On Tuesday we set out for the Cinque Terra. As it was looking quite sunny we thought we'd travel to the furtherest town of Monterossa then do the walk from their back along the other 4 villages as much as we could then come back the next day to finish off. But there were a few glitches to challenge us that day, 1st the boat wasn't running as in spite of the now sunny weather they said the coastline was too rough to land at the villages. The train our 2nd option, ...

On Sunday we headed to the Cinque Terra by train to Monterosso, not long after we were heading back to La Spezia as the already grey sky erupted into a storm that had blown in from the Mediterranean. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up Kellys then Charlie cooked us one of the Tuscan dishes we had done at our school. Yesterday with weather still dull we headed off by car to Lucca, on the way it rained a fair bit especially as we got closer BUT luckily ...

Ciao from La Spezia, a bit drizzly here this evening, Charlie is cooking us a recipe from our cooking school at Greve, a stuffed chicken breast with salami & herbs in an onion sauce slowly sautéed with white wine. We have met up here with Kellys, great to catch up with friends & share some of our stories with each other. We caught the train to Monterosso on the Cinque Terra but just as we got there a storm blew in over the ocean so we had a quick look &a...

A much slower last 2 days here, lots of reading & swims in between walks to the Piazza & exploring some of the local surroundings. I walked back up to Montefioralle Castle yesterday afternoon, took 25 minutes up & very steep but beautiful views, earnt my daily gellati when I returned! Have a NZ couple, Snow & Joyce, staying next door now on other side so had nice shared evening with them & the Canadian couple nibbling on local fare & enjoy...

Yesterday we checked out some wineries with a drive around the Tuscan Hills around Greve. We found a couple of the wineries using a very basic local map & enjoyed tasting some of the local chianti wines. We got a bit lost on our way back to Greve & ended up on some very remote gravel roads which eventually came to a farm gateway So we turned around & retraced our steps & eventually found our way home after having checked out some local scenery sel...