The legend of the black cock

On Friday, we grabbed the car back from the carpark across the river in Florence, picked up the bags from hotel and drove out violating a number of ZTL areas. Once we were on the road we wound our way through Chianti hill roads bound for a town called Castellina di Chianti. We got a bit lost as the Castles team navigator was feeling a bit unwell after the windy roads and couldn't look at a map for any amount of time.

It didn't take long to get to a place that offered tastings, as soon as I saw wine barrels and wine tasting in here, I made a turn into the driveway a bit quicker than Heidi's stomach would have liked. When we got inside I asked Heidi if she was up for some wine tastings and she was immediately looking a lot more chirpier. I'm not sure if it was that we had stopped driving or that there was the promise of wines or maybe a combination of the two. Anyway the nice girl there took us through the wines, one white and 2 reds and explained to us what a Chianti Classico was (a blend which must contain 80% sangiovese and whatever other grapes the winemaker has on hand, I think these were 20% merlot). After the wine caining tasting, we got some lunch, I had orrichetti with speck and gorgonzola sauce and Heidi had a salad with some awesome buffalo cheese. Then we purchased the pinot grigio and a bottle of the Chianti Classico to take with us.

Chianti country

Oak barrels with wine tasting signs, QUICK PULLOVER!

When we got to Rada I saw another lot of barrels next to a driveway with "wine tasting" and I quickly made a sharp turn into it. We got to another winery which was owned by an Italian American which had 2 different labels so we got to try about 7 wines there. I asked the lady what the deal was with the black cock (gallo nero) logo at the Chianti wineries as we thought it was some kind of winery chain. She told the legend of gallo nero which was quite a funny story. We purchased some more wines one of which was an interesting blend of white of 60% chardy, 35% sav blanc and 5% gewurztraminer.

We continued onto Siena, bypassing more yummy tastings as I had to spit out the last lot of wines so I could continue driving. (I find spitting wine out completely unnatural and my mouth can't bring itself to do it voluntarily, so I kind of hang my head over the spitoon, open my mouth and it just dribbles out.)

Once in Siena we were immediately failed by Google driving directions as there were road works on apparently the only street which would provide entrance on the side of the city we needed to get into. Hooray for ZTLs! They really made these old cities hard for invading armies to get into, there are paved roads these days and it's hard enough now. Anyway we found a crack in their defenses probably by violating some ZTL laws and made it in.

We walked around the old town which reminded me of Toledo with the red roof tiles and tiny hilly streets. We had dinner at a place recommended by trip advisor which was on a hill we sat outdoors but they had terraced seating with the tables and chairs propped up to match the slope. What will these Italians think of next?

Terraced dining.

The next day after a lazy breakfast in bed thanks to the hotel delivering the breakfast tray to our room we went out and got some produce to have for lunch. We had some leftover tomatoes and basil from Florence so we just needed some more buffalo mozzerella and bread. I also got some weird pressed meat which was like a massive salami made of what I would call proscuittoed bacon. Aw yeah. We got back to the hotel and made up some sammiches to cain in the hotel giardino.

Hotel garden above the 2nd floor roof but below our room of course.

After lunch we needed another degustazione of Italian wines so we headed to the Enocteca Italiana which was a wine tasting place situated in the Fortezza Medicia. Caining wine in some ramparts is almost as good as caining wine by the beach but slightly more of a cultural experience I think.

On the way back home we ran into a pretty big street parade which was basically the area of the winning horse of the Palio di Siena parading around and rubbing all the losing neighborhoods faces in it every day we were there. I think a waiter we had said the parties go for a week or something. Anyway heaps of people were in the parade including a bunch of old dudes smoking cigars and holding prosseco bottles like bosses and the Saints of 2nd place which was I think carrying photos of all the times their neighbourhood came 2nd.

The parade was a miner distraction to the rest of the Siena community.

The 2nd place saints

The winning horse

When we were sick of the parade we walked back into town and had dinner at the same terraced restaurant because it was pretty good the night before. After dinner we walked into the main square, got a plastic glass of spritz and went and sat down in the square because that seemed to be the thing to do.

Siena was awesome and so was the Chianti area, I wish we had more time in the region and think I would definitely come back if we're over this way again especially if there's a horse race on again. I think the Tuscany area has been my favourite part of Italy so far, yeah I said it, even better than Cinque Terra. Next time we will rent a house in Tuscany and damn the maestro.

Wait, is Firenze the same as Florence?

