"Paradise on Earth"

Well where do i start?
To celebrate our wedding anniversary we had booked a 3 day weekend in Italy. We headed to a place called the Chinque Terre (Italian for
five lands) . It's situated right on the Mediterranean coastline and is a part of the Italian Riviera. The English poet Lord Byron once quoted that it was paradise on earth and he wasn't too far wrong. We flew out of London on Friday morning and headed for Pisa. The flight was only 2 hours but we went from a cloudy 15 deg English day to a sunny 27 degrees in Italy.

We had booked a hotel in a village called Monterosso which is the the largest of the five and the only one with a decent size beach. We were pleased to see our hotel room had its own courtyard with sun lounges and a view of the water. Friday afternoon was spent settling into our room and spending lots of time lying in the afternoon sun on our deck.

Saturday we awoke to beautiful blue sky and Sunshine. when the weather is good our hotel serves breakfast outside in a beautiful courtyard so we ventured down to enjoy the cappuccino and pastries on offer. After a good feed we were off to walk the 4 km mountain trek to the next village. The guide booked quoted 2 hrs and i assumed they were allowing for elderly American tourists. There were plenty of them to be seen but the walk was quite tough and did take us a good 2 hours to complete. It didn't help that it was midday and we sweat almost as much as one would on a Brisbane summers day.

We arrived in Vernazza (next village) just in time for lunch and ordered a slice or Margareta pizza and a local beer to go. It had a great little harbour and the water was incredibly clear.
We couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces, It was such an idyllic setting we were blown away . While in Vernazza we noticed a few people swimming so we figured the water can't be too cold so we headed back to Monterosso for our first dip in the med. The water was beautiful and clear , but unlike Australia there was no golden sand and we were forced to limp in and out over some nasty rocks.

After our afternoon swim we were a little hungry and decided to head back to our hotel via the local deli/grocery store . It was closed for afternoon siesta (a pastime i was happy to see they still observed) so we had to wait an hour or so before i could go back and get olives, cheese, local whine and bread. We relaxed on our deck with our platter and prepared to watch the sunset. Instead we were treated to a thunderstorm that rolled in over the mountains and then quickly headed out to sea. It left the air feeling fresh and cool so we headed out to embrace the evening.

We had eyed off a seafood restaurant the previous night and were keen to check it out. We shared a spaghetti marinara which was full of mussels and clams still in their shells (Delicious). on the way back to the hotel we washed it down with some Delicious gelato and it was so good i went back for a second. The next day we had to fly back about 10 pm from Pisa so we were tossing up the idea of going to check out the learning tower. However when we awoke the blue sky and Sunshine was out in force so we couldn't resist spending as much time as possible on or near the beach.

We had heard from our friends that you cold get a ferry to a village called Portovenere just up the coast that was particularly picturesque so we decided to check that out. It was amazing to cruise along this rugged Mediterranean coastline and pass villages and yachts and groups snorkeling.
Portovenere was spectacular, it has a cute little harbour, mountains in the background , a 600 year old church on the cliff edge and a castle on the way up the hill.

We caught the ferry back to our village, grabbed our gear and headed fro the train.
It took a while to get through customs and get back to London from the airport so we didn't end up getting home until after 3 am. Renee had organised the day off but i was up at 7 to go to work after 3 and a bit hours sleep. It was well worth it though and we were buzzing all week as we recalled our adventure.

So recapping , we both really loved Italy and can't wait to come back. We had a lot of expectation but it was even better than we had expected. Highlights for me were the food and wine, the awesome scenery , and Renee while obviously loving these things had the added bonus of finding the villages teaming with lovely well looked after cats to pat.

We took a ridiculous amount of photos (somewhere in the region of 350) and i have uploaded a selection here that are worth checking out
Photos