The Cinque Terre National Park Trails Using Levante as a base we started the Cinque Terre trails (5 rock villages) from Monterosso al Mare up and up and up the hundreds of rock steps then down the other side to Vernazza. The black thundering clouds, rolling down the steppes behind us threatened to deluge – from the high vineyards to the olive grove and finally through the lemon trees, the soaking Italian rain drops threaten to overtake us but we just made it to Vernazza and settled under a ‘sun’ umbrella to order lunch. Italian food – magical – we savoured every mouthful, not only hoping the rain would end but more because of the culinary master dish with the perfect blend of herbs. Finally the sun fought through, the clouds rolled on leaving only the sea to spray and churn against the mighty cliffs along the Ligurian coastline. Off to Corniglia, then Manorola and finally Riomaggiore – parts of the last two trails were still closed from 2011 mudslides and Manorala and Riomaggiore could only be reached by the hilltop routes (up the near vertical hills behind the villages and then down again, and fortunately by the local train tunneling through the rock cliffs and emerging at each town. PS no-one makes icecream like the Italians – a cone a day of the most exotic flavours is an absolute necessity. Staying in Levante is perfect – 