Tuesday morning we woke up and popped out for a quick coffee before packing our bags and checking out (and paying our city tax, which in Venice is 2.5 euros per person per night, just for the privilege of coming and spending your money in Venice). We got the boat back to Piazza de la Roma, the people mover back to Tronchetto car park, paid our ransom for parking, and thankfully the car started and we blew that joint (which I do still love, despite its heat, expense, heavy tourist population and excess number of souvenir shops).

Duomo di Firenze - Florence's famous cathedral

Our next stop was Florence, and smack bang in the middle of Venice and Florence lies Bologna, so we thought it fitting to 'sauce' out the best spaghetti bolognese in Bologna for lunch. We did our research and found a good spot - but when we got there, it was closed. I guess we weren't altogether too surprised, from previous experiences, but then driving around the rest of the town it really did appear as though nothing was open at all!! How the poor people that are left in these towns during August survive I do not know. Anyway, we managed to kill nearly an hour driving around Bologna trying to find some sign of life, but none was to be found.

Panoramic of Florence's Arno river - so beautiful and still

After giving up on Bologna, we were literally starving, so stopped in at an ever faithful Autogrill on the side of the freeway. Hey, even a pre-made panini at one of these places is awesome if it's got buffalo mozzarella on it. I am completely obsessed with the stuff! So we got into Florence, my first time, where the temperature was a cool 38 degrees or so. We parked the car near-ish to our hotel so we could check in, and walked through the desert heat. Having looked at the forecast I was expecting worse, but it actually felt possibly cooler than Venice's 31 degrees because it was less humid. We checked in to Globus Hotel, where the staff were very kind, friendly and helpful, and parked the car nearish by. It was already late afternoon, so we literally chilled in our hotel room for an hour or so. 

Us in front of the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio

Our little hotel was great - small room but centre of town, and we pre-paid for the room in advance (51 euros a night!!) - this included breakfast, and at 6:30pm each night, a "happy hour" with free nibbles and wine! Unbelievable! So at 6:30 we went down and had a courtesy prosecco or 2, and met some of the other hotel guests, including a couple from San Francisco. We started talking and they were pretty nice and both worked in IT (for VMWare) so were chatting computers with Ryan. I had an app on my phone which had suggested some cool bars near us, so when we left we invited them along. Not surprisingly, the 2 bars I led us to were also closed!! I cannot believe that successful businesses just shut down for a month in summer. Apart from small family-run businesses I do not know where that happens in Australia!

Ponte Vecchio arty style

We decided to forget the app and just walk around and see what was open, which was still a decent number of places, being Florence. We came across a pretty ambient (ie. dark) looking Italian place and checked out the menu. It looked great to me (and I think Ryan) but the American couple (I think his name was Rahul, and hers was Maria - but her middle name was Heidi!) didn't seem keen. So they suggested Hard Rock Cafe. And a little piece of me inside died.

It was in I think Mallorca, that I had said to Ryan - "I cannot believe Hard Rock Cafe is still in business". As most of us would know the Sydney joint went bust yonks ago. But they still seem to be in most major cities everywhere I travel, and I still see a lot of Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts. Anyway, us being the polite folk we are, I sucked it up and said "Sure". As it turned out, there weren't even any free tables there because it was already full of yanks. God bless America. 

Us swines sitting down to another lovely meal

We went to a nearby piazza to what we now know are a bunch of tourist trap restaurants, but it had a decent view, it served Italian and it wasn't the Hard Rock Cafe. Plus they offered a free glass of prosecco if we waited 5 minutes for a table. Even the San Franciscans were sold. So we had a pretty pleasant meal (I had salmon carpaccio, which in hindsight probably isn't the wisest choice in Florence, but it didn't seem to haunt me). Ryan had the bolognese that he was robbed of earlier in the day (although pretty average). And the yanks both had pastas - Rahul had the house special (spaghetti aglio e olio) which the waiter told Rahul exactly what it was -  spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chilli peppers (3 ingredients which Italy does pretty well I think). Anyway, it turned out that Rahul assumed there would also be tomato sauce. He then put his hand up in the air to take it back, but before I could hide under the table and quietly die of embarassment, Ryan thankfully just politely told him "that's exactly what it's meant to be mate". And he seemed OK to just share his girlfriend's tortellini. He even took the rest of it home "to go". Phew. Afterwards, we tried to find some cool bars to go to, but either they're hidden from the tourists or they're closed in summer, so we just had one nightcap at an Irish bar. At least they're always open.

