Sue and Gerry's Europe Trip 2012: Welcome to Italy and the coast of Liguria

Wednesday 18^th July : We checked out of the Nice hotel and started our ambitious 3 connecting train journey into Italy, changing at Ventimiglia and Genoa. The Italian train system offers so much, but delivers a lot less in terms of catering for elderly tourists with heavy bags full of womens’ clothing and shoes. Each station requires the bags to schlepped down and then up a flight of stairs to get to the right platform – each time praying it was the right platform. Journeys like this are rather ambitious in a foreign country, relying on a number of assumptions for their success. One such assumption is that the train arrives at the changover station before the next one departs. Another assumption is that the seat you booked and paid for actually exists (one that we discovered cannot be relied upon) and another that you might find some space for your suitcases other than your lap – an assumption we had to fight for to ensure its realisation.

Anyway, we did eventually arrive at La Spezia Centrale railway station and after we lifted all our heavy bags down onto the platform, we had to promptly lift them back on again because we had disembarked on the wrong side of the train (the maintenance platform side). So much for being first off the train!

We have used La Spezia as our base for 3 days and have done some lovely trips from here. On Thursday, we used the ferry boat service to visit Portovenere, a lovely historic town in a magnificent position on a headland with a fortified castle as its centre-piece. We then caught the ferry again to visit Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre group of towns. Carved into the side of the hills and overlooking the Mediterranean, each of the towns has a unique feel and culture of its own. After lunching there, we walked the 25 minute Via dell’Amore (lovers’ pathway) to the next village of Manarola. The path has been carved into the side of the cliff face and is littered with thousands of padlocks attached to things and engraved with peoples’ names to signify their love for each other – graffiti disguised as romance?

We then took the ferry to Vernazza before catching the last ferry of the day back to La Spezzia.

We found the best restaurant in town, based purely on observation of popularity and the fact that it was virtually booked out, and had the best ever pizzas – the crusts were so good, you could just about eat them without any topping.

On Friday, after missing our train because (a) the ticket machine didn’t work (for us), and (b) the ticket window queue was so long, we changed plans and visited the northern-most of the Cinque Terre towns, Monterossso. This is the largest and most modern of the 5 towns and has the best (by Italian standards) beaches. After exploring the town, we had a lovely lunch on the headland overlooking the paid area of the beach – the area you have to pay to enter and you get a deck chair and an umbrella. (You need to supply your own thongs to walk on the pebbles of the beach.)

On Saturday, we did what we had planned to do the previous day and caught a train to Santa Margherita, a charming town with a beautiful backdrop of mountains. This is the gateway to Portofino, just 5 km around the corner and one of the most exclusive and beautiful towns we’ve seen. The scale of the luxury residences dotted around the hillside overlooking the water and the sheer opulence of the private and charter cruise boats there was just mind-boggling.

On the way back to La Spezia, we called into see Corniglia, the last of the 5 Cinque Terre towns that we hadn’t yet visited. When we got off the train, we missed the sign that said this is where to catch the bus up to the town, so instead we hiked up 382 steps and worked up a decent sweat and missed our train back. The climb, however did us good and also gave us terrific views.

Back at La Spezia, we enjoyed fantastic pizzas, followed by limoncello as our last meal in Liguria.