The Good, the Bad and the Absolutely Fantastic.

After saying a very sad farewell to our friends at Rome airport, we flew to Genoa. We were picked up from the airport by our lovely B&B host and had a great view of the city as he drove us to the B&B along the elevated highway. The view from our room the next morning was pretty amazing too.

We explored the old city. The tall, narrow lanes were dark and shabby. It was a weekend so nothing much was open and it was all a bit dodgy. We found a Sunday market though, which sold unusual things like chandeliers and old soldiers' uniforms, and we explored a few old "palaces" (what we would call mansions) and churches. In Italy, I believe you should never pass a church without sticking your nose inside. You never know what you might find. The church below was so plain on the outside that we barely realised it was a church. This is what we found inside......

The painting in the centre is by someone famous. Just wish I could remember who it was!

Many buildings were amazing.

There were also a few lighter moments.......

We then caught a train to Vernazza, one of the five famous towns of the Cinque Terre. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Cinque Terre is a group of five colourful coastal towns perched on stunning cliffs. We had heard that they were incredibly beautiful and that you could do spectacular walks between the towns.

We arrived in Vernazza and the first thing we had to do was lug our bags up 250 steps to our room. The steep cliffs mean that you have to climb up and down steps to go anywhere. Walking anywhere was a great workout! Our room was dark and pokey but the place was OK with a few lovely terraces.

We started to explore the town and were shocked by the number of tourists that were crammed into the small roads and lanes. Boats travel up and down the coast between the five towns and when they pull into a town hundreds of people descend at once. It was awful! Never before have we been so disappointed by tourist numbers completely ruining a place. Santorini came close to this but it was hard to ruin that spectacular place and there was more room for the tourists to spread out. 

Cinque Terre was a disaster. Apparently, a famous American travel guide, Rick Steves, recommended it and now Americans arrive here in vast numbers. As we fought out way through the crowds one day, John said the place should be named Cinque Disney, and the name stuck. We had booked four nights here so we just tried to make the most of it.

Vernazza was quite pretty in the morning before the hordes descended. It was okay at night too.

 We had a great night there with Tara and Andre, an American/Guatemalan couple, at a small bar-restaurant. Most of the restaurants here were overpriced but this one wasn't too bad. We discovered a new version of an Aperol Spritz which was fun! 

We went to do the main coastal walk that linked the five towns and found that it was all closed due to a combination of recent wet weather and major landslides a few years before. After talking to a few people we learned that some sections were only closed in the Italian way. By that I mean we could actually walk those parts so long as we accepted the risk of walking on a wet track. Once we were told this, John and I didn't even check with each other - we both just walked straight under the barrier and onto the track. Of course, the track was absolutely fine - they re-opened it the next day anyway.

Vernazza's dramatic cliff-top position.

Monterosso al Mare was one of the few towns with a decent beach.

I loved the black and white church here. The contrasting stripes were both inside and outside the church.

 Next door was another church that had skeletons and skulls as decorations inside.

This banner nearby said it was the Society of the Dead! I've tried googling this but am none the wiser as to what it's all about.

True to what we'd read, the walks were beautiful. We passed through farmland where they've constructed terraces to utilise every part of the steep hillsides. There was also lots of lovely greenery. And, of course, there were many steps!

The paths, including a few bridges, were all made by the villagers so they could move easily between the towns.

The views along the coast were wonderful.

Vernazza again.

That picturesque scene was ruined though when the hordes arrived by boat.

Crowds in the streets.

We walked for two days and caught up on things on the other days. On our second day of walking we walked up on a higher trail and it was even more beautiful than the lower trail.

Another of the five villages. I think it's Corniglia.

I loved the way the grape vines contrasted against the blue sea.

We found a small village up on a hill between two of the Cinque Terre villages and it was lovely! The coloured houses seemed far better maintained and it looked like a real town, instead of a tourist town. Best of all, only a handful of tourists were there. Heaven!

We could see that it was nearly olive picking time. They seemed very ripe.

There were many gorgeous views.

Europeans are great gardeners. Gotta love sunflowers!

