Thighs and Buns of Steel

Monterosso al Mare
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We decided over breakfast on our last day in Piedmont to drive the tin can down the motorway to our next stop rather than catch trains (so much more civilised than public transport).

The other guests at 'Cascina Sant Eufemia' devised a route for us based on food (don't you just love Italians?), and after no time at all we were screaming down the highway to get the best foccaccia stuffed with cheese in Italy. We drove over the hill to Portofino to try and spot some celebrities, but all we saw were American and Japanese tourists arriving en masse on big tourist boats (boo), pretty place though.

Steep climb (feel the burn baby!)
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We eventually arrived battle weary (after getting really lost in the city of La Spezia in the middle of a storm - not my fault this time, we didn't have a map and were kind of winging it) and hungry in Riomaggiore, the southernmost city of the Cinque Terra.

For those of you who don't know, the Cinque Terra are 5 villages on the west coast of Italy just above Tuscany. The villages and the views along the coast are absolutely stunning, multicoloured houses perched on cliffs overlooking the ocean as far as the eye can see, surrounded by olive groves, lemon trees (limoncello anyone?) and vineyards. When we upload the photos you will be able to see for yourselves.

The Cinque Terra coastline
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We spent 4 days 'hiking' between the 5 villages and catching the local trains back. You can do the entire stretch in 8 hours, but when you're on holiday for a year, what's the hurry??

Our village, Riomaggiore, was a one-street town. The street ran directly from the sea up in to the hills, and the houses tumble down the hills on either side of the street. We didn't count, but we reckon there were about 150 steps heading up to our place, winding through people's backyards, past their front doors and most amusingly past their washing lines. Mens undies hanging directly in front of your face is not exactly what you want to see first thing in the morning. But at least they were clean I suppose (which is more than I can say for Simon's undies now that he's personally handwashing them).

View of Vernazza
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We stayed in a house owned by a lady called Lorenza which had an apartment downstairs that wasn't being used while we were there. Poor old Lorenza said we could use the downstairs apartment to make ourselves coffee in the mornings for breakfast. However, we stretched her invitation just a little and instead used the kitchen to cook up a storm most nights, and seconded most of the crockery and cutlery to have breakfasts out on our deck :) The deck attached to our room had incredible views over the sea and the edge of the village. We spent many an afternoon sitting out on the deck, sipping wine and whiling away the time. In fact, one day we had a holiday from our holiday (it's exhausting you know?), and the deck was pretty much the only sight that we saw that day.

Small alley in the village of Vernazza
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Heading north from Riomaggiore, you walk the 'lovers path', named so (we think) because of the turbulent seas smashing on the rocks just below (or is that just our relationship...?). The lovers path leads to Manarolo which to our shame we didn't even stop in. It looked kind of like Riomaggiore only smaller and it was cold.

Heading on over the hills from Manarolo is the little village of Corniglia, again multicoloured houses perched on the cliffs, but this time on a promontory facing inland toward their olive groves and vineyards. We had to climb 382 steps to get up to the village (ouch!) so to recover we spent some time in the piazza outside the village church listening to the villagers praise the lord (hallelujiah!), we didn't go in for fear of Simon being struck down by lightning.

Tracey on the lovers path (note seas crashing on rocks below)
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The walk from Corniglia to the next village Vernazza was even harder than tackling the 382 steps, but well worth the hike to arrive at what I think is the most beautiful of the 5 villages. Vernazza is again, multicoloured houses on cliffs, but it is arranged around a tiny harbour, and we had our best meal in the Cinque Terra there which probably helped it get to the top of the 'Ashbo Cinque Terra League'. A local restaurant 'La Gambero Rosso' is well known for it's seafood and in particular its 'special seafood pasta sauce' which I would normally avoid (anything with 'special' or 'secret' in the title is a no-go) but which was absolutely delicious at the end of a tough hike and washed down with a caraffe (the friend of budget travellers around the world) of vino rosso della casa.

Tracey at the start of the 'lovers' path'
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The last village Monterosso al Mare was probably the largest of the 5, and therefore the most touristy. Every restaurant had a special 'touristico' menu and looked slightly desperate and sad, so we burned through pretty quickly and back to 'Casa Lorenza' for dinner.

Some of the walks were really hardcore coming from a life of tubes and cars in London. Simon's calves were killing him and my butt cheeks were in agony for most of our time there (and that's alot of hurt).

The only downside to the Cinque Terra is that it is very very touristy, so many of the restaurants cook what they think tourists want to eat (I had enough spaghetti bog in my uni days thank you very much), also there were a lot of Australian tourists of the Kath & Kim ilk around which was amusing, but a little hard on the eardrums.

Riomaggiore - our home village
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In saying that I wouldn't have missed it for the world, because it is so so beautiful.

Still no photos to upload...not because we can't find a place that will let us, but we left our camera under the bed in Venice (schoolboy error) and the hotel is sending it on to our hotel in Rome for us...maybe one day soon you'll get to see our cheeky faces again and some of the sights we've seen so far. (Arrived in Rome - camera back PHEW - photos uploaded :) )

Simon's going to write the blog on Venice, as we both agreed he has a better command of the dictionary than me and'awesome', 'nice' and 'sweet' wouldn't quite sum up our time in Venice. However, he's up in our apartment (we're in Tuscany at the moment) cooking chicken stock, so it'll have to wait. It's a tough life :)

Simon on our balcony overlooking Riomaggiore in team Zissou hat cracking open a bottle of Piedmont wine
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T&S