Italian Riviera

Tim’s parents arrived on Thursday, May 31. Ben was surprised and happy to see them. The next day, we left for the sea. We had a few places we planned to visit, so we stayed in a quaint little town in between, called Sestri Levante. We always seem to get a late start when we travel, trying to work around nap time and P90X. So, after the two hour trip, we arrived late afternoon. Our hotel, Hotel Genova, was cute, close to the train station, and very close to the beach. It had a nice rooftop terrace with beautiful views. After arriving, we had time to dip feet in the sea, get gelato, and walk the long promenade along the shore before dinner.

Saturday, we went to the Cinque Terre, the “five lands”. This area was just south of where we were staying. We took the train to the southernmost of the five cities. The coastline here is rocky and steep. The towns are built into the sides of the mountains, making them very picturesque. They tiered off the farmland for grapes, tomatoes, olive groves, and fruit trees. The streets are a pain to walk up, but always reward you with views. The train trips, unfortunately, are mostly through tunnels. We walked from the first to the second town, and took the train to each of the others. They had bad flooding last October, and some of the hiking trails were washed out. The towns had varying levels of damage, really bad in two of them, but they seem to have recovered. We did not notice any signs of the flood.

 1st town Riomaggiore. We walked up a steep hill through the town, then walked 20 minutes along the coast to the 2nd town.

 My camera didn't pick up the blue of the water as much as I would have liked, but this is a good one.

 This hat did not last long.

2nd town Manarola. This was the most picturesque of the towns.  We took an hour long walk through the tiered orchard, that ended with a spectacular view of the town.

  

 The tiers for growing grapes, tomatoes, and fruit and olive trees.

3rd town Corniglia, was up on a hill so we opted to take a shuttle.  We did some wine tasting.

4th town Vernazza was a cute little town to walk through from the train station to the water and back.

5th town Monterosso al Mare. The largest of the 5 towns, where we ended our day and had dinner.

 Ben ate the middle part of the bread, then swung the crust around like a helicopter.

Sunday, we took the train to Santa Margherita Ligure, another seaside town. My favorite thing here was the garden with several different types of palm trees. Late afternoon, we took a bus to Portofino, stopping at a beach along the way. Portofino is a very wealthy town, with yachts anchored out front. My favorite thing here was the gelato on the main piazza.

Along the waterfront

 The church and palm tree garden

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 On the way to Portofino, looking back to Santa Margherita, and stopping at another beach.

 Portofino

 Beautiful condos built into the cliffs on the shore.

 Not really the edge.

 Waiting for the bus back.  Ben makes this face for a couple days, we think he's getting a tooth, and then nothing.  Still only 2 teeth.