Cinque Terre
29.05.2011
Driving through the northern Italian province of Tuscany was a nice change from the hectic pace of Rome. We spent a night in Siena and thanks to the GPS once again got our seven metre motor home stuck up some Roman no go zone. Had to negotiate a ten point turn and we think we got a ticket as well. Stayed another night at a beautiful medieval town full of high rise buildings called San Gimignano.
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Very very nice, full of tourists but the food once again was a highlight. The scenery is postcard material.
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The surprise so far in Italy has been a small coastal town called Levanto. The first thing was it has a surf beach and a real surf culture. About sixty board riders spread over two beaches. It has the usual restaurants but is not over run with tourism. We wanted a real Italian experience and for us Levanto has been it. The locals are very family orientated and spend every afternoon socialising in the parks and bars and letting the kids run riot everywhere. The beach is great and free. We have used Levanto as a base for walking the Cinque Terre but have enjoyed it much the same. The buildings are decorated beautifully.

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The Cinque Terre is a national park that is formed around five villages that seem to just hang off the side of cliffs before falling into the sea. They are linked by paths that climb the mountains and although they are separated by a rail journey that takes little more than five minutes between villages, the walks take an average two hours.

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The walks are no pushover but the views are worth it. Over a five day stay Patti and I have managed to walk the lot but the boys made about two decent attempts . I have to say though, while I was having a coronary they were jogging up the hills and steps without breaking a sweat. Some of the climbs have literally thousands of steps and are generally mountain goat territory. I was telling them that they call these paths the “walk of the God’s” and at times I thought I’d be meeting one personally soon enough by the way I was feeling.
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Every bottle of Chianti and beer that I had consumed was pouring from my pores and the ghost of every salami, cheese and pizza I had eaten was there to mock me mercilessly. Patti had no such demons of course.
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Posted by mike1967 10:12 Comments (1)