Here's another beautiful balcony view in perhaps our favorite place so far. The town is a series of stacked buildings rising up from the sea. It's hard to imagine how they built them. Architectural influences from several empires including the Saracens & Greeks. The watch towers, castles, & monasteries have mostly been converted into home or hotels. Sophia Loren had a villa here (wedding gift) but sold it & left Italy for a time. Mario Como's wife ow...

Our last day in the Cinque Terre started off cloudy & cool, but we decided to chance the first segment of the trail to Vernazza (the only section officially open). This was rated a 'medium' hike of 1.5 hrs. It took us about 2 with pix & rest stops -- and we thought we were in pretty good shape! Lots of fabulous views along with steep stair steps & a bit of muddy trail. From Vernazza we rode the train south to Riomaggiore, town #1, & decided to st...

View above is the "shortcut" down to town from our hotel. Early morning rain gave us a nice break to sit around & read a bit after our lovely Villa Steno breakfast. Headed out for the train to Vernazza, the next town south for lunch. When we were finished, the sun had returned! Each if these hill towns have their own personality. Vernazza seems to have more working fishermen than Monterosso. They all have wonderful gelato! After a pre-dinner refreshment set...

I have to find out what these lovely pastries are called. It's a light buttery bread with a mild chocolate filling. Yum! Travel day to Monterosso, the 1st or last of the 5 (Cinque Terre) cities depending on how you count them. Took the train & all was well. A bit overcast but found our hotel (way up the hillside), found a place for lunch, & strolled around town. Dinner after a bit of rest. If we go at 6:30 we're often the first people there! Did a Rick S...

Our travel day ended up to be twice as long as it should have been when Air France overbooked our flight & we ended up bumped for not checking in online. For whatever reason their system wouldn't let us so there we were. The 2nd flight was also full so they rebooked us through Rome to Genoa. Rome has a nice airport, but it was almost 9pm when we finally arrived at our hotel. They were nice enough to reschedule our driver so that was good. Portofino is too b...