Day 28 - Cinque Terre & Lerici

Rise & Shine! We were on the 8am train to Monterosso this morning to do the 2 hour trek to Verragio (2 of the 5 Terre) You could just imagine this place chocka block in Summer-time because it is THAT BEAUTIFUL! The water is just SO inviting, you can’t beat the Mediterranean.

When we were having a look around the furthest north of the Cinque Terre towns, I was getting a bit nervous because we saw people geared up in full on hiking gear with back packs, hydration packs and walking poles… surely this track we were about to embark on couldn’t be that bad…. Could it? We’d be ok in regular clothes and our Nikes…wouldn’t we? Me with my regular handbag slung over my shoulder and my necklace swinging off my neck?

The first half an hour was so grueling I thought my soul was going to pop out of my body, sprout wings and fly right up to heaven. It was stair case after stair case of steep narrow stairs with an incline a shaving off a 90° angle it was like ì all the way. If I was at a gym, no personal trainer in the world could have motivated me to keep going on that stair master, I would have just clocked him.

Oh yeah, feeling the pain

After that, the intensity petered out a bit (don’t get me wrong, it was still pretty full on, but more in an awesome way than a “OMG I’m about to have a heart attack” kind of way). The kids were so impressed they couldn’t believe we were actually doing this, they kept saying “are we really doing this, or am I dreaming?”

Needless to say, the views were just breathtaking (or was that my unfitness taking my breath away?) After an hour of up and down and around on some pretty narrow tracks, I was starting to get nervous about the descent on the other side. It was OK though. Nic and Liv were a bit worried because their legs were ‘wobbly’ but Ben and I helped them down and it was very exhilarating for us to have achieved that. Would never have thought…

This is Verrazzo and that little bay just invited my children in for a swim

The best part of the day was yet to happen for the kids. We had worked up quite a sweat and the sun was shining and the Mediterranean was calling, so we bought them bathers and a towel and let them go in for a swim.  

 All they kept saying was “Best day ever” I think a few events have been bumped down the Top Ten list to make room at the top. After a couple of hours in the water (and a large Peroni down the gullet for Mum & Dad) we caught the train back to our hotel to have a quick shower and head back out.

Our first time touching a sea urchin

BEST DAY EVER!

This time, we caught a bus to Lerici in hope of visiting the Castello on the hill which also houses a Paleontology museum. On the bus we got to see quite a bit of La Spezia and it’s nothing really to write home about – so I wont.

Lerici on the other hand…WOW. How gorgeous. Here is a beautiful little unimposing seaside village, nestled in among some hill tops with a medieval castle making it’s mark up on the main hill top of Lerici and another on the other end of the cove at San Terranzo. They must have been protecting this cove back in the day.

We climbed the 200 odd stairs up to the Castle (as if we needed THAT today!) and found the castle closed :(

How disappointing. Apparently because of Easter (you know; the event that happened days and days ago?) and the fact that they had had a few landslides over winter (you know; the season before this current one?) They were closed. The guy in the coffee shop that was explaining this to us shrugged his shoulders and said “You know how we Italians are, we are not in too much of a rush for anything, even the elevator has been broken since last summer, Ah well…” Yeah, no worries coppa, we just killed ourselves to get here at a reasonable hour for nothing!

Instead, we sat on the marina just enjoying the view. In fact it was just what we needed. The kids even took a nap on one of the floating docks. 

A crab nearly snipped Olivia's toe, this is Ben trying to get it... but it got away

Sunset in Lirici

We hung around like this for 2 hours, just chilling, and then we went into a bar for some refreshments. Went out for dinner and caught a bus home.

We were all in bed asleep by a reasonable hour (10pm) It was a big enough day to almost feel like two. The kids kept saying on the bus ride back to the apartment “Did we really climb a mountain this morning?” They still couldn’t believe we had done that at the Cinque Terre.

Best Day.

;) 

Day 27 - Nice to La Spezia

We made a point of getting an early start today because we thought we could use the time to stop in along the French Riviera on our way to La Spezia. When we put the destination into the GPS selecting to take the scenic route (not the motorway) it told us it would take 8 hours and we wouldn’t be in La Spezia until dinner time! According to Google Maps, this was only going to take us 3.5 hours! We decided we would take the scenic route until Monaco and then take the Motorway after that. As expected, the Riviera was beautiful and the coastal towns just so picturesque, especially when there was a castle on the hill. Beautiful.

The kids were excited at breakfast because when they brought the hot chocolates out, they both squealed "Nonno!" ... look at the hairdo on the face...

First time touching Mediterranean water

Monaco was interesting, you could tell there was some BIG money there just from all the cars on the roads and the luxury liners in the bay. 

Very French buildings

Moving forward we got onto the Motorway and were wrapped that we still got to see the coast line (in between the tunnels). San Remo looked like a lovely little place, so we decided to pull in for some lunch. When we got out of the car, our GPS said we had 2.5 hours to get to La Spezia, so why not? We had plenty of time.

San Remo Marina

Olivia is saving up to buy this car one day

Lunch was great, except for all the bloody Morachini that kept hassling me to buy their stuff. I mean, they come right up to you as your eating your lunch, in the middle of a conversation with people and talk right over you “hallo, bon jour, bon giorno”, they have to cover all their bases. And then after you shoo them away like they’re an annoying blow fly in the outback, they insist, “very good price for you lady” and although you may find it hard to believe, I actually don’t even look at their goods it’s that annoying. I just want to yell at them “If I want a bloody bag, I’ll go find a bloody bag, now bugger off!!!”  Can’t imagine they’d sell much, I never see anyone buying…

On we go, back onto the motorway, by now it was 3:30 and theoretically we should be in La Spezia by 6pm, right? WRONG! Not 2 minutes down the road and the traffic came to a screeching halt. I don’t know whether this was the post Easter break traffic of everyone going home or if this was normal fare, but we drove for the next 4 hours at between 5 and 10km per hour.

O

M

G

From San Remo until we got to the other side of Genoa we were stuck in the longest traffic jam we’ve ever been in, in our lives. I think I would have preferred an acupuncture treatment on my eyeballs.

Once we got through Genoa, our final hour became our final 50 minutes as Ben tried to make up for lost time. BTW he’s loving this driving gig over here. You can speed and be aggressive on the roads as much as you want, he feels right at home! Even the Italian motorists move aside for him!

When we arrived at our Hotel we were pleasantly surprised to have a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite right down the road from the railway station. Very handy.

By now, it was 9pm (and we didn’t want to take the 8 hour scenic route because it was too long, remember….) we went out to grab a quick pizza before retiring for the night. Had one of the best Margheritas EVA. La Spezia is not a nice looking town… a bit dodgy….I scare…. But a handy place to be to see some of the most spectacular country side in Italy… but more on that tomorrow

;)