Chalking up Cinque Terre.

After all the wine of Burgundy we decided to skip our initial destination in Italy (the wine regions of the north-west) and head straight for the Cinque Terre. This meant leaving Beaune at around 10PM and getting into the Cinque Terre after lunch the next day. It also meant the worst overnight bus trip so far. While the trains in France are first rate, the buses leave a lot to be desired. They could even learn a thing or two from Morocco buses. But, as usual, the beauty of the place we arrived in washed away the disgruntled feelings that travelling there often created. The five villages known as the Cinque Terre on Italy’s north western coast contain some simply breathtaking coastline. Having been unable to book any accommodation (everything online was booked out) we were a little worried about having o sleep on the beach. As usual, there was plenty of accommodation available and we ended up in a small apartment up a lot of steps, well compensated by a beautiful view. The view became truly spectacular on the first night as we were treated to a fireworks display by mother nature (see above photo). Lightening sparked down to the sea out in front of us as we sipped our Chianti and learnt about fraternities from our American housemates.

Day two saw us off to walk the famous path along the Cinque Terre, our only aim to get further along the walk than Adam. Taking the advice of the exhausted Americans who’d walked the whole thing the day before we left out the last village and walked back from Venazzo (to our base in Riomaggiore). The weather was great (after an initial shaky start due to some rain) and the walk splendid, and with plenty of time we stopped off occasionally for a swim to cool us down. Our first real meal in Italy was lunch, in a small Enotecca where we messed up the ordering and finished the meal with antipasti. The waiter didn’t mind and the food was delicious.

After quite a few hours in the sun during the hike and on our local beach (more like a shore covered in slightly flat, really big stones) we decided to head off to a real beach the next day. It was a quick visit to the Cinque Terre but Italy was more than 5 little villages.