The prickly pear fruit were ripening too.

It's funny but I've realised that this post makes Cinque Terre sound okay. It's not. We didn't like it, although we did like the walks. It has been completely ruined by its own popularity. The towns were a nightmare and the tracks were only good because they were officially closed which kept the numbers down. What's more, we weren't there at high season. Gosh - that must be awful! I highly recommend that anyone planning to travel in Italy firstly researches the places that Rick Steves recommends, then don't go there!

With great relief we caught a train back to Genoa and picked up our hire car. As usual, we didn't get the car we ordered but we were very happy with the Fiat 500X they replaced it with!

We drove back up to Alba where we had left John's bike. On the way we passed this interesting sign!

Back in Alba, Bruce the bike was very happy to see us and he fitted in the car comfortably. We had two nights here (we felt a sense of duty after they looked after Bruce for a month for us). We had a different room this time, further away from the church bells that drove us mad last time. I loved the old claw foot bath.

They had lots of interesting curios around the place like this old puppet theatre.

Apparently they have what's called the "Big Bench Project" in Italy. This is where they put an oversized bench in places with lovely views to encourage people to get out and experience the great outdoors. There was a Big Bench just up the road from where we were staying and we had fun mucking around on it. In typical Italian style though, there was quite a bit of industrial activity in that view.

For those Little Britain fans among you, we kept thinking of the words, "Write the feme tune, sing the feme tune"!

Awww, my hubby found a heart-shaped leaf for me! (Or did he buy it in that Sexy Shop?)

While John went for a bike ride one day, I went for a walk in a National Park. I found this sign pointing to other National Parks around the world. I'd never heard of Purnululu NP but I just looked it up and saw that it's the Bungle Bungles.

I came across an old chestnut farm in the park. Chestnuts were just lying all over the ground. An old man wandered around picking up heaps of them. I love the way people grow and collect their own food in Europe.

We then started exploring the Piedmont region. Oh my goodness - we were in for such a treat! Famous for its red wines, particularly Barolo and Barbaresco, it was one of the most beautiful places we have been to. First, we did a wine tasting. John tried all of this line-up while I tasted the local chocolates that came with them!

We then drove around the area over the next two days. The scenery was spectacular! Vine-covered hills were just starting to get their autumn colours.

Castles stood on hilltops and vines grew over every spare piece of land.

Sometimes those hills were challenging. On our way to dinner one night we had to drive up this one!

The most amazing sunset occurred while we were driving and we had to keep stopping to take photos.

Our dinner destination this night was the same place we went to when we here here last time as the meal was so fantastic. This time, John had timed the trip around white truffle season, but the weather had been unusually warm and the truffles hadn't started. To our delight, the owner managed to get some early truffles in for the first time on the night we were there!

First, the truffles were brought out for our examination......

We were advised which courses were suited to the truffles and we chose the pasta course. The right sized truffle was duly selected and scales were brought to the table to weigh the truffle to the exact gram!

Our truffle was taken to the kitchen for washing, then returned with a grater, awaiting the food. John was a very happy chappy with his fantastic local red wine and his white truffle! It also seemed an appropriate time to continue the celebration of the Tigers' win!

When the pasta came out, the truffle was shaved onto it.

There was heaps! Neither of us had had white truffle before and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as strong as black truffle which suited me fine. John loved the whole experience.

The next night we ate at our accommodation and, once again, the accent was on good, fresh, local food. It was all wonderful!

On some of our drives in the area the snow-covered peaks of the Alps provided a perfect backdrop to the gorgeous vineyards.

The soil is really strange though - it's very light coloured. Walking through it, we found it was like talcum powder it was so dry and fine.

We came across a castle and went to explore it but found we could only join a tour and the tour was in Italian. Oh well - at least it was interesting from the outside!

 We got on really well with a couple of the staff members at our accommodation. Roddy was a real character. I have no idea why he and John are holding jugs but it was funny at the time!

We were so sad to leave the Piedmont region. It's spectacularly beautiful and the food and wine are amazing. We will be back again one day!

Chin chin!
Heather and John