Cinque Terre = Fantastico!

Hi there everyone, Morgano here with another update. Last weekend was a long one and we (Alun, Anecia, Esther and I) decided to make the most of it by taking a trip to Italy, in particular to Pisa and the Cinque Terre.
For those of you who haven't heard of the Cinque Terre it is 5 small coastal villages built on steep picturesque cliffs on the north west coast of Italy; from the most northern - (1)Monterosso el Mare, (2)Vernazza, (3)Corniglia, (4)Manarola and (5)Riomaggiore. We flew out of Stansted on Friday evening and arrived in Pisa at around 11pm local time, but still hungry for some Italian cuisine, we found a place in the back streets which was open and were treated to some great Italian food and hospitality - the guy serving us was a champion, he even gave us a garlic pizza on the house.

Next morning it was time to try and figure out the train system in another country. We jumped on a few trains and instead of arriving at our intended village of Manarola(4), the ticket inspector informed us the train wasn't stopping at Manarola and so we found ourselves at the most northern village of Monterosso el Mare (with ticket fine in hand!). We checked out the scenery on the beach side of the village and then caught the train to Manarola. A very very lovely spot. We arrived and our accommodation which was right at the top of the hill, was closed, so we had some lunch and then ascended the mountain again to check in. We stayed in a nice 2 storey villa with a great view of from the top of the village and the coastline. That afternoon we walked along the famous Via del'Amore (lover's walk) to Riomaggiore(5). We checked this place out, had some evening drinks overlooking the coastline whilst the sun set (which is quite late.. about 8pm) and then had some nice Italian fish at La Lanterna, a highly recommended seafood restaurant, and then we walked back along the path in the dark.. tough life!

Next morning we had breakfast at the place we were staying and because our ferry port was shut had to quickly walk again to Riomaggiore to catch the ferry from there. There are lots of pet cats around the villages - we saw one that had just been given a fish from a fisherman - talk about satisfied cats! However because of the rough weather conditions, they had cancelled the next ferry so we instead caught the train to Monterosso(1) and checked out the medieval side of this village. We wandered around until we found ourselves at an amazing spot called the Cuppucino Convent at the top of the village. It was so peaceful and beautiful as we wandered around this clifftop catholic cemetery, a very memorable experience. That is one thing that really amazed me about the Cinque Terre, it was very quiet and surprisingly not a particularly tourist driven region although it apparently gets extremely crowded with tourists later in the year, so we were fortunate! There were some tourists (mostly Italian), but it was still quiet. Next caught a ferry to Vernazza(2), during which it decided to start drizzle, and then fueled by some more Gelato we embarked on our longest trek to Corniglia(3), a really scenic coastal walk which is broken up by a visit to a remote bar at the top of the mountain with more of these amazing views. Halfway along the hike, we came across some cats along with a sign saying "Please feed the cats" and a small hut of tinned cat food that they expected hikers to open for the cats - how strange! We strolled around Corniglia which was nice but nothing particularly unique from the other villages except that this was the only one not accessible from the sea. We then made our way to the train station where we found we first had to descend a ridiculously huge staircase (33 flights, 337 steps apparently). We caught a train back to our home village and had dinner at a traditional Italian restaurant.

On Monday we walked again to Riomaggiore(5) with breakfast in hand and caught a 30 minute boat ride south to Porto Venere. It was a hot day and I got some decent sunburn, which annoyed my workmates in London as it rained through most of Europe over the long weekend! The boat ride was very scenic and Porto Venere is an amazing spot, set high over the coast and a huge bay with historic ruins and a castle. We wondered around and had lunch here, then caught the boat back to Manarola(4) where we walked to a spot to get some nice photos looking back on the village (see the photos), checked out of our little Villa and caught the hour long train back to Pisa. It was about 6pm by then, but there was still plenty of light to check out the leaning tower etc. I quite liked the tower, it leans a lot more than I expected, a very bizzare picture, I found it actually quite hard to photograph because I kept rotating the camera to make it look straight..weird. We then had dinner at a decent pub, followed by our last dose of Gelati, which I proceeded to get all over my face.

Woke up on Tuesday at 3:30am London time in Pisa to catch our plane back to London hopefully in time for me to get to work.. Well, it didn't quite work out, we were delayed for quite a while in immigration and I didn't get into work until about 10:15, but with such a fantastic holiday it was well worth it. Pfew, well I'm tired of writing this, so I'd best be off. Stay tuned for our next travel installment in a few weeks where we will travel to the city of luuurve (Paris). 'Till next time, Morgano! PHOTOS here!

Esther: The Cinque Terre region is famous for it's Basil Pesto Genevose and Cinque Terre white wine. We tried 2 of the wines, not bad at all :) and got a small jar of pesto to use at home. Also in Porto Venere we actually found a 24hr basil pesto vending machine! The food was sooo good - I am really missing Italian food! I am not, however, missing climbing all those steps since all the villages are built from the sea up the cliffs, and there are just stairs everywhere! On another note, thanks to all for your prayers - they have been answered! as I have now got a job and start work on Monday!)