The Aussie Nomads Motorhome Adventures: August 2013

Our last long stop in Italy was to visit Cinque Terre. Visiting here has been in my bucket for quite a while, but now, here we are. We stayed in a caravan park in Sestri Levante a town with hills not so steep as those further south. The caravan park is quite unusual as it constitutes several fields of an unused Olive Farm clinging to the side of a rocky hill and which are now used as a camping area. From the reception area we go out the gate and further up the steep hill passing 3 other sites until we reach the top field which has a lovely flat area and room for 6 caravans, motorhomes or tents. The other campers are Dutch so we all speak English. We got the free camp bus which takes us into town. Today it is hot, the umbrellas are all open and the beach is crowded. I daydream of blue ocean, white sand and the Fremantle doctor and can’t imagine calling this, “going to the beach”.

The Cinque Terre is a rugged part of coastline and is composed of five villages: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the villages and the steep hills are World Heritage listed. A hiking trail joins all of the villages and they are accessible by boat and train.

I always wanted to do the walk along the hills and down into the villages but common sense is getting the better of me and because my hips are giving me trouble, because there have been landslides and because it is very hot, for our first day we caught the boat down the coast of the Cinque Terre. It stops in each town to drop off those who are staying there and a short stop for tourists to look around before moving on to the next village.

The landslides of 2011 can still be seen in places.

The boat stops Monterosso for a short while. It is the only town with a sandy beach which of course lined with umbrellas.

We stayed for 30 minutes and then onto Vernazza where we stop for an hour and a half. Vernazza is a jewel. There is a tiny harbour at the bottom of a cliff which has a fort on the very top and is surrounded by terraced land. As we wondered how they picked the grapes on such steep slopes we saw this photo in town of how they do it.

We land on the rocks and wobble off the boat ramp onto the rocks.

The harbour is surrounded by colourful apartments.

It was time for coffee and a snack. The Pizza place looked interesting.

But we decided to go up to the restaurant on top to enjoy the view. The stairs and paths wind between the apartments and houses to the top of the cliff. When they say balcony don’t assume you will have a view.

As we walked up between the houses it becomes obvious that if you are staying here your suitcase needs to be very light and you have to be careful where your rented room is situated. The view from the top across the village, the olive terraces and vineyards is fabulous.

This is the view down to the boat landing .

We joined the boat again to cruise further south. As we leave Vernazza we have a great view of the terraces. And the little beach.

We bypass the village of Corniglia as it does not have a port. It looks really beautiful perched up on top of the cliff. We were told it is a steep 362 steps down to the water if you want a swim.

We call into Manarola and Riomaggiore to let people off . We will come back tomorrow by train so we can spend more time here. You can see the motorway in the background. Mostly the journey by car is through tunnels.

We go onto Porto Venere, this town isn’t a Cinque town but it is really delightful and worth a visit.

The laying about the beach getting a suntan was a bit hard on the bones You can see the Carrara Marble mountains in the background.

After a very relaxing day we headed back to Harry to recharge for tomorrow when we take the train down to Riomaggiore and start our slow train trip back to Sestri Levante.

The train line follows the coast inside concrete tunnels right on the water line, then through tunnels in the rocky hills. The stations are as close to the towns as it is possible to get, but they do mean quite a bit of walking and climbing at times. A good timetable lists train arrivals and departures so you know how long you can stay in each town.

We travel straight down to Riomaggiore. The station is on one side of the town and we walk through the tunnel into town.

The shops are clustered around the tunnel town entrance on some relatively flat land.

Then we head down the hill to the water. These towns were fishing villages and there are boats everywhere and I am not sure if these ones ever see the water.

Finally we make it down to the little harbour and it is time for an icecream.

The view back up to the top is really lovely but the icecream is sitting heavily in my stomach as I see how far back up we have to go to catch the train.

We get out at Manarola station and climb again into the village.

Then down to the harbour for a late lunch.

This view of Manarola from the top down and from the bottom up is breathtaking.

Back on the train and back to Harry.

Tomorrow we drive out of Italy. I wont be sorry to leave the frantic traffic. Driving here is like driving through a plague of locusts with scooter drivers approaching and passing from 20 different directions. No one here stays in the line of traffic if they can squeeze through somewhere.

TUSCANY
ASSISI - CARRARA - FLORENCE

As we travel towards Tuscany from Venice, the countryside is very hilly and grape vines cover every bit of land possible. The beaches which look like white sand from a distance are full of people sitting under umbrellas on the white stones, fishing platforms jut out into the sea. It is very hot with very little wind but we are heading towards the mountains in the west.

We stopped the night along the way then went west stopping to visit Assisi. There is a new motorway being built but it isn’t complete so we follow smaller routes up and down, through tunnels and small villages. Finally we find the highway from the south going to Assisi.

It is interesting to see the solar panels used in the service stations on the highway to shelter the cars from the sun.

ASSISI
Assisi is on the top of the hill and the car park below the town allows 24 hr parking, so we stay the night and get up early to walk through the town before the bus hoards arrive.

Coming out the car park we walk up about 100 metres and through the gate then it is up up up.

It is a really beautiful town and the buildings have been looked after.

I am not sure of how many churches there are, they must be close to 15 we passed looking for the Basilica of St Francis. Along the way we came across this beautiful small church.

Everywhere we go there are souvenirs of St Francis of Assisi.

It is a lovely town to walk through with lots of small lanes and stairs leading to more lanes and stairs.

The crowds are increasing fast and by the time we got back in the car park there were 17 tourist buses parked.

We travelled west 60 k across to the North South Motorway via Florence towards the north Tuscany mountains to meet up with Paul and Christina who are staying in a mountain village north of Lucca.

CARRARA

Our sat nav sent us past the famous marble quarries of Carrara. Michelangelo created David from the beautiful white Carrara marble.

On our way up and over the mountain we saw many trucks loading up giant blocks of marble.

The road was very narrow as we went up up and over the mountain hoping we wouldn't meet a big truck or a crazy Italian driver.

Harry performed well and I am glad that Kevin is such a good driver.

The tunnels have been hewn by hand many years go.

The clouds were coming down to meet us and seeing the landslide area was a bit nailbiting.

I was very pleased to be up and over. Our sat nav girl was having trouble pronouncing the town when we finally got there.

We had a very pleasant few days at Angela and Marks place, swimming in the pool and trying the local pizza.

This is our view back to the mountains. The green is the head of an old man who lay down and died of a broken heart and is part of the village stories.

FLORENCE

We caught the train down to Florence with Paul and Christine. Coming out of the station there were people everywhere, horses drawn carriages and rickshaw bikes waiting for customers, tourists checking out maps, all milling around on the street. Shunning the horse drawn carriages (50 euros for 30 minutes) we walked around the corner and were soon mesmerised with the sights in the Piazza del Duomo.

Our first site is wonderful, in front of us is Brunelleschi’s Dome on the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, Giotti’s Bell Tower and the Baptistery of St John. The exterior of the buildings is covered in a mix of white, pink and green marble.