Maranola - Cinque Tere

Emily - Or as I like to call it to hell and back..............partly due to the mammoth hike that Jez and I undertook. Cinque Terre is made up of five remote villages on the Italian Riviera and the area around these villages has been made a national park, enabling you to hike from one village to another. The entire seven mile hike covers easy to very steep terrain and (foolishly) as we started late in the day we were forced to hike at the hottest part of the day (35 C plus). The hike took us roughly three hours (not including breaks and Jeremy's beer at the second last village) but the good news is that we made it. I would have done my signature starjump pose at the end of the hike but I was soooo stuffed I was crawling home.

However, the hike was worth it as we got to see some fantastic scenery, lots of dramatic hilltop and ocean views. To celebrate our success in completing my first hike we went out for dinner at a local eatery. We had fantastic pasta, yummy pizza and a glass of local vino. I think it was the best pasta I've had in Italy and the serving sizes were quite generous.

Jeremy - We only ended up doing the hike as it was the same price to do a short walk as it was a long one, had to get our money's worth On our other days there we took the easy option of the train to explore the villages and spent most of our time at Monterosos's beach. This included an unscheduled trip to La Speza as we boarded the wrong train. This turned out to be beneficial as the supermarket prices were half that of the Cinque Tere. I think if we come back we will stay there instead of in the villages. Not yet sick of beaches our next stop is Nice, but unfortunately it didn't live up to its English translation.