That's what Lee said!

The journey continues as I left Paris and flew into Milan, arriving in the early afternoon of the 3rd of June. Now I understand some of those reading this from home will be going "Milan? I didn't know you were planning to go to Itlay?" Well, in truth I wasn't. However, after talking to Eliza and James we decided against Scandinavia (very expensive!) and decided on Northern Italy instead. The plan was to fly into Milan and head straight out of the city and stay on the Cinque Terre. I was to fly in on the 3rd, a day before Eliza and James (due to cheap flights) and then meet them at the station to catch a train to Riomaggiore via  La Spezia.

The Duomo in Milan

James and Eliza arrived with James in full “Kodak kid” mode documenting every moment of our reunion with some shaky camera work, and we made our way into the station to find some food before boarding the train to La Spezia. We decided on Burger King, as we were in the mood for something cheap and nasty before our 4 hour train ride. Whilst sitting in the “restaurant” (let’s call it a glorified diner) we made friends with an older Australian couple, who then proceeded to pay out not only each other but at times us, and couldn’t’ believe that my mother not only knew that I was wearing Doc Martens boots but had bought them for me. I love that people don’t expect certain things of me and I can go on to surprise them.

The Castle

We boarded the train late after it was delayed for around 50 minutes (we still don’t quite know why) and were on our way, complete with snacks and good natured joking around.

As such we arrived in La Spezia late and missed our connecting train. Cue nerves. We check the timetable and it looked as if there weren’t any more trains to Riomaggiore for 3 hours (after midnight) but after checking the ticket machines discovered that there was a train at 11, and were incredibly relieved to know that we would be able to get in to Riomaggiore after only a short wait.

Riomaggiore by night

We finally arrived in the Cinque Terre exhausted (we had been travelling all day) and ready to meet our lovely Couchsurfing host Marco (and his friend Claudia) and then head to bed. However, after meeting him it was decided hat we would go out for drinks and a chat instead. Marco had been lovely enough to give us his apartment for the 3 nights we were staying as he was staying at a different house so we dropped off our luggage and headed out. We met Marco’s friends and after a little while moved down to the Port to sit and relax, after a while heading back up the hill to the apartment to sleep. The town of Riomaggiore is perched on the hillsides of a little valley running down to the water and as such, when lit up at night, looked like something out of the guidebooks; perfectly picturesque and romantic, so needless to say we were made more tired but constantly walking up and down the cute maze of little cobbled alleyways and staircases.

Having a coffee before our walk

The next day we awoke relatively early; James played housemother and went and bought breakfast whilst Eliza and I slept in, after which we set off. We had planned to catch the train to the final village of the five (“Cinque Terre” meaning five villages in Italian) called Monterosso, and walk the trail down to the next village of Vernazza, and then take the train back to Riomaggiore before once again walking the trail to another village. We had wanted to walk the entire length of the track, however the trail between the second and third and third and fourth villages was closed due to maintenance. As such when we got to Monterossso we took our time starting out, grabbing a quick pizza and coffee to start our morning before making our way through the village and up into the hills.

One spectacular view

The views were spectacular. The weather had been kind and the day was beautiful; the water was an intense shade of blue sparkling under the mid-morning sun and the hills seemed to be alive in all shades of green. As we walked we passed vineyards and cute little walled gardens before coming across scenery that wouldn’t have looked out f place in Morialta National Park back in Adelaide. It always surprises me how many times I have seen scenery on my travels that strongly remind me of home.

More views

We finished our walk in the cute little town of Vernazza and set about finding a nice place to have lunch. The town itself was once again perched inside a little valley running down to the water’s edge, but was not as steep or picturesque as Riomaggiore (in my humble touristic opinion *giggles*).

We had a lovely lunch of home-made pizza and beer (when in Italy) and then walked around the village for a while, taking in the small tourist shops before making our way back to the train sation for our return tip to Riomaggiore, where we arrived in the late afternoon.

Riomaggiore at sunset

We were supposed to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Marco  however we were late and so after sitting at the beach in the sun went looking for him to get the keys to the apartment so we could leave our bags there before walking the last leg of the trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola The search was unsuccessful and so we began walking in the sunset down towards the next village. As we went we walked through the Gallery, a semi-enclosed tunnel, the walls of which were covered in graffiti by love-struck locals and travellers. We then came upon the rock walls, covered in chicken wire and padlocks reminiscent of the Hohenzollern Bridge in Koln.

Just a beautiful sunset to top it all off

Arriving in the Village we found a little pub in which to have dinner, and it was decided that we would settle in for a while. The pub itself was warm, cosy and lively, as there was a small space for musicians set up in the corner who then played country and roots music for the rest f the night. The food was incredible; tasty bruschetta and amazing cold beef salad with wine topped of a fantastic night.

The next morning we had decided that we would do a day trip to Pisa and Eliza and I hadn’t seen the Leaning Tower before. We set off early after James once again played housemother and bought us breakfast, and boarded the train for the quick trip to Pisa.

PISA

Once there we made our way through the town reaching the tower around lunchtime, and quickly setting about amusing ourselves by “pose stalking” other tourists, and seeing how many great poses that were supposed to be with the tower we could get on photo without the tower. This provided the background for many fantastic laughs as we tried to capture the silliest looking people on camera. After doing this for far too long (it was quite amusing) we made our way to a restaurant to use the free wifi and grab a bite to eat before making our way back towards the train station to return to Riomaggiore for the night.

We had planned to eat dinner out at the restaurant where Marco worked, however had no clue what we were in for. We boarded the bus that would take us to the restaurant Burgadicampi, and as we went were met with stunning vies back over the coastline towards the Village and out over the water. We arrived at the restaurant to see only a bar, but as we walked down the hill our jaws dropped. The restaurant was perched on the hillside with amazing coastal views and we drank wine ate amazing food as the sun set over the water. The night went late and Marco ended up driving us home in the restaurant van after which we went out for more drinks with Marco and friends.

The four of us at dinner

The next morning we packed up and headed off; the plan was to go to Reggio Emilia and spend the night before heading back to Milan for the weekend. James thought he had found gold with cheap student accommodation in Reggio Emilia; it turned out all he had found was the centre of the previous week’s earthquake and we arrived slightly nervous about sending the night in an Earthquake zone. We ended up having a lovely time in the city (there was a lot of wealth concentrated there) and the accommodation was quite lovely in the end.

A bit arty-the view from dinner.

The next day we boarded the train to Milan excited about the weekend. James had a friend flying in to meet us from Hungary and we were planning to party it up once he had arrived and settled in. 

Needless to say we spent the next 48 hours in Milan drinking wine, exploring the city and just generally enjoying the lovely weather than we had landed in. We went to a fashion and costume museum, walked around the gardens, saw the castle and ended our trip with a night of karaoke and cocktails; however only James and I took part in the former of the two (and I even then only after some stroong convincing!And a mojito...)

The next day we parted ways. Eliza and Lee (James’ friend) flew out;; Eliza back to Durham and Lee to Hungary, whilst I had to catch a train on the next part of my journey and James stayed in Milan an extra night before flying to Dublin (but that’s another story!). As this part of my journey ends so does this blog post, however I'll have my next destination up very, very soon (going through a big "public transport blogging" phase *giggles*).

Until next time,

Love Love!

Clem xx