Cinque Terre: Riomaggiore

Actually, we spent more time in Riomaggiore (Rigamorole) than any of the other four. This was because, in addition to having had some pizza and foccacia in Vernazza, we decided to have another snack, after dark, in Riomaggiore. We figured the La Spezia buses ran way into the night on weekends. Plus we spent a bit of extra time waiting on the train in Riomaggiore. And then we also came back on Monday to get a day-time look and some pix.

Riomaggiore by night; tall buidlings

Lemon anchovies; the local (sweet, floral) white wines really do complement these
flavors; Vicki had the pasta/pesto thing, nothing to look at; perhaps because the
pesto itself was unremarkable; and disappointing

By day, the restaurant at which we dined by night

Outside the restaurant, a line of boats waiting to be launched into the tiny marina

Rigamarole by day

Cinque Terre: Vernazza

We had been near the Cinque Terre a couple times, but we had never done it. Well, this time we did it, although, due to poor planning, poor weather, poor judgment, etc., it was not among our most elegant and efficient visits. But we did it, partly on Saturday and Saturday night, and partly on Monday, after the torrential rains (which closed all the footpaths) had finished. We took the Sestre Levante train from La Spezia to Vernazza, which Vicki had read was the best of the five little towns, with the best hiking path leading from it to the fifth of the towns, Monterosso. Other parts of the trail system have been closed for some time now, after the floods of October, 2011. Anyhow, we got to Vernazza, looked around a bit, and then headed for the trail.

Up on the trail, looking at great sea caves just out of the town

Church and castle verticals

Some of the flood damage from 2011 remains; the trail led
right by this sad and distressing instance

Up higher, the little monorail train that services the vineyards

Looking back to Vernazza; what you can't see is the throng
of American college students; thousands; the only Italian
we heard this day was in the parish church at Vernazza (and
it may have been pre-Italian)

We got to a high point and an overlook; in the distance you
can see Monterosso, our goal; at this point, however, we
decided not to go the distance...heat, humidity, mosquitoes,
another mountain to climb, and descend; so we descended
back to Vernazza

No complaints about the trail, however

Vernazza street scene

Actual fishing boat in the marina

Interesting sea caves across the harbor

La Spezia

The camper sosta, with about twenty rigs, was on the south side of harbor, but easily connected to the city center via a 15 minute bus ride. La Spezia is a famous and busy port, one of the major ports of the Italian navy in the day. The old city is quite attractive and much more than merely a terminus of the Cinque Terre. Saturday I took the bus in to explore and ascertain schedules and costs, etc., of the trip to the very famous Five Lands.

Many beautiful old buildings

Detail

Cathedral

One part of the massive indoor market

Garibaldi rides again, in the pretty park by the harbor

Fisherperson stuff everywhere

Everywhere

Every Italian town has one of these, but we are getting closer to the center now...

Sepulchre of St. Camembert

Walking by a smidgeon of the port area

A bit of the big camper sosta area

Scenic Driving On the Italian Riviera

It was to be a day or two of scenic driving, from San Remo through Imperia, Savona, Genova, Rapallo, Chiavari, and dozens of others, then up in the mountains, and then down to La Spezia. And it was. We stopped rarely. For the first 50-75 miles the towns are nearly contiguous, all with 30 MPH speed limits, traffic signals, pedestrians, double- and triple-parked vehicles. One spends a great deal of time simply stopped. We thought of it as slow mobile people watching, like in a cafe, except with us passing by and not the people. The first night we stayed in a campground in Ceriale, did the wash, then got a late start the next day. The towns thinned out a bit, and then we came to Genoa. Vicki wondered aloud whether Tom, our crack SatNav, would take us right into and through Genoa. Of course he did! Right on the two-/sometimes 4-lane main coastal drag. Genoa seemed like a 50 mile-long port. We got lost only once, and that afforded us the opportunity to see the Centro Storico and its buildings. From San Remo on, the dominant architectural feature was the trompe l'oeil painting on buildings, even the plainest of buildings, some of it quite impressive. In addition, there was a bit of Art Nuveau here and there. After Genoa, the driving became a bit tougher, first high on mountainsides and the hill-top towns, then down to the sea and the seaside towns. And again. And again. Vicki took pretty much all the pix these two days. It was nice to get a sense of Genoa, but we would have done better to have taken the autostrada. Also through the mountains inland from the Cinque Terre. (We've driven the autostrada in these parts before and don't care for the endless tunnels and high bridges). We were glad to have seen all the things we saw, particularly the coast itself, and particularly glad to reach the free sosta in La Spezia as darkness fell.

At the beginning

Pretty castle and town

In Genoa, scooters lined up to beat the traffic

After Genoa, climbing...

Ditto

Another beautiful seaside town

In Rapallo, I think, a tour bus makes an impossible turn

Old tower on the water; many of these

The charm of the autostrada, high above

Typical

And now in the hills

Cemeterio

Across The Mountains; And Back Again

We wanted to start the Italian Riviera at the border and so took a little-used road from near Cuneo across the mountains, into France, then back briefly into Italy, and then back to Menton, where we filled-up with French diesel (currently running about a buck cheaper than the Italian). It was an interesting start to our Italian Riviera drive.

Before we got to the pass, we stopped at one of the best
junk stores we have seen

Everything arranged in quite an orderly fashion

Thus, including some nice Murano

And thus

And thus

The price on this really nice bar set dropped from 700 to
200 euros; and probably would have dropped a bit more had
I shown real interest

The tunnel from Italy to France is a one-lane, circulation
alternee; I think we are in the hinterlands of both countries

In the tunnel

After the tunnel, the road dropped down through many miles
of perhaps the most beautiful gorge we have seen, that of
the La Roya river

Thus, through steep high walls

Creating beautiful pools

Further down, more hill towns

Until finally we are in Menton

Having lunch

Close by some nice rigs

And ready to begin our drive