Monday 29th August

In one months’ time we will be home! This morning we went into the town which is about a 15 minute walk along the seafront from our apartment. We wanted to visit Salty Dog and upload our blog. Sorry no photos at this stage because that part of it takes too long. We did get a lovely message from Izzy but seems our “religious bloggee” has gone bush again!! We had to buy a few things one of which was the mossie repellent thing that plugs in. We bought the most delicious focaccia bread. They make it in great slabs and cut it into pieces. You choose the piece you want and the weight it – that’s the price you pay €8.50 per kilo – our bit was €2.20. We had lunch and read for a bit as we had to catch the 2.30pm boat to Portovenere. Jannie has had sore muscles in her back for almost a week now in spite of all the massaging that’s been going on, so we decided to have a lazy sort of day and go by boat.

The boat calls in at 4 of the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre (pronounced cheen-kway ,and is the number 5) on its way to Portovenere. The Cinque Terre is a group of five hamlets located on the west coast of the Italian Riviera. The villages are Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore and they either cling to the rocks or are concealed in miniature inlets. The whole are is a National Park and proclaimed a UNESCO heritage site. The coastline between Levanto and Moneglia is a patchwork of unspoilt headlands and tiny inlets with crystal clear waters that were dotted with cute little fishing boats.

Monterossa was the first stop. The boat nosed into this slab of concrete and the crew pushed a gangway ashore straight off the bow of the boat. The people came on board and the boat reversed out from the pier. Monterossa has a long beach and is very much like Levanto and the buildings are similar. Vernazza is outstanding with its tower like buildings that flank the narrow alleyways that lead down to the pier which is set in a fairy-tale bay. Corniglia is the only village that the boat can’t stop at as it is set high up on the cliffs in a sort of cleft in the rocks. Manarola and Riomaggiore ( I love how the Italians say this word, it sort of rolls all around their mouth before it hits the ears of whoever is listening) anyway they are two medieval hamlets that are perched on rock outcrops and are linked by a footpath cut out of the sheer rock face just a stone’s throw away from the sea. This romantic pathway called Via dell’Amore is dedicated to lovers. If Jannie is up to it later in the week we are going to walk between these two villages.

After nosing into piers along the way we eventually came to Portovenere and tied up alongside a quay. We had an hour and a half to spend ashore here. The village is striking. As you approach from the sea there perched high on the cliffs are the churches of San Pietro which dates back to the 4th century, which is now only walls and doorways, and San Lorenzo, about the 13th century and still a working church, then high above them is the castle. What a climb, what a view of the entire surroundings. Once you get inside the headland the Doria Quay in lined with these tall tower-like houses, all of different colours, and these effectively turn the harbour into a fortified citadel. Opposite the houses are the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto and the passage between The Doria Quay and Palmaria is quite narrow.

We wandered around and went and had a look at the churches and the castle and then came back and had a gelato which wasn’t too bad. When it came time to reboard our boat for the return trip to Levanto it was already 5.20pm. Same trip only in reverse on the way back and we docked in Levanto at 6.50pm. Home via the Farmacia to get some deep heat. We looked at suntan lotion and didn’t buy as it was €23.60 – we still have some and weren’t paying that price for the stuff. No wonder no one seems to use it around here. Home made pizza for dinner and salad – delicious.