>;;Oops I’ve neglected my blog for a bit!
After Rome, we travelled to Siena and Florence, where I’ve been before but was just as enchanted the 2nd time. As a last minute decision we changed our accommodation and decided to stay at the Busabout drop off point, which was a camping park about 3 km out of Siena. This turned out to be a good decision as we had our own little cabin with a fridge and a wonderful pool to wallow in. A bus trip to Siena saw us exploring the town and ( of course) lots of hills and steps to climb, plus the mandatory gelato!
Florence seemed more beautiful than last time I saw it but much hotter. We haven’t s a cloud or a day much less than 35 degrees for weeks now. With the heat in mind, we a more gelato and climbed up the Biblio gardens and walked around the town, with one day spent in Ufizzi gallery looking at art work by the masters.
Our trip from Florence to Cinque Terre (where we stay for a week) included a photo stop at Pisa and a competition to see who could take the most clever photo. The handstand won but ours got an honourable mention:)
Our accommodation in Cinque Terre, where we stay for 6 nights, is at Riomaggiore, the first of the 5 cliff hanger Italian villages on the coast. I can’t even begin to describe the trip to our accommodation. Our backpacks are now HEAVY, and there so many steps and ridiculous narrow dangerous paths which have to be seen to be believed. When we found our accommodation ( in a narrow back alley) there is a door, 2 flights of stairs and the key is in a little basket ( which the owner called a jar) . The light kept going off and plunging us into darkness but we managed to get our bags up, the door unlocked and into the building. The accommodation is gorgeous with a kitchen on the bottom floor, a spiral staircase which is about 50cm wide takes us to the next floor to Sophie’s room and the bath room, and up another spiral staircase to my room at the top (5th floor in total). I have a window and a double door which opens out to the sea and a view of the village. It’s spectacular!!!! I haven’t closed the door once so far and go to sleep to the sound of the sea and with the breeze drifting in, mind you, it’s still very very hot all night.
Sophie, on the other hand, has a window which opens onto a neighbours balcony where an Italian family frolic noisily. Complete with Mama, Papa, Nona, a singing Grandfather and a toddler with a very high squeal who party on the balcony til all hours. There are no fans or air con so the decision is always is to be hot or to have the noise. This is often the case when travelling Europe. . I did offer to swap rooms but don’t think I sounded very convincing.
All that aside, the villages are gorgeous and the views are breathtaking. Last night we walked along Via del Amore, which is the coastal path of ‘love’ across the top of the cliffs to Manarola and saw the sun set and many tourists drunk with love during our walk, ending it with a gelato. Today we are going to hike across a couple of other very steep trails in the peak of heat and catch a train back I’m sure it will be worth it as it is a wold famous walking path and apparently spectacular.
Wifi is like hens teeth here so Barcelona will probably be the next posting. After 7 weeks of travelling and one left, I will return home to Melbournes winter and Sophie will go to the USA. *sigh*,
If you use Instagram, my photos are mostly there… User name jennywood
The train photos are for my Dad:)