We had to take 3 trains to get to La Spezia, gateway to the Cinque Terre region - a Unesco world heritage area, consisting of 5 villages perched on the cliffs on the north western coast of Italy.

We had no major issues with transport fortunately, despite the first train that we'd planned to take not arriving at all. That one was a precautionary earlier option, as the following one only allowed 5 minutes to change - which we were pleased turned out to be sufficient as the next train was on the adjacent platform when we arrived. The one glitch we did have was with our pre-reserved seats. These were booked for us by the travel agent and we duly found carriage 5 and seat numbers 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b and 10b. We'd settled in and were relaxing when an Italian couple arrived and indicated to Darryl that he was in their seats. Over the next few minutes we checked our seat numbers while they tried to commmunicate with Darryl in Italian - despite the language barrier he could tell they were fairly insistant we were in the wrong. We checked our numbers and they seemed right - we couldn't work out what the problem was. So Darryl left (fled!) to get the helpful train conductor to assist. Fortunately she spoke English and identified that our seat numbers were correct - but three of our seats were in another carriage. As our tickets were spread over three A4 pages but the seats were consecutive we hadn't noticed that tiny difference. Darryl, April and Scott made a hasty exit to their correct carriage with some apologies. Oops!

We arrived at La Spezia train station and were having lunch at the station cafe as the Polizia arrived to deal with a bag snatching that had occured at the table next to ours - just minutes before we had sat down! A timely reminder to watch our gear at all times.
We could have taken another train directly to our accomodation but as the best view of the 5 villages is from the sea we opted to take a ferry, which meant an extra bus to a different village - Portvenere where the ferry left from.
Ferry transport to Cinque Terre is not that easy to organise ahead of time - the only ferry timetables we could get online were only valid until the end of Sep, so we arrived in October to find the current timetable was different, and we had some time to kill - the upside was beer and icecream beside the water and a few boutiques to browse through to while away an hour or so.

We were lucky with the weather as the ferries don't run here when the seas are rough and this time of year is known for inclement weather and rain, but it was a lovely late afternoon with very little wind - and warm temperatures (shorts and t-shirts) as the ferry headed out at 4:30pm.
We took the ferry to the furthermost village - an hour and a half by boat. Very relaxing and great views of each of the 5 villages along the way.
Then it was a very quick train back (10min) to the second village Manorola, to our bedsit accomodation for the next 2 nights. In the middle of the village, on the second floor the building is built into the side of the rock - with the rock protruding through the wall into the bathroom in the house. It was just a little place but quite neat. A quick dash to the shop two doors down before it closed to grab some Tortellini and Pasata (sauce) for tea (yum!) and a bottle of Chianti (Darryl suprisingly did not really enjoy French red wines - and French beer wasn't to his taste at all). It's nice to be back in Italy.

The following day was for exploring the Cinque Terre villages and doing a bit of tramping. We started by taking a train to the first village Monterossa. We had a look around and then set off on our planned walk (almost 2 hours) between the first and second village. The path wound it's way up the side of the cliff and then followed the profile of the face. At times it was quite vertical with lots of steps, but there were great views to compensate for the effort. It was perfect weather for the walk around 18 degrees and overcast, fortunately a bit cooler than the previous days.
Toilet facilities on the walking tracks were non existant - and there were several signs along the way asking tourists to respect the track - not sure what they expected people to do on an almost 2 hour walk if they had to go! In one area of the track we came across a grape growing terrace with a pulley rope system similar to a flying fox (but a container instead of a seat) which was how the grapes once picked would be transported to the village a long way below.

The village we arrived at was Vernazza. Darryl enjoyed the walk enough that he decided to walk between the next two villages too (or maybe that was just an excuse to have some time on his own!), the rest of us planned to check out the village and the bay, and then catch the train.
We found icecream (well deserved after the walk) and April tried out the "Prickly Pear" flavour - this is the fruit of the cactus that we had seen on our walk into the village a taste similar to Persimmons, interesting to try but once was probably enough. Then onto the train to meet up with Darryl in the next village - this one further up the hill also required a short bus ride.

More shopping (definitely making the most of it here), before moving on - Kate & Sarah to the final village, the others heading back to our accomodation. The final village Riomaggiore had two paths from the train station - we took the route that led us above the village and then back into it - it was quite different to any of the other villages and a great perspective to view it from. It also provided great views of the terraced horticultural areas, with stone walls formed by hand with - it is the historic development and ongoing use of these that make this a Unesco area - rather than the beautiful villages.
We then walked into the village and down through the shops back to the train station and back to our accomodation.
By now it was late afternoon, so we rested up a little and then made the most of our unlimited train pass for the day and took the train back to the first village (with the best beach) where Scott had a swim, then a nother quick train hop to the next village where we had takeaway fish and chips (we thought a chance to try the local calamari and anchovies - but dissappointingly it turned out to be just frozen deep fried supermarket stuff) by the water as the sun went down and enjoyed the night lights and colours of the village.

Scott: It took a long time to get here. Swimming was fun. The beach got deep really quick. Monterrossa was my favourite because it wasn't too busy and had the best beach. I found a live anchovie, a crab and some kina.
Sarah: I bought a new bag and shoes. The colours of the houses in the villages were cool. My favourite was Monterrosso - it looked really pretty.
Darryl: Vernazza was my favourite - it looked beautiful at night.
April: There were lots of steps on the walk.
Kate: Manarola the village we stayed in was the least commercialised, great to relax in. We were lucky enough to be able to watch a village fishing boat being early lowered 20m down to the water on our morning walk through the village before we left - another neat experience.