The Duomo by sunset

The next morning we got up and had the hotel breakfast, which was pretty good. I had my first cereal I think of the trip. Then we set out and wandered round Firenze, past the massive and impressive duomo, galleries, statues, monuments and everything else which makes Florence such an amazing and historic place. I think the river was especially pretty - the Ponte Vecchio bridge was beautiful with its colours reflected perfectly in the still river below. We had a wander along the river and across a few of the bridges, then ended up at the Galileo Museum. This bloke was pretty smart, and discovered a few things which have been helpful to modern society. In short, he's one of the greatest scientists of all time, and they had some of his original telescopes there that he used to discover things like the moons of Jupiter and sunspots. I'd read that that his middle finger had been preserved and displayed in the museum, but we couldn't find it, but no worries coz that would have been a bit gross. Anyway, we both really enjoyed the place, so it turns out I do like museums after all!

Donatello, but without the bo staff or purple bandana that we're used to seeing him with

We then grabbed some lunch nearby at a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich bar that looked/smelled good - I got a prosciutto/truffle sandwich and Ryan got a panino porchetto. Both were delicious, and cheap. Some more wandering then once the 38 degree heat got too much it was time to retreat to the air-con. A few hours later, it was time for happy hour again! Hooray! And we met up with the San Fransicans again, although they were about to jet back off to Venice. It was nice to see them again though, they were nice and friendly and funny (despite the Hard Rock issue). 

That night we went for dinner at a place near the sandwich place that we went to for lunch, as we'd seen it had a tasting menu. We went in and asked for the degustation. He just said he'd bring out a "tasting menu for 2" which actually turned out to be not what was advertised, but was still delicious - a massive meat platter and then a massive cheese platter. All yum, although I was hoping for some truffle which was advertised. Whatevs. The house wine was really good/cheap/generous so that's always good! 

Another shot of my favourite bridge

After another nice breakfast the next morning, we went to the central market, just around the corner from our place, and looked at all the fresh food produce. So much truffle products, porcini mushrooms, oils, vinegars, pasta etc it was ridiculous. We bought some bread, basil, tomato, buffalo mozzarella, truffle salsa and olive oil and we were all set for a picnic! (After me buying an Italian leather coat for a bargain - woo!) we walked through town in search of a a garden/park that was on the map. As it turned out, it was impossible to find how to get into it, so we ended up wandering aimlessly before giving up and just stopping in a secluded little suburban park with our picnic. It was actually really quite nice.

David - blonder and pinker than I expected

After the picnic we had tickets to the museum where the famous David statue is. We bought the tickets online, and I think were ripped off, but hey if we didn't have to queue up in the sun for them then we were the winners on the day! So we went into the museum, after passing through security, and Ryan taking his Kindle out, and the security guard saying (while the people continue to queue behind him):
"What is that?"
"Oh it's just a Kindle"
"From Amazon? I'm thinking of buying one"
So then Ryan had to tell the security dude how great a kindle was blah blah.

Anyway, we made it in to the museum, which turned out to be quite small. In contrast, we saw David straight away and he was much bigger than I expected!! I was well prepared for the small size of the Mona Lisa, but I was quite taken aback with how big David is. It really is great. You can't take photos though, so you'll have to be happy with the Warhol-ish version outside the museum above :)

Carpaccio with truffle

So after going back home, stopping in for a quick happy hour at our hotel, we headed off for dinner to a place where we had read had a great truffle menu. We shared an entree, primi and secondi followed by a dessert. It was all pretty delicious - carpaccio with truffle, then risotto with truffle, then egg with truffle followed by creme brulee. A pretty nice meal to end Florence on really!!

By the way, the title of this blog post is a quote by both Snooki on Jersey Shore, and Ryan (after I had previously already told him the Snooki joke, so make of that what you will).

Venetian minds

 The next morning, with the second opera of the trip and our lives under our belt, we set off for Venice. It was only an hour or so drive away, but not surprisingly you can't drive around Venice, so we parked the car at Tronchetto (not the mainland, but not the heart of Venice either). We then had to get a people mover (monorail) to nearby Piazza de la Roma, and then get a vaporetto/boat to San Marco, tourist central and the pier not far from our hotel. On the vaporetto we passed several massive cruise ships and then rounded the corner close to the Grand Canal. I was pretty excited - I first came here in '89 and even as a 10 year old declared my love for it. I came back again 10 years ago but it rained the whole time which was hugely disappointing (not to mention I was poor, the dollar was worth about 60 Euros cents and Venice is very expensive!).

A canal, typical of the region 

We got off at San Marco into the seering heat and throngs of tourists and passed the countless stands selling Venetian masks and I Love Italia T-shirts. Crossed 3 bridges and then we were basically at our hotel, which turned out to be pretty big and thankfully very cool. After a quick chill, we went exploring. Our hotel was in a great location - quiet but also close to the action (and the main canal so we could always orientate ourselves!). We walked around the back alleyways (because I love them and they are also much cooler tucked away from the sun). Some alleys literally just lead you to a canal, so we just wandered round (without a map and not even getting lost! I am like a compass.)

