(written 11/4/06 15:53 Greek time, in Náfplio, Greece)
We awoke to a morning where the weather was hugely improved - blue skies and sun all around us, quite a change from the clouds and fog of the past few days.
The included breakfast was big and hit the spot nicely, but we decided to move on and see more of this picturesque part of the Italian coast while the weather was working with us.
Part of the coast that fellow travellers had spoken to us about but we had missed last time is the World-Heritage listed
Cinque Terre (literally, five towns). Linked primarily by footpaths and a rail line, we hadn't chosen the ideal method to explore it, as the roads into each town plunge off one windy coastal road, making for a lot of driving to cover not much distance.
Still, we love that sort of driving, so as we followed the tiny roads, some barely wide enough for one car let alone two, we pushed south-east along the coast. At one point we stopped and made cup of tea by the road overlooking the sea, resting both the drivers and the car.
As we drove along to the Cinque Terre, we wound down into Monterosso al mare, the first of the terre. This looked interesting enough, but we only had a quick stop before winding back up and along the tiny road further, watching the remaining five terre pass underneath us, each with a unique but spectacular coastal setting.
The last, Riomaggiore, we decided to stop in for the night. Hairpin upon hairpin took us most of the way down into town, until we hit the end of the road with a parking lot. Chancing upon a spot, we paid an extortionate toll and wandered off to quickly find a hotel, hopefully with parking.
Tiny windy streets with tall buildings and no more than a dozen shops or so in total, the town was gorgeous and the people nice and friendly. The first hotel we looked at had a great terrace to enjoy the still-sunny weather, parking, but no views to speak of and was quite pricey. A little later we found another cheaper option, no terrace, but amazing views across the tiny port to the surrounding sea. We pounced on it, but had to climb way back up the steep streets to move the car to their reserved parking and grab our gear. Being very careful not to leave anything behind (didn't want to have to walk back to the car up these hills!), we trudged back to the nice room to relax and do some washing.
The afternoon was spent wandering along a small section of the coastal path, enjoying first gelato and later a beer and nibblies at Bar Centrale with some fellow travellers.
We lazed in our room for evening with the sound of the sea crashing just below us, and I fell asleep at about 7pm so we didn't bother going out for dinner, instead enjoying the cheese, bread and wine in room.
The TV strangely had three separate "coast cam" channels where we could get live views of separate sections of surround coast and buildings.