Well here we go back into Italy from Swizerland for more ups and downs and highs and lows as we traverse the North West coast heading slowly towards France.

The main reason for returning to Italy (and the highlight of this bit of the trip) was to take in the Cinque Terre villages which run along the coast East of Genoa. We found ourselves a nice spot to stay and got up early to take the train along to the first of the villages (Monterosso) and then a short boat ride took us along the coast about 10 km to the last of the villages Riomaggiore from where our plan was to walk back to Monterosso along the "old" cliff path that joins the villages.

Sounds idyllic. Well it was pretty much, although we were glad we came in September and not August. Firstly, even although it's fairly late in the year it was still pretty busy (mostly with Americans funnily enough) and secondly it was damn hot meandering along that path. We did the whole thing, stopping for lunch at Verrnazza (see picture) in about 5 hours. Most people we saw didn't do the last leg of the walk from Vernazza to Monterosso but we were in the mood for walking that day so we did. The last stretch is the hardest (loads of ups and downs) but is also the quietest and most picturesque, so there must be some truth in the old adage "no pain no gain".

It was certainly a relief to make to Monterosso. From M's standpoint this was certainly true as she'd nearly lost her shorts before we got started and at one point was worried that she'd be doing the walk with them round her ankles ! We'd had to run to catch the boat right at the beginning and as M galloped down the quayside her top button popped off !!! Still we were able to make do and mend and G applied all of his problem solving skills to the task and managed a makeshift repair using his best leather bracelet. Anyway M decided the problem was down to poor stitching and not increasing weight and was content to gobble down a big icecream after the walk (see picture) !

From Cinque Terre we headed West along the coast past Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure. We didn't stop for long here (well not at all actually) but the towns looked lovely as we drove through and we'll try to make it back to this bit of Italy one day for a proper stay.

Italy then had the last laugh in it's usual "s***sofrenic" way. Our last night was to be in a place we thought would be lovely about 50 km from Portofino. The campsite sounded wonderful with a wee restaurant cooking fresh ingredients the Italian way and only a stones throw from the beach. We got there and the campsite was crap, the restaurant didn't exist and the beach was a mile away and horrible ! After walking to get there in the hot sun M wouldn't even dip her big toe in the water, so there was no way I was going in ! Still I cooked a nice pasta in the van and we had a good moan about Italy and felt much better.

Anyway never mind Italy, we're off to France next what could possibly go wrong...