Another canal, this one with more tourists

In search of lunch, we walked around casually looking at menus, some ridiculously priced which looked very average and weren't even on a canal! Complete tourist traps. Anyway, we found one place and I had a prosciutto/rockmelon dish again (Italian chefs must love me, but hey, do you really need more than those 2 ingredients? I think not.) and Ryan had a fairly average spaghetti carbonara (after getting shat on by a pigeon). I have never seen so many pigeons, nor pigeons that just do not care, in my life. The pigeons in Venice are complete honey badgers.

Hooray, a pic of both of us! On the famous Rialto bridge.

After lunch we had to go back home so Ryan could change into a poo-free shirt, and then basically just wandered. Some alleys and canals were completely quiet, and a then some were just swarming with tourists, shuffling along the narrow streets, mesmorised by the never-ending souvenir shops selling Venetian masks and Murano glass. It was pretty fun just randomly walking around without a map or any real destination. For dinner we'd passed a place near our hotel that seemed OK, so we gave it a go. I had a spaghetti vongole (little clams, basically just in olive oil), and Ryan had gnocchi followed by scallopini in white wine sauce (which he thought would be scallops, but was actually veal) but was delicious anyway. It was all great, and Ryan had complete meal envy of my spaghetti vongole.

Canal, by night

The next day we pretty much just wandered aimlessly around Venice, which is probably the best way to do it! Oh, Ryan's mobile had turned up, couriered by DHL (so that's why it cost 62 Euro) and so we stopped by the Vodaphone shop to pick up a SIM. We continued wandering until it started getting quite hot (which is pretty early - Venice is so humid that by 10am it's already a bit uncomfortable). We decided to picnic and got some takeaway panini/trammezini type things, and a bottle of Prosecco (to try and get our Venetian blind on) and head to some gardens not too far away. It was really nice to sit on the grass away from the throngs of tourists.

Italy has brought out the artiste in me

Later that afternoon we more or less chilled in the air-con of the hotel room and worked out where a good place to eat dinner might be. We turned, as always, to Trip Advisor. One place was recommended as being good, reliable, and not over the top expensive, so we went there. Ryan had spaghetti con vongole, following his meal envy the night before, and I had "squid Venetian style" which I didn't know what it was, but hey I love squid and I love Venice so how could it be bad? It turned out it was awesome - squid in squid ink sauce (which might put some people off) but squid in squid is a dream come true for me, and it was delicious!

Spaghetti con vongole, nominated as one of our favourite Venetian dishes

After breakfast the next day we wandered around a bit (mainly to kill time before we bought a 24 hour vaporetto pass that would still get us home the next day!) and passed through San Marco piazza and the throngs of tourists (this time of year there really are an enormous amount of tourists, and I continually question what people see in joining a massive tour group where they shuffle around with head phones in so they can hear the tour guide miles ahead). Anyway, we then headed out on a vaporetto to Murano, one of Venice's 113 islands, which is famous for its glass making. We popped into one of the factories and saw some of it being made. Having passed through hundreds of glass souvenir shops in Venice, it was actually quite impressive seeing it made from scratch from a hot-glowing bulb of glass. We walked around the shops looking at all their different products - it seemed as though the price really did reflect the quality. I saw some stunning little plates which I would have bought in a second, but at around 100 Euro for the size of a saucer? Probably not. It really was art though. Instead, I bought a lovely necklace which Ryan helped me pick out!

The Grand Canal

We had lunch on Murano too - I had prosciutto and melon for a change (apart from loving it, it makes me feel healthy, when I focus on the fruit aspect of it), and Ryan had some spaghetti dish which we can't really recall the details of right now, so mustn't have been that great. Anyway, back in town, we chilled in the cool hotel room for a while. As it turned out, the place where we had the yummy dinner the night before was actually the one around the corner from the one we thought we were going to on trip advisor! So we decided to go to the real one. Would you believe Ryan ordered the spaghetti vongole again, and I ordered the Venetian style squid (although it was cuttlefish this time) again?!?! But we did have some delicious (although expensive) scallops for entree. Anyway, this place was slightly more expensive, but as (and possibly more) delicous than the night before! So there certainly was some good dining to be had in Venice!

Venetian style cuttlefish, with grilled polenta

Horses for 2nd courses

From Cinque Terre we went to Parma because I figured they would have some good prosciutto. We parked the car and walked around what turned out to be a complete ghost town. It turned out that most business owners who can afford it go to the coast for most of August or sometimes until early Sept (one closed shop front had a "gone tanning" sign). Anyway eventually we found a street that had some open restaurants and Heidi got some proscuitto with rockmelon and I had some with parmesan.

