Cinque Terre-Riomaggiore, Monterosso Italy

Travelled:64km
Stay:Levanto-paid parking €24/36hr free services 100m from train station. GPS N44.17476 E9.61836
Visited: Riomaggiore, Monterosso

We took the smaller roads to Levanto instead of the motorway. The first part of the journey was along the coast through a couple of towns. Surprisingly the traffic wasn't  too bad and the roads were not too narrow. 

We managed to find a place to stop to skype with our son for his birthday before finishing the drive along a narrow and windy mountain road. 

In Levanto we managed to easily get a spot in the camper parking area and decided stay and got a 2 day pass (€24 ea) for Cinque Terre which includes the use of the trains, buses and the walks. Our first stop was Riomaggiore which took 25min and is the furthest away. From the station we walked through a tunnel and decended the steps down to the quaint marina that is flanked by the colourful houses that are clinging to the steep sided ravine which offered many photo opportunities. 

Feeling hungry we partook in the very popular and delicious fried calamari/seafood mix. 

We then continued our stroll up the main street to the church and then to a lookout. 

You can see the walk that is closed to go to Manarola. The track over the hill is still possible but not as easy especially in this heat.

We finished our visit with a cool beer in the shade at the marina.

We were then going to hop on the train to go to the next town but unfortunately the train was delayed and when it finally arrived we got on without realising that it was an express to the first town, Monterosso. We thought at first to just take the next train back but quickly realised that that train had also been "delayed' and having lost confidence that we would just get on an express train back and the hords of people waiting, we thought we may as well visit this village today! This is the flatest of the 5 villages and has a large beach.

Once again we had to go through a tunnel to the older part of town and walked through the narrow streets enjoying the ambiance.

 Then it was that time again to take a refreshing dip in the sea.

 Before we took our again delayed train one stop back to Levanto (5min ride), we had a good traditional Italian dinner of spaghetti marinara and a pizza.

This is the view of Cinque Terre coastline from Monterosso. Below is a close up of the next town, Vernazza.

 Once back at Bluey we took advantage of the free water and did a bucket load of hand washing which in this heat will probably dry in half an hour! Even on holidays you can't get away from the 'house work'.