Cinque Terre

Intrepid travellers arrived safely in Monterosso - via people mover as far as La Spezia, then the local train, and finally bumping our luggage around the headland to our 'magic garden' B&B.


Welcome drinks in the walled garden, and exploring all the nooks and crannies of Monterosso - like Vernazza, still recovering from landslides last year that were devastating for both towns, but still beautiful. 

A full day to follow visiting the other towns - Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia and back to Vernazza and Monterosso - a lovely mix of boat, train and walking.

The Cinque Terre ferry

Riomaggiore

The lovers' walk, Riomaggiore

The lovers' seat ...

and the lovers' seat again! (yes, there's a photo of Col and me as well - but on someone else's camera ...)

Not the usual cupids!

Vernazza - the beautiful harbour half full of mud after the landslide last year. The town is still recovering.

Doors painted all over Vernazza

A true entrepreneur - a stall halfway down a steep hill on the walk coming into Monterosso, selling fresh lemonade, limoncello or wine. Having an aversion to falling off cliffs, we stuck to lemonade.

And at Monterosso, we all said goodbye to travel in our different directions - Cathy and Greg to Venice and then on to Paris; Lou and Paul to Spain; and the two of us to Provence. 

Great company, great memories - looking forward to sharing stories back at home in a few weeks' time...

Rome and Lucca 2012

A much delayed start to the blog! 

It's Italian Labour Day, 1 May, a public holiday and raining in Lucca. So we have coffee and panforte at hand, and some smooth jazz (bought from a street musician in the Borghese gardens) playing in the background while I finally post some photos and catch up on what we've been up to.


Five days of almost perpetual sunshine in Rome, much like home, mid 20s and sunny. Our apartment was perfect - just off the Spanish Steps, all chandeliers and great flowing drapes and eccentric plumbing, and overlooking a street scene of cafes and bars and crazy Italian drivers. Pete T joined us from the UK and, as the 7th person, got to sleep in a cupboard - but a very nice cupboard with plenty of air :)

Street view from the apartment

Did a guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman forum, which was fascinating; climbed to the top of the dome at St Peters; Spanish Steps ablaze with azaleas; a visit to the gallery and bike riding in the Borghese gardens (which required resting and a cold beer under the trees afterwards). 

Spanish Steps - before the sun came out

On the Spanish Steps ... 

Colosseum

Col at the Castel Sant'angelo

Pooh Bear in the Borghese Gardens 

Leanne also in the Borghese Gardens

Our efforts in Italian are impressive: our hovercrafts are full of eels (thanks to Greg and Monty Python...)

Managed to fit all the people and luggage in a Renault people mover for the trip to Tuscany (though Cathy and Greg's Samsonite was a close call...) 

Intrepid travellers 1

Intrepid travellers 2

Travelled via Siena for lunch and an (unintended) walking tour of the city, and a quick stop at Pisa to see the leaning tower - much more impressive in reality than in the photos. It's a truly beautiful structure, and quite incredible at over 4m out of plumb.


We're now in Tuscany in Lucca, which is a beautiful medieval town, with narrow winding streets - like Siena, we've been lost ever since we got here. 


Our apartment is stunning - huge, Italian influenced but underpinned with Scandinavian decorating restraint (owner is Norwegian and all the instructions are in that language!)


Went to a Puccini concert last night at S Guiseppe, a small but beautiful chapel - they have a short concert every night of the year to celebrate his origins here in Lucca. 


More bike riding on the city walls that surround the old town, lots of steps, towers, churches, espresso and limone gelati... and off to the Cinque Terre tomorrow.

View of Lucca from the bell tower, Torre Guinigi

Bike riding on the wall of the old town, Lucca

 

Vanuatu

So it's taken a couple of weeks to get these photos up, but we were so busy snorkelling and swimming and eating very good food by candlelight on the beach that blogging just seemed too much like work :)

Anyway, for those who are interested, here are some highlights of our week at the magical Moyyan House by the Sea, on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu...

View from our faré

Some shots of life in Luganville and around Santo below ...

Village life

Washing day

The little guys below were fascinated to see themselves in the back of the digital camera.

Millenium Cave

They told us it would be challenging - but we didn't expect to be climbing down a cliff via a bamboo bridge; through the pitch blackness of the cave itself, 400m in ankle- to waist-deep water; clambering over massive boulders to launch ourselves into the cold, fresh water of the gorge; and then climbing back up a cliff, following the course of a waterfall.

Nor did we expect the incredible peace of drifting down the river, walls of the gorge rising each side and massive ferns filtering the sunlight - with the pure Bislama singing voice of our young guide, Marie, echoing off the walls... or the otherworldly beauty of the landscape as we returned to the village, covered to the treetops with vines planted for camouflage during World War II.

Daniel, one of our fabulous guides

Across the bamboo bridge

Exit from the Millenium Cave

Champagne Bay, Blue Hole and Million Dollar Point

A great day's tour in Darryl's taxi

Champagne Beach

Blue Hole

Million Dollar Point

Amalfi Coast to Rome ... and home

Our last few days in Europe are spent in Rome. We come via the Sita bus, then the graffiti-swirled tourist-laden Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii (extraordinary, even full of tour leaders waving flags and umbrellas, shouting history at herds of tourists), another to Naples (a much 'edgier' trip), and finally an Intercity train to Rome. We’re proud to have successfully navigated all those connections in a single day :)

Rome is amazing and exhausting and gritty and beautiful all at once. We walk and walk for miles here too, from the Colosseum to the Palatine Hills, to the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican Museum and St Peter’s and everywhere in between. There are shops full of vestments and nun’s habits on sale; and gladiators of all shapes and sizes (fat ones, skinny ones), trying to extract euros from anyone who looks at them closely, much less takes a photo. There are ruins where Julius Caesar was murdered in 44BC - a city block of them just near a tram stop - now home to dozens and dozens of cats (some of Rome’s estimated 300,000 feral felines). There are the beggars outside the railway station, and the amazing riches of the Vatican. It’s overwhelming and fabulous, and we have to come back and do it justice!

So then there’s a long trip home via Hong Kong, with just a couple of hours sleep between getting up in Rome and going to bed in Brisbane some 50 hours later. Now we’ve been home a week, and I’m writing the final post. Thanks friends and family for your comments and calls – hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it!

All our love, Leanne and Col.