October 20-25
Monterosso is a sweet, twisty little place stuck on some steep hills beside the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Both Google Maps and my gps map app agreed as to where our hotel was, and were both wrong, but we found it anyway. Very comfortable, and with the Gold Medal breakfast so far.
The town of Monterosso is the most northern in a series of similar, but unique, towns called the Cinque Terra (5 lands). In between are world-famous walking/hiking trails. During Mussolini's day, tunnels were blasted through the rugged terrain further connecting the towns by train, and also to the outside world. Later, roads were added.
On our first day we hiked to Vernazza. Hiked is sort of a misnomer, as half of the way involves climbing stairs up, and the next half is climbing stairs back down, and the third half is a regular rugged trail. I think there was a 4th half as well, and maybe a 5th. It was only 2.5 km, but took us three hours. I haven't thought about my knees in months, but this "walk" did them in. Very beautiful, though.
After getting to Vernazza, we strolled about gawking and taking pictures, then caught the train down to the southernmost town, Riomaggiore. The train took us home after that.
The next day we trained down to Manarola, and gave it the same treatment, followed by a swim in the Med. Is that the same as name dropping, I wonder?
Corniglia was the final town to visit. There, we went as far as we could on the closed coastal trail towards Manarola. It was a nice walk by the sea. We then climbed a million steps or two up to the tiny, non-coastal town. The guide books were correct about much smaller crowds. Had some kick-ass gelato there, then train rode home.
Time then, to move on to Rapallo for one night. No real reason, except I saw pictures of it that looked pretty, and it's halfway to our final destination of Genoa. The train tickets remained a bargain, but there was a warning that our train had a "delay 2," whatever that means. So we sat, hoping for the 10:07 regular time, and it showed up precisely as promised.
Rapallo is a very sweet, resort style town. Lots of small shops and eateries, and a nice promenade by the sea. It is our first Italian stop that doesn't cater to out-of-country visitors. It was bustling like a beehive when we arrived, but about 2pm it was as if a switch was thrown, and everybody vanished and everything closed. It was creepy. The switch flipped back late in the afternoon and all was hustling again. Final shutdown was 7pm-ish, but with the bars and eateries just getting started. Italian time.
Rapallo was just a one-night stand, then on to Genoa for the final week. It's a major city.
We were right in the Old Town, amidst the skinny, zigzag alleyways. The original plan for this stay was to take things as they came. Helen decided that she didn't want to miss anything, so that idea went out the window.
Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Monterosso, and Rapallo all had good wifi, but our Genoa place did not. It did downstairs, but our room was five floors above that. The signal where we were was weak, slow, and intermittent. Only the cruise ship was worse, and that only because we won't pay their rates.
Monterosso is a sweet, twisty little place stuck on some steep hills beside the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Both Google Maps and my gps map app agreed as to where our hotel was, and were both wrong, but we found it anyway. Very comfortable, and with the Gold Medal breakfast so far.
The town of Monterosso is the most northern in a series of similar, but unique, towns called the Cinque Terra (5 lands). In between are world-famous walking/hiking trails. During Mussolini's day, tunnels were blasted through the rugged terrain further connecting the towns by train, and also to the outside world. Later, roads were added.
On our first day we hiked to Vernazza. Hiked is sort of a misnomer, as half of the way involves climbing stairs up, and the next half is climbing stairs back down, and the third half is a regular rugged trail. I think there was a 4th half as well, and maybe a 5th. It was only 2.5 km, but took us three hours. I haven't thought about my knees in months, but this "walk" did them in. Very beautiful, though.
After getting to Vernazza, we strolled about gawking and taking pictures, then caught the train down to the southernmost town, Riomaggiore. The train took us home after that.
The next day we trained down to Manarola, and gave it the same treatment, followed by a swim in the Med. Is that the same as name dropping, I wonder?
Corniglia was the final town to visit. There, we went as far as we could on the closed coastal trail towards Manarola. It was a nice walk by the sea. We then climbed a million steps or two up to the tiny, non-coastal town. The guide books were correct about much smaller crowds. Had some kick-ass gelato there, then train rode home.
Time then, to move on to Rapallo for one night. No real reason, except I saw pictures of it that looked pretty, and it's halfway to our final destination of Genoa. The train tickets remained a bargain, but there was a warning that our train had a "delay 2," whatever that means. So we sat, hoping for the 10:07 regular time, and it showed up precisely as promised.
Rapallo is a very sweet, resort style town. Lots of small shops and eateries, and a nice promenade by the sea. It is our first Italian stop that doesn't cater to out-of-country visitors. It was bustling like a beehive when we arrived, but about 2pm it was as if a switch was thrown, and everybody vanished and everything closed. It was creepy. The switch flipped back late in the afternoon and all was hustling again. Final shutdown was 7pm-ish, but with the bars and eateries just getting started. Italian time.
Rapallo was just a one-night stand, then on to Genoa for the final week. It's a major city.
We were right in the Old Town, amidst the skinny, zigzag alleyways. The original plan for this stay was to take things as they came. Helen decided that she didn't want to miss anything, so that idea went out the window.
Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Monterosso, and Rapallo all had good wifi, but our Genoa place did not. It did downstairs, but our room was five floors above that. The signal where we were was weak, slow, and intermittent. Only the cruise ship was worse, and that only because we won't pay their rates.
In the middle of our week I ordered Helen's
new iphone, and an Apple TV box. I did that down in the breakfast
room where the internet worked fine.
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