A Dream Come True

Today was a day of ticking one off my bucket list, or almost!

We walked the Trinque Terre today and it was wonderful! I’ve renamed the Cinque Terre, the Trinque Terre (and Al’s renamed it the Shanks Terror as walking it caused terror to his legs), as rock falls in 2011 and 2012 have closed the coastal walk sections between the two southernmost villages.

We’re in northwest Italy, north of Pisa but south of Genova, along the coast and I’ve been keen to do the famous walk between the five beautiful villages for ages.

The two shortest sections are the ones that are closed (about 1.2 and 2.4km), although it’s possible to do the more inland walks between these villages. We walked from the most northerly village, Monterossa da Mer, to the next village (about 3.6km and two hours), had coffee and lunch, then did the next leg (3.5km and 90 minutes). We then caught the coastal train to Riomaggoria, the end village, then back to Lavanta, where we’re camping.

It was a fairly strenuous walk, but very invigorating and we were mixing with a very multinational crowd of trekkers. The scenery was amazing!

We’re pretty happy that the sections were closed, as I don’t know if we would have had the legs for them.

We also walked about 1.5km each way from our campground to the train station. Thank goodness for reviving hot showers!

I also had a very lively conversation with six young Irish kids, camping with their families in the campground. They were trying to convince me to believe all sorts of tall stories. I had tears coming from my eyes with laughter! One very Irish looking and sounding young girl was very earnest about her dad being Chinese…

Tomorrow we should make it into France, for a quick trip across. We’re keen to get to Morocco as soon as we can, before the heat beats us. We’re starting to run into lots of Aussies now, so it feels like we’re almost home!

Until next time!