Some more Italy

From Turin we headed down to the Cinque Terre, a group of five small towns clinging to the cliffs along the Italian riviera. We based ourselves in a town called Rapallo, just north of the Cinque Terre.

Rapallo

We walked between all five towns over two days. We walked from Riomaggiore, the southern-most town to Corniglia, the middle town on the first day. This was an enjoyable walk with beautiful views of the coastline, particularly amazing with rough seas sending waves crashing into breakwaters.

Manarola

On the second day we walked from Corniglia to Monterosso, the northern-most town. This was a much tougher walk, 7km in total with lots and lots of steps. We were quite happy to reach Monterosso and enjoy a gelato and lots of water.

Vernazza

We headed back to Florence to catch up with our friend Teresa and retrieve the bags of our things that we had left behind. A large part of time was spent trying to get all of our belongings into our bags and within the airlines’ weight limits. It was a challenge, but we managed it… just!

Florence is one of our favourite cities. It has beautiful buildings and great shopping. We had to restrict ourselves due to the above mentioned space and weight issues, but Susan still managed to find some very nice shoes to buy.

While in Florence, we also took a daytrip to Panzano in Chianti to enjoy a fantastic Tuscan lunch with a nice local wine, finished by the usual homemade limoncello!

Us at the top of the cupola of the Duomo

We are currently staying on Lake Como at Menaggio in a little apartment overlooking the lake. We’ve had a couple of days of rain and it’s somewhat cooler here than the weather we’ve been having. However, today turned out beautifully so we caught the ferry across to Bellagio and had a walk around. No sightings of George just yet…

View from the ferry looking towards Menaggio

Trains, bikes and automobiles

We were quite sad to leave Turkey as it was an amazing place and definitely one of the highlights of our trip. However, we were also happy to be in more familiar surroundings arriving in Frankfurt. Mind you, we still couldn’t understand what was on the menu without a bit of help!

Susan serving up some maultaschen (ravioli)

We visited the Porsche museum at Stuttgart. They have recently opened a new, purpose built building, which is stunning. The collection ranges from 100+ year old pieces designed by Dr Porsche through to some current model cars and race cars. Needless to say, Dain was a very happy man taking photos, peering into windows and dreaming….

Just a sample of the cars on display

We had a number of quick stopovers on our journey from Germany down to Italy. These included Geneva - highlight being our tour of the UN compound, quite an impressive facility; Les Gets - mountain biking heaven for Dain, peace & quiet for Susan and more than enough cheese and potatoes for both of us; Grenoble - our last chance for local French wine & cheese; and then Turin - where we were able to enjoy good coffee and pasta yet again.

Geneva - The Human Rights Commission meeting room

Les Gets - Dain returning from a ride

Grenoble - The cable cars up to the Bastille

Turin

We are well and truly nearing the end of our holiday. We have only another 3 weeks here in Italy before flying to Vancouver to spend a week with Jess & Liam and then heading home. Time for another coffee… ciao!!