Italy - north to south..

CINQUE TERRE

For the next part of our journey we made our way by train to Cinque Terre on the north coast of Italy. This area has 5 unique villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola & Riomaggiore)  which are all built in amongst the cliffs right on the coast, and the best way to see the towns is by walking between them. We purchased a Cinque Terre Pass each for €10 in La Spezia which allowed us to access all of the hiking tracks and trains for a full day. Unfortunately when we arrived rain had closed some of the track between Corniglia & Rioggamorie but we still were keen to make the most of it.

Monterosso was our first stop and the starting point for our hike. Straight away we got a good idea of why this part of the world was so special. The houses were built right into the cliffs either side of the bay and really stood out being bold colours – reds, oranges, yellows, light greens (it is like they are all colour coordinated!). This was the flattest of the 5 bays so we all couldn’t wait to see what was to come next when we started our hike to Vernazza. This walk was supposed to take 2 hours but we managed to knock it off in 1.5, even with a few downpours on the way. The walk itself was awesome and involved quite a bit of rock hopping. Some parts of the track were really narrow and close to the cliff so you really had to watch your step. We could see how easily the track could get closed as it was steep terrain all of the way. We had some great views coming down into Vernazza, a small peaceful bay surrounded by more colourful houses built into a near vertical cliff. This was only the second town and we were already blown away!

After lunch we headed off again, this time towards Corniglia. Soon after we started it decided to pour down which didn’t stop it from being an enjoyable walk. We had a well deserved drinks break at Corniglia and it was nice to get a bit of shelter from the rain. As the track was closed and it was getting on, we decided to see one more town (via the train) before heading home. We skipped Manarola and went to the first town of Riomaggiore for a look around and a bite to eat. This place is known as the jewel of Cinque Terre and definitely has some charm! Colourful houses are chiselled into the triangle shaped cliffs surrounding this pretty special bay. We explored around a bit and I managed to find a good vantage point for taking photos which I was happy about!

First town - Monterosso

Vernazza

Riomaggiore

Out for some good pasta after a hard day of walking

We visited Manarola the following day and this proved to be the perfect spot to chill out for the afternoon. Once again this town was different from the rest and the bay was more rugged than the rest, being less sheltered from the incoming swell. We went for a swim and I found a good rock to dive off which would have been about 8m. After spending a second day amongst these very cool coastal villages we were sad to leave, and could easily have spent another two days here.

Manarola

FLORENCE

Next stop in Italy was Florence which to be honest, wasn’t that interesting for us. Florence itself was a nice looking city but as we are not really into art museums or architecture, there was not a lot to do. Florence is the home of Italian leather so we spent a fair bit of time browsing through San Lorenzo leather markets where Haylee managed to haggle down the price of a good Italian leather handbag. One full day here was enough for us before we moved onto Rome. 

Sunset in Florence

ROME

It was very hot and humid and I reckon we officially hit summer when we got to Rome. It was hard work walking around in the heat of the day with our backpacks on! We had booked our place to stay through airbnb, and it proved to be a winner. The place was a reasonable price, close to the centre of town and had an amazing host! Amel picked us up from the train station in the centre of Rome, cooked us breakfast every day, washed our clothes for us and told us a few useful things about the city.

I had previously thought of Rome as a very touristy place, overcrowded with people and having some old run down ruins that we had to visit to tick it off our list like every other traveller. I couldn’t have been more wrong! On our first day we visited the Vatican City, officially the smallest country in the world. We spent a couple of hours weaving our way through an impressive array of art and exhibits at the museum which leads to the Sistine Chapel. It was interesting to note that it wasn’t just a museum of Christianity but went back to Egyptian & Roman times (there was even a real mummy dating back to 4000BC!). The Sistine Chapel was good to see and it just showed how much of a genius Michelangelo was. Not only did he paint very realistic paintings on the ceilings of the chapel, but he was also a very intelligent person as his paintings tell various stories of the bible. It was definitely a good call getting an audio-guide as without it we wouldn’t have had much idea about what the paintings meant. St Peters Basilica was another highlight of the day, and it is hard to comprehend that Peter (one of the 12 apostles) is actually buried here! We were able to go under the church to see the tombs of all of the past popes which was also an experience.

Real mummy in the Vatican

Haylee sending Nana Neal a postcard from the Vatican

The next day was a big one! We planned to see all of the other major attractions in the old town of Rome. We paid €12 each for a ticket to see the Coloseum, the Palatine Hill & the Roman Forum which proved to be the best €12 I have spent so far! The Coloseum & Forum were well worth visiting and it just showed how far ahead of their time the Romans were with architecture. The marble remains are in such awesome nick after 2000 plus years (I think my dream home will be built of marble one day!). One thing that impressed me was the amount of information there was to read up on as we made our way around. It was a bit of a pity that some of the ruins haven’t been preserved to well. This is probably a money issue as there are so many ruins in Rome that it would cost a fortune to look after every single one. 

Inside the Colosseum

The Pantheon in pretty good condition after 2000 years

Haylee at one of the many fountains in Rome - drinkable water even!

Nice sit down at the Spanish Steps after a long day

This whole ‘Rome’ experience really opened my eyes and left me with a heap of questions still left to be answered. This city really is something special and well & truly exceeded my expectations. We would have loved to spend some more time here if we had known how good it was.

AMALFI COAST
Our last stop in Italy (for now) was the Amalfi Coast – a rugged coastline with a few bays, beaches & towns spread in amongst some near vertical cliffs. We stayed in a town called Salerno (south of the coast) as it wasn’t quite as pricey as other places & was easily accessible by train. It proved to be an interesting bus ride to get from Salerno to the main towns of Amalfi & Postiano during our stay. At one point our bus had a line of traffic behind it and met two buses coming towards it at a very narrow 90 degree bend. It took about half an hour to get going again. What made us laugh was all of the scooters weaving their way through gaps to get past – not helping the situation at all. Hats off to the driver who had to negotiate some tight gaps – even with the scooters trying to get through!

Traffic jam in the Amalfi - every man for himself!

Greek ruins at Paestrum - 30mins by train from Salerno.

 We managed to get in a couple of decent walks during our stay, our favourite being the walk down from Ravello (way up in the mountains) down to Amalfi on the coast. Up in Ravello I saw the biggest lemons I had ever seen in my life. Lemons grow very well in the region and because of this they specialise in making limoncello – a lemon liqueur that is quite strong by itself but would probably be tasty with some added soda water or lemonade. We walked down some very steep hills past lines of lemon groves that have been terraced into the hillside – they say that Italians don’t waste any space and this was a prime example!

Up at Ravello before the big walk down.

Lemons on roids

Lemons growing everywhere on the hills - no space wasted!

How did this place get a building permit??

Awesome view of Postiano

 

On our last day on the coast we found the most perfect little beach to relax at for the day. It was very hot & humid and after another walk in the morning we needed some cooling down when we stumbled upon Arienzo beach hidden away down some steps from the road. It was so hot that we had to make a makeshift shelter from the heat using sticks and Haylee’s sarong. The water was so clear and nice to swim in I could have stayed in all day! There was even a good sized cliff to do some diving from. Even though it involved a bit of rock climbing to get up to it was still good fun.

Sheltering from the sun & keeping off the hot rocks..

A little piece of paradise we stumbled across

Italy has been awesome and is my new favourite from our trip (so far). We are off to Croatia next so stay tuned...