated train schedule, we had to backtrack to Genoa, travel north to Milan and then east to Venice. In the end the revised route was fantastic as the view from Genoa to Venice was better than expected. The best part was the ride between Milan to Venice featured views of the Italian Alps to the north beyond the towns situated on the rolling mountains. It made for a pleasant trip considering the extra hassle and potential unexpected problems we may have faced, the trip worked out alright.

The train into Venice was different as no cars used in the main part of Venice. The train station is located at the western end of the main island of Venice, which means travelers can get to the island with public transportation.

We decided to stay at a hotel on the island of Lido, located to the west of the main island. The transport system is Venice is excellent and since there are no cars or buses allowed, its all by boat! They are called vaporettes and they run everywhere around the city, all the time. It is quite fun to hope on a boat and explore the island from one end to the next.

Walking around the town and trying not to get to lost in the side streets was enjoyable, as simple as that seems. The city is very beautiful and even though we had seen many pictures of Venice and heard how different it is from other cities, we were really impressed with it. We think it’s a city that every person should visit when travelling to Italy as it is a great place. It is very busy with travelers in the main parts of the city even during the end of April. We could not imagine what a congested place the city must be during the summer months!