Early start and after breakfast of bacon and eggs which certainly was a peculiar dish nothing like our normal fare. We set out from Monterosso to Vernazzo a walk of an hour and a half. The first half an hour was very demanding climbing to great heights but the scenery was worth it. Some of the step climbs are very steep and not sure how they handle a heart attack as its pretty much inaccessible. Mainly rock paths and rock steps and only about two feet wide in a l...

Early start with trip to Cinque Terra. Misjudgment on my behalf saw us miss first train and caught one half an hour later. Even though a provincial train it was still very quick although no restaurant. Train stopped at Pisa and we had a hit and run visit to the leaning tower before alighting a train for La Spezia. The tower certainly had a bigger lean than I had thought and was quite impressive. There were other major buildings around it which made it worthwhile....

Up fairly early myself so went for a walk around. The thing that struck me was the amount of motorbikes or similar that we're used for traversing the city. There has also been very minimal police presence on the roads and pedestrians are not afforded the same etiquette as at home. I took a photo of one pizza place called Pizzeria Baffeto which for last two nights has had a line up of around thirty mts waiting to get in. It intrigued me a little so I asked one pat...

Woke up to a dreary day in Rome and decided we would go to the Pantheon and the Vatican which should have filled in the day. We negotiated our way to the Pantheon for a start which wasn't so difficult. As a must see or must do in Rome there really isn't a lot to see. The crowd was fairly thin here and no trouble getting in and having a look around. It's in pretty good condition and has an unusual shape. From there we went to the Vatican and had lunch in a restaur...

Early morning and off to catch water bus to Ferrovia the train station in Venice. Checked a couple of times to make sure we were on the right train and settled in for a long train journey. Train was full and seemed to be going pretty quick. It wasn't until a monitor display and gps showed we were travelling 180kph. We stopped a couple of times and after Bologna the pace increased to 250 clicks. Never seen a train passing cars on a freeway before but I didn't see ...