Italy - Sat 2nd & Sun 3rd June

Our Italian summer road trip was off to a good start, relaxed check in at Gatwick, super quick flight to Milan and easy check into our hotel, things were looking good!

Sunday 3rd June
Very early start to the day, we had to get the hotel shuttle back to the Malpensa airport, and then get the express train into Milan city, and then get a bus from there to the Linate airport. We were hoping to catch up with Anna Cowie for a quick breakfast but it all got a bit hard and we were keen to hit the road as soon as possible.

We picked up our rental car and Lou's dreams came true, it was a little Fiat 500, her favourite car. Although it was a steel grey and not the powder blue with a cherry red interior that she was really hoping for, it was still super cute and so Italian. Hamish had a few practice laps round the car park to get used to the left hand drive business, and to make it more tricky, it was a manual as well. Probably the best quote of the trip, Hamish saying "It's like being inside a toaster".

So we were off, trusty Tom Tom in hand, we only had to do about 2 U turns to get onto the right motorway but little did we know that we would soon begin to dread the lady's voice that said "turn around when possible". We were headed south west of Milan towards the Cinque Terre, to a little town called Riomaggiore. We passed through some nice countryside and then Spezia, the main Italian military and commercial harbour before going on a windy road up the mountains, then down to the coast on the other side.

The view was spectacular, definitely worth the drive. We found our little hotel easily and dumped our bags and got into our walking gears to walk the infamous Cinque Terre trail. We had our own little villa and there were about a 100 steps to get to it, but the grounds were beautiful, jasmine, lavender, grapevines and flowers everywhere, it was so pretty and smelled amazing.

Our first navigational hiccup happened now, we headed down what we thought was the Cinque Trail but it didn't feel right (mainly cos there was no one else there, and there were no signs). An hour or so later (and some cursing at Italian signs), we were on the right track. It was scorching hot and we had been up for ages and didn't get a proper breakfast so first stop was lunch in the coastal village of Riomaggiore. The village, dating from the early 13th century, is known for its historic character and its wine, produced by the town's vineyards, which are all perched in terraces above the town.

We had a quick lunch, salad for Lou and pasta & bread for Hamish, and then we were off on the first leg of the track, called Via dell'Amore (The Way of Love), which is an easy path round to the next village called Manarola, which is the oldest of the 5 villages on the coastal walkway. The views were incredible, and the little villages were picture postcard perfect with their bright colours and the sunshine didn't hurt!

We had a nosey round Manarola before starting the next leg of the walk to Corniglia, but our plans were scuppered as they had closed the trail due to falling rocks. We chilled out a bit in the sun, the water was actually quite cold but not surprising considering the summer Europe has had.

We trekked back to Riomaggiore and bought supplies for dinner from a cute little deli place, white asparagus was on special which we had never had before, fresh pasta, mozzarella and pancetta and amazingly ripe bright red tomatoes. Yum! We hauled our stash up the steepest hill ever back to the main road, it was such a tough climb but Bandits never back down. We treated ourselves to a beer and locally produced wine in the hill top bar by our villa. I asked for the smallest size of wine (a 250ml jug) that the waitress poured it from something that looked like a petrol container so I'm guessing that’s local! It was reasonable nice, but nothing special.

Showers and relaxing were next, we had hoped to eat out on our balcony but this incredible fog had started rolling in, which was quite cool to watch from so high up. Dinner was lovely, and so was the early night!

Highlight: The walk on the Cinque Terre with the views and little villages was really fantastic
Lowlight: Trying to find the start of the dam walk!
Interesting Fact: In October 2011, freak floods hit the Cinque Terre putting 2 of the towns (Monterosso and Vernazza) under 3 metres of mud and silt, killing 4 people, they are still repairing the damages to the historic churches and buildings now.