Cinque Terre, Italian Riviera

I had a very enjoyable month on the farm in Tuscany, working harder than I usually do, which did me no harm at all. It was hot and sunny every day. All good things come to an end though so it was goodbye to the animals and to Lora and Marco.

 Oh those puppies were just the cutest things. They will be in their new homes by now.

I was heading back to Basel with a stop to see the Cinque Terre, five historic villages also known as the Italian Riviera. I went by train via Pisa and went through the village of Carrara, where the famous Italian marble is quarried from mountains that look like they are snow covered.

 Photos taken from the train and not much good.

I was staying in a town called La Spezia, at the less expensive end of the Cinque Terre. There was a lot of marble around.

 I started off doing a half day boat trip along the coast. The boat calls in at each of the villages and you can get off and spend time wherever you want. I stayed on until the last village, Monterosso and had an hour or so wandering round there.

 Many Italian and French beaches look like this - you have to pay for a chair and sunshade

Except for a tiny free spot where people like me sit.

I'm also interested in cemeteries...

and on hot days, Italian sorbet is just right

The next day I bought a train pass, which again gave the option of walking between villages. The Cinque Terre is another UNESCO site but in this case the maintenance of the tracks isn't keeping up with the huge number of visitors. Evidently there were big storms two years ago that wiped out a lot of the tracks and make-shift ones were put in that go up and over the hills rather than around them. However all the tourist information makes no reference to this and the times and descriptions are nothing like the reality. I set out to on what was described as an easy 25 minute walk around the coast and it took nearly an hour and a half and was quite precarious. Spectacular though. I got off the train at Riomaggiore...

and walked to Manarola

 Start of the track, centre

 An easier way to make the trip

 Ropes and hiking boots probably would have been better than my Fitflops.

 I gave up on the idea of walking further after that and joined the throngs looking for coffee at Manarola, before returning to the train station. There are an incredible number of people trying to get on the trains, hundreds all the time. Fortunately there are quite a few trains.

I also wanted to go a bit further north to see Portofino, so got the train on to Levanto, where there was another private beach that irked me.

 Then another train took me to Santa Margherita Ligure, a very fancy town where there's a bus to Portofino.

 Christopher Columbus was from around here.

 The most sparkly church I've ever seen. Chandeliers everywhere, lovely outside.

 I had my first paddle in the very warm, clear Mediterranean here.

 Then took a fairly dodgy bus ride to the very upmarket Portofino

 Not expecting St Tropez Kiwi here

I had to buy a small box of plasters here. It cost Euro 8.50. I saw the same box in Germany later for 85c. This view from the bus on the way back did make me think that this is what Abel Tasman National Park could look like, if it was ever sold off. It's not a dissimilar coastline.

I stopped off at another Cinque Terre village, Vernazzo, on the way back. It was less polished, and I liked it for that. The next day I got an early train to Milan, where they always have interesting art in the train station, then through the mountains back to Basel.