One of the parts of this trip Margaret has been looking forward to is Cinque Terre along the coast of Italy. It is a National Park which contains five hillside villages, and is highly recommended by Rick Steves. Today, we did the walk between the villages, starting with a gruelling but absolutely breathtaking 6 km walk up and down, around, and beside the incredible Mar Ligure (part of the Mediterranean Sea). It was brilliant, though very hot.

The first link between Riomaggiore and Manarola was easy and very enjoyable. We got to Manarola and strolled about enjoying fresh baked pizza and foccacia bread, which some tourists complained about because it took too long to get it freshly baked. Tourists!! Arghh! It was delicious and we ate it looking out over the sea on a cloudless Italian August early afternoon, to the sound of crashing waves and the smell of pesto. Of course a cold glass of white wine was the perfect complement to this meal.

The next hike was a little more rugged, though Connor and Tessa had absolutely no problem. Halfway to Corniglia, we went down to the rocky shore and swam in the thundering waves. Margaret was too scared, but Connor and Barry enjoyed both the waves and the many topless women they saw. Tessa had a bit of a bad experience, getting sucked under the water and scraping her arm, but she recovered and the girls both sat on a rock, as the rolling waves, a white blanket of cool water, covered their legs and occasionally reached their hips in the hot sun.

Back on the trail, we met up with some Dutch people from Utrecht and raced to keep up with them on the 365 steps up to the village of Corniglia. The heat got to them and they didn't follow us on the next link to Vernazza. It was a pity that they missed it though, because it was absolutely breathtaking. We stopped halfway there, for a water break and to enjoy the view from a little cafe along the way, happy we took on the 2 hour challenge to complete this stretch of the hike.

At Vernazza, we had to make a decision - complete the walk (another 3 km beyond our 6 km already completed) or take a train and spend a little more time in the last village of Monterosso. When the kids found out that there was a sandy beach at our destination, they opted to go the quick way. Our evening ended with a lovely meal overlooking the ocean, a quick game of cards and an evening swim in the swirling waves.

That night, back at the hostel, we had a snack of calamari and played another game of cards. We decided that the next day would be a beach day because the day afterwards, we are off to Tuscany, far from the sea.