After leaving the ghost town, on the way to Verona we passed a tomato truck with no cover with the tomatoes piled high and thought it was a bit ridiculous until we caught up to another 3 tomato trucks all in a line. We have noticed that the Europeans seem to enjoy nothing more than perpetuating stereotypes.

We arrived in Verona and went for a walk to the Arena which was built in the first century and had a drink at Piazza Bra because it was hot as. Before dinner we went via Juliet's house, this was packed out, full of tourists. Apparently it's not really Juliet's house but they wanted somewhere to put tourists or something.

"please don't deface the walls at Juliet's house"

"OK"

We walked around looking for a few places that good old trip advisor had recommended marked on our dumb tourist map and eventually settled on one of the two we passed that made you have 2 courses for 16 of the euros, no exceptions, you must have your 2 courses you fatty. The other restaurant that was recommended which let you decide if you only wanted 1, 2 or 3 courses was still on holidays because that's just what happens apparently.

Heidi tried to order the lightest meals on the menu, a bean soup, which wasn't light at all and ham and melon for a change. (Heidi also had melon for breakfast taking this to the 3rd melon dish of the day). I had duck ragu with parpadelle pasta and a pastissada de caval which is a pulled horse meat stew with polenta and was yum.

Afterwards we went to a wine bar called Botiga Vini. As I was enjoying a nice glass of Chianti, I noticed (in addition to a photo of Bill Clinton and Hildog at that very bar) one of the other Italian men at the bar spritzing his red wine with Sanpellingro. I was completely up for the horse meat but there's some regional things that I am just refusing to try.

The next day we went to try to see Castel San Pietro, this was an attempt in futility as we just found the camp site which is somewhere nearby but not where we could see, as it was quite a hilly area and getting pretty stinking hot we cut our losses and found a gelati shop which was a much more pleasant experience. We then went for a walk over the Ponte Pietra which I think was built in 1 B.C. or something. There's another bridge called Ponte Nuovo just south of it, nuovo I think means new so it is probably built in like 300 A.D.

This bridge was slightly older than Dave Broughton.

We had booked tickets earlier for the Opera which was on that night but went back to Botiga Vini for a meal as we didn't have time or appetite enough for another mandatory 2 courses. I had suckling pig shoulder and Heidi had beef carpachio with Venetian sauce. Not sure what Venitian sauce was but it tasted like aoili.

We went down to the Arena for our second Opera of the trip which was Turandot. We had the cheap "stone seats" and realising this packed a towel to sit on which was lucky because they were not only hard as stone but a half tonne of stone which has been sitting in the sun all day keeps its arse scalding temperatures well into the night. There were people renting cushions for 10 of the euros and there were signs not to throw them down into the people in the nice seats after the performance. I guess anything else you could throw was free game.

Heidi on the stone steps of the arena

The opera was pretty cool, it was a massive cast and I was glad we read the synopsis before going in as it was in Italian and we would have had no idea what was going on otherwise. I enjoyed it but realised after I knew the score because Pavorotti used to sing part of it. The orchestra was great, they had like 5 harps so you could tell they were good. The opera we saw Kirsty play in couldn't even afford so many harps.

Turandot at Verona Arena

Turandot cast

Oooooh heaven is a place on earth (Working title: good one Ryan)

Having dropped a (relatively) fair amount of dough in the French riviera, it was time to wave a bientot to Francais and hit the road for Italia! The Italian border is only a 20-30 minute drive from Nice, so we were there in no time. The drive was amazing - high up in the hills looking down on countless picturesque towns that line the "Italian riviera". We must have driven through at least 50 tunnels as well (we took the faster autoway, driving literally through the mountains, which meant spending 30 Euros in tolls that day!).

Portofino

A couple of hours along the road we turned off and headed to Portofino, a small fishing village/upmarket resort town. The drive there, winding narrow roads along the coast, was beautiful and past other equally looking upmarket resort towns. We managed to get a park (5.50 euro an hour though) and walked down to the port, which was very quaint! Now I already knew this place was pretty flash, but I didn't expect the Dior and Rolex shops, nor the prices of the restaurants! Sure they had lovely views, but this was the first place we'd been where they weren't advertising their menus/prices on blackboards outside. When I flicked open one menu and saw a glass of wine ("100mL") was 12-15 Euros we knew we were out of our league!

Our balcony in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre - heaven!

