We had a bit of time exploring around this village where we are staying before deciding to get on a ferry which goes along stopping at most of the villages along the way. It's great to see the villages from a different perspective and they sure looked stunning!! We got off at the last one - Monterosso al Mare (also the largest) and looked around a bit before stopping for a drink.
We continued looking around and admiring the sandy beach they have here before catching a train back to Riomaggiore. By then we were able to check-in so we moved our bags into our room and relaxed in the aircon.
We grabbed our togs and headed to the beach that was located just around the point from our village. It was a stony beach and rather busy but nevertheless we enjoyed a swim in the refreshing water. We are finding the water not as warm as we thought. At times still a bit chilly. Might be something to do with the outside temp being so high in comparison.We lay in the sun until it was time to have dinner.
We enjoyed a drink and an entree at the restaurant below our accommodation. We frequently passed a fast food type place that had cardboard cones with seafood inside them and wanted to try this. So we got one each and headed to the seashore where we watched the sunset on the large rocks. They were setting up candles all around the little harbour in preparation for the fireworks display that evening. We decided against this as it was well and truly past our bedtime. Although we were woken up by them.
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We decided to have bacon and eggs for breakfast and catch the train to Vernazza. We swam here for a couple of hours. It was a pretty amazing little village although where you swam was a little grotty from being in the harbour. However it was beautiful swimming below all the old buildings and the church chiming on the hour. Pretty unreal feeling.
We started our walk from this village also. Most of the walks are closed due to flooding and an Australian girl died 5 years ago from rockfalls. However this is one of the few that were open and we were just doing part of it from one village to the next as we wanted to swim in the next village and because of the heat it was almost unbearable (Vernazza - Corniglia). We decided to do the walk late afternoon for that reason because the sun would have been too high. Doing it at this time meant we were shaded for good parts of it anyway, even though the temperature was early 30s!
It was just a beautiful walk looking down on the water and the villages that we were approaching. When we approached Corniglia we were running low of water so grabbed a granite (fruit slushy) to cool off. Its so good most places in Italy have water fountains which makes it easy to keep hydrated. We were losing as much water as we were putting in.
We decided against swimming at Corniglia as it looked like a rabbit warren to get to the swimming area so we hopped on the train to the next village and decided we would swim there. However when we arrived and walked through the town and down to the water it was packed with people and very rough with the waves crashing on the rocks. It seemed more of an effort so we trained back to where we were staying.
We went back to the take away place for tea again but this time ordering an XXXL Pizza which was enough for our tea and our lunch the next day. It was huge and for only 10Euro !!!
Because we have used booking.com so frequently we qualified for a late check out so we were able to stay in our room until 12pm. We had coffee and crepes for breakfast and walked up to a lookout before heading back to our room to pack up and walk to the station. Our accommodation had a terrace at the top which we used as well which had good views and also a washing line which was handy as we dried all our hand-washed clothes.
We had a rather interesting train ride (a story for another time) to Milan which was about 3 hours stopping at various places on the way. We really liked the look of Portofino - might be a place we come back to.
We arrived in Milan - the most beautiful station. We were just about to purchase our metro tickets when this Italian lady came up and gave us two of her tickets. We were really hesitant at the beginning thinking it was 'another scam'. However it was genuine and they worked so we used them all the way to Sherilyn's. We arrived at her apartment - it was neat to see where she is and spend some time in her neighbourhood.
We both really liked Milan - it has a more European feel to it and more civilized than they places in Southern Italy we have been to! We visited the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel II, Sforzesco Castle, Cinque Vie and the area down by Navigli. We had tea overlooking the canals which was beautiful. We then wondered back through the Duomo and Galleria when it was dark and back to Sherilyn's. We stayed here the night and were up early for our flight to Kefalonia.
Below is what we have covered in our first 2 weeks in Italy, more to come later :)
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