Genova to the Cinque Terre

We left Nice earlier than expected.
It meant a stopover in Ventimiglia- the first Italian town on our tour. It was a little gem- a smallish town with a good beach and a lovely seaside trattoria. Palm trees, gum trees, a pebbly beach and old women who (mostly) kept their gear on. A couple of beers, a bowl of gnocchi and a salad for the little woman! Very Italian- I felt like going off and having a game of cards and a smoke with the old men on the foreshore. Settled for a gelati instead- Rhonda's mission is to sample as much of the gelati on offer as is humanly possible in 5 weeks. Might have to pay excess baggage on the way home!

Then to Genova/Genoa. Home of Christopher Columbus, and don't they let you know about it! It is a remarkable city, in many ways as grand as Paris, but a little tatty around the edges lately. They have been a formidable power in this part of the world- very good traders and palace-builders. There are Palaces everywhere, mostly serving as museums now.

After a pleasant afternoon & evening taking in the sights and getting hopelessly lost, (a touch of Macer's Random Tours remained from France) we caught the early train along the Ligurian coast to Manarola, the loveliest village in the Cinque Terre, according to Rhonda who is an authority on these things.

As you can see, it is a very pretty village dating back to the 1300's, its inhabitants eking out a living from fishing, grape and olive production, and fleecing gullible Western tourists. Good luck to them- they have done it tough!

Every square inch of ground is accounted for here- the alleyways are impossibly narrow- there are no cars allowed in town, mainly because they can't turn around even if they could fit into the one main street, which is lined with the fishing boats pulled up outside their owners' houses like cars at Newstead footy ground. Hundreds of them.

Rhonda's instant assessment of Manarola: The food, the old Italian couples with bandy legs, the gelati, the local food, the bells getting you up in the morning and steep climbs that would keep a physio in work for life!

Three days here will not be difficult...

Next: Things get tough in the CQ