OK not all the restaurants were outrageous - there was some cafe/pizzeria type places where you could get a pizza for 12-15 euros, so we went to one of these cheap and cheerful places (we could kind of see the water!) and were greeted by a very friendly old Italian man. He recommended I get the foccacia col formmagio, which was "typical of the region", and Ryan got a caprese salad. They were both yum - I fear there will be a lot of buffalo mozzarella consumed in the next 3 weeks! So after lunch  we headed back to the car and hit the road again for Cinque Terre. I had been to Cinque Terre just for the day with my good friend Roxy ten years ago, and had vowed to come back ever since. When we were close and reached the coast up in the hills with impossible views of the Mediterranean, Coldplay's Paradise appropriately came on the radio, and my eyes pretty much welled up with pure delight.

Riomaggiore

We checked into our accommodation, I Limoni di Thule, which was an amazing find. Up on the hill, we could even park there (rare in Cinque Terre) and we had a room with fridge and spacious balcony with 180 degrees of the Mediterranean. It doesn't get much better than this kids! Even Ryan exclaimed when the lovely owner opened the balcony doors to reveal the view. We soon headed down the stairs to the town area, which was lovely. I hadn't been to this village one before - we had gone to 3 out of the 5, but this one didn't disappoint.

Riomaggiore main drag

We headed down to the port where Ryan went for a quick dip while I sat down and took some photos and stared up at these beautiful coloured buildings. It's funny because we haven't come across many Australians on this trip (apart from maybe in San Sebastian) but it turns out they're all in Cinque Terre, and why wouldn't you be? It's the poor man's Portofino and Amalfi Coast but to me, fortunately, it blows both of them out of the water.

Manarola

We stopped at a little bar in the main drag for our first prosecco of the trip. It was 3 euros - phew! Back into the land of good value! Then we headed back up the hill (which is a killer - all pigging out is justified in this town!) to our balcony, and chilled out while we watched the sun set. It was phenomenal. Then we headed back to town for dinner - a little bar/cafe where Ryan had a spicy tomato pasta and I had a caprese salad, jealous of what Ryan had for lunch. The tomatoes here are fantastic - so red and tasty! And buffalo mozarella, tomatoes and basil (topped with a generous amount of olive oil of course) should just always be eaten together. After dinner we just had a quiet evening on the balcony, admiring the millions of stars that we don't normally get to appreciate. We then found out that Ryan had left his mobile phone in the hotel room in Nice, but they found it and would send it on to our hotel in Venice (which turned out to cost 62 Euro, oddly enough the cost of a night in the Nice hotel). Good one Ryan.

Panoramic view somewhere along the Cinque Terre walk

The next morning we woke early-ish ready for a day of walking. Cinque Terre has, funnily enough, 5 fishing villages along the coast, and you can walk between all of them. We walked down to the main drag of Riomaggiore and had some brekky (bacon and eggs for him, yoghurt and fruit for me - how healthy!). Then we set off on the walk. We never intended to do it all because the whole thing is 9km of up and down hill trails, but we wanted to do a chunk. Anyway, we bought out 5 Euro national park ticket and began the walk. Riomaggiore is the first (most Eastern town) and the walk to the next village, Manarola, is a 15 minute (1km) flat, wide, piss-easy stroll, along a spectacular coastline, called Via dell'Amore where couples tie padlocks to whatever they can find to seal their love or something.

Corniglia

We walked along lovers lane to Manarola which is just stunning, and as fate would have it, you couldn't walk the trail to the next village due to landslides. Well, what can you do... safety first! So we got the train to the next village, Corniglia which is up on the hilltop. Because you couldn't walk here, the train was overpacked, overheated and uncomfortable. Having survived that, we alighted at Corniglia and had to (unexpectedly) climb about 8 or more flights of brick stairs. But we made it. Then we were intent on doing the walk to the next town, Vernazza, a 1 hour 45 min walk apparently. So after stopping for a quick small lunch, we set off.

Leo's oasis, at the top of the hill

We did the trek which was not too crazy, although I have a this mental problem where if there isn't a fence and we're high up, I feel like my body is going to defy gravity and just fall off the cliff. Its not a nice feeling, but there were fences for at least half the trek. It was pretty hot, and the path kept climbing up and down. Once we reached the summit, just like a mirage we reached "Leo's place", a little house right on the top of the hill where he welcomes you into his garden and offers you water and fresh figs he picks off the trees in his garden. Unbelievably kind and generous, and exactly what I needed. After cooling down a bit we left (not before Leo called out to us and said "Scusi - camera". Ryan had left the DSLR behind. Good one Ryan.

