3 Days on the Med

Riomaggiore
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Time to leave the fast and furious city of Rome.  Its an exciting city but it was good to get going again on the train.  Got to Riomaggiore and found our little pension that we had booked.  It was quite delightful and just as we had imagined (although the photo doesn't really do it justice).  The village of Riomaggiore is set up a little from the coast and the main street is quite steep.  There's everything you could ever need to be had in the village and plenty of cafes as well!!  It certainly felt good to be in the fresh sea air as we wandered around the village.  So many little side streets to check out and of course all the little shops.

Fishing boats at Riomaggiore.
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Next two days we spent walking the tracks of Cinque Terre.  The Manarolo to Corniglia coastal route was closed so we had to do the uphill inland route and what a slog that was.  Uphill the whole way for what seemed like ages and it was so hot and humid in amongst all the citrus and olive groves and then the vineyards (sounds idyllic doesn't it but that soon wears off after a little while!!)  The tracks are old mule tracks and in some places so narrow I don't know how two people would pass without one toppling over.  There are loads of sets of steps on the tracks and the Italians build them so deep - fine for Tony with long legs!!!!  We met a few people at points on the tracks but basically it was pretty quiet - that is until you get down to the villages and suddenly there's heaps of kids and tourists.  Monterosso is the most northern village on the walk and probably the most tourist-oriented one.  It's right on the coast with a lovely little beach where we spent some time lying in the sun after having a bit of a paddle.  The weather was certainly suitable for swimming if we had brought our togs.  But what struck us was just how fresh the air was.  The Meditteranean is certainly an awesome place and we would love to come back again some time.

At the start of the Cinque Terre walk.
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At the end of each day we got the train back to Riomaggiore and flopped on our bed until we had recovered then a couple of the nights we actually cooked our own dinner (after no cooking for five weeks) - seeing all the different foods was quite inspiring really and it felt good to have some home-cooked food!!  The last night we went to a lovely little trattoria where Tony had his fill of freshly caught and local fish.

We felt quite sorry to leave here but its been a fantastic few days - anyway onwards to Florence!!