Relieved - reaching Vernazza

Disaster averted, we started the descent down towards Vernazza, which was actually my favourite village from when I had last visited. Unfortunately last October Vernazza suffered massive damage from severe flooding. Check out these clips and you'll see how bad it was. They had to rebuild a lot of the town, and most businesses only reopened this high season. It was good to see the town looked pretty much back to normal, with only a couple of buildings noticeably damaged/un-fixable. We went for a quick dip in the water - just near where the little boats are so not the clearest of waters, but we just wanted to wash the sweat off us from the walk! Then after drying off we stopped for a beer and prosecco while a young woman sang opera just next to us in the square. La di da.

Vernazza, using a fancy setting on the little camera!

We didn't really want to/were not capable of doing the final 1.5 hour trek (apparently the hardest) to Monterosso, and I was especially not keen as Monterosso is a crowded beach resort town and doesn't look like any of the others. So we decided we'd get the boat back to Manarola, then walk back along lovers lane and stop in at a little bar cafe perched high on the cliff. So we got our tickets to Manarola, and waited for a while with the growing crowd (Australians are actually very polite with their queue-ing!). We finally got on and set of sail past Corniglia to Manarola. I headed up front and got off the boat and walked ahead to wait for Ryan. And waited. I assumed he must have been fixing up his bag or tying up his shoe or something, but when I walked back to see where he was, the boat had left and no one else was there! Ryan had not gotten off the boat! Good one Ryan.

Pretty nice spot for a bar - where are the people?!

I still don't know why he didn't know to get off there, but anyway, I knew it was a short walk back to our village and figured I'd meet him back at the hotel. So with only my little camera on me, I started the walk and then straight away got asked for my national park day pass. Dang, Ryan had it! I half laughed and cried and said I didn't have it because my husband had it but he didn't get off the boat.
"What?!"
"My husband has my pass but he didn't get off the boat".
"Why didn't he get off the boat?!"
"I don't know!!" and threw my hands up in despair.
And so either she sympathised with me or thought I was completely silly, but just waved me on through. So I walked back down lovers lane alone.
Once at the end of the path Ryan was there heading back towards me. Apparently he didn't know we were getting off at Manarola (???).
Anyway, after going back and cooling off in the shower in more ways than one, there was still plenty of time to enjoy the lovers lane and bar perched high on the hills, so we headed back down. If you see the picture above, we were basically the only ones there. If this was a bar in Sydney, the drinks would be 5 times the price and there would be a one hour wait or something. So we enjoyed a beer/prosecco and tasted some local cheeses and honey. Just lovely.

Pesto - typical of the region

That night we went and had dinner at a place right near by recommended to us by the lovely lady who ran our hotel. Conveniently, it was up the hill so we didn't have to hike up or down! The food was great - we shared mixed seafood appetisers and I had a local fish dish (with tomatoes and olives) and Ryan had a pesto pasta. Pesto is from this region so Ryan was very keen to get his hands on some of it. It certainly was tasty, although Ryan's pesto is pretty amazing too. Then Ryan ordered a panna cotta dessert. I insisted I only wanted a taste, so I had one spoonful and it was so mind-blowing that I just put the spoon down and said "I'm going to pretend that never happened", which Ryan said was the funniest thing I've ever said?!

Not quite as comfortable as a beach back home

The next morning we went down to town and had some brekky, then walked around to the "beach". I could hardly walk over the rocks, and after Ryan went for his swim and said they're also very slippery, I decided not to even brave getting to a from the water because a sprained ankle was highly likely. So we relaxed on the rocky beach, then got a cone of fried stuff (from a place that fries anything and everything, puts it in a paper cone, and 7 euros later, prego!). We relaxed on the balcony for a bit, and then Ryan had booked a dive at 2pm so we headed down for that and I did some souvenir shopping, then hiked up the hill (which seemed to get harder every time?!) and caught up on emailing until Ryan came back.

So good it's ridiculous

 After Ryan's dive we spent most of the rest of the evening on our lovely balcony. It really was blissful. We just popped down to town to pick up some takeaway pasta to have back at home. What a heavenly few days. It really is one of, if not number one, in my large list of favourite places in the world. Ryan said we can run a B&B here one day. So long as I get over my fear of heights, get more fit, and learn Italian, I think we could!

Last sunset on Cinque Terre

Côtes ridic

Before we went to Nice we decided to go through Cannes. This was a mistake, there was no film festival on yet we couldn't find a park and it looked like a European version of Malibu in California. If you haven't been to Malibu, well Courtney Love did a song about it, nuff said. After getting out of Cannes through the traffic lights every 100m we arrived in Nice, checked into our hotel and they gave us the choice of rooms with a key to both to inspect. One was on the second floor and the other on the fifth floor was basically a trapezoid room with the only window being to the roof slope. I opened the window/sun light/trapdoor and was immediately surrounded by 50 degree heat from clay roof tiles being baking in the 30 degree weather all day, so we opted for the 2nd level room.

We went for a walk down the main avenue where there's trams running up and a lot of the fancy labelled shops, also there's a lot of cafes and bars which is quite perfect for us. We had a rose de Provence about halfway and then headed down to the beach. After walking around for a while we realised that it was too hot to do anything other than cain some wines right on the beach. These were more than we expected to pay and were similar to the prices of our local Sydney pubs, lah didah. P.S. with the dollar the way it is Europe is the new south east Asia.

The bar we were at was right on the beach and had a DJ playing some chill beats so we stayed there for quite a while. This bar was completely amazing, so close to the water and good music! Nice is apparently one of the first human settlements and you can tell. They realised they have come the the point of advancement in society where they think having wine by the sea just needs to be done. There was also a bucks party going on with some dudes speaking English but with all different accents which was pretty hilarious to watch after they ordered their fourth bottle of Tattinger champagne as most of the fourth and fifth bottle was ending up on the ground. Afterwards we just grabbed a burger for dinner at a local greasery which had the Olympics action on the big screen.

Heidi enjoying the beach side beats

The next day we went for a swim on the pebbled beach. I will say this: Australia has better beaches, but there doesn't seem to be anyone selling watermelon and rose on them close to the water? This is a big tick for the French beaches. Anyway we went to another one of the beach bars and had some watermelon and rose for lunch. I went for another swim as the same old dumb azure coloured water was literally 15 meters from where we were sitting.

Not this water again

We walked back home and did some blogging then went shopping for a while. After these strenuous activities we figured we'd earned some more rose by the beach. Also in case you're wondering why we were caining so much rose, the rose from Provence (which is nearby the Côtes de Azur) is something else. It doesn't taste like Ribena juice like most of the ones I've tried in Australia. They taste similar to a white but with slight berry flavours and are super awesome when it's hot. So we journeyed back to Plage Beau Rivage in search of lounge beats and another bottle of rose de Provence. Life was super hard watching the sun dip down into the water. The bucks party was also back there caining Tattinger again.

For dinner we went in search of some moules as we figured the seafood would be good here. Unfortunately we went to the tourist trap section one street back from the beach near the old town. The mussels were great but it cost more than it should have.

Last day in Nice we went for a drive to see the Principality of Monaco. It was a pretty good drive and was well signed and easy to navigate to the tourist information spot. We got there and walked around the main casino which had about every recent luxury car brand you could name and a few vintage ones parked nearby. It was a Sunday so it didn't seem like there was too much open in the way of shops. We were after a coffee and a petite dejuner but we could only see restaurants with names like "Billionaires" bar attached to the local Fairmont hotel there didn't seem to be anything in the way of a small cafe.

We gave up on this area and reparked near the Palace. Unfortunately we just missed the changing of the guards so we gave up on that and got some sandwiches from a cheap cafe. We walked around to the Palace past the marina with the ridiculous boats and had a look around but it seemed pretty boring besides the statue of a massive baby breakdancing and we were over the bourgeouis by this stage as we weren't a part of any of it.

Massive break dancing baby doing a freeze.

Pretty cool they decided to build this on the side of a cliff in Monaco.

It was nice of them to build some statues of us
with our guts in proportion to our heads for this trip

We decided to go home past Eze as the first time we went past we couldn't get a park. It's this tiny village on the top of a mountain between Monaco and Nice. Unfortunately it was just as packed out as when we went past in the morning. We cut our losses and parked the car in the hotel carpark space which you have to fold the rear view mirrors in to get into. I should have said we had a 4WD because you get an easier parking space that way.

We went back to another beach bar which luckily had watermelon and rose to console ourselves with as our favourite bar with the beats was packed out by this time. I tried to go for another swim but when I went to rent a towel the lady said it was 5 euro for the towel and 6 euro for a swim since I was only at the lounge bar and hadn't paid for a lie low. I was tempted to tell her I was going to just take her dumb towel and go for a swim 50m down the beach where its free but decided against it and went back to drinking the rose with Heidi and go for a swim later. For dinner we went back to the burger joint with the massive TV for Olympics watching.

Watermelon and rose by the sea, just need some fried chicken for perfection.

In summary Nice should be renamed to Extremely Nice or whatever the Frenchy equivalent would be. It wasn't the cheapest place but definitely was one of the loveliest especially the beach area and I would go back there in a second.

In fact I left my doppleganger there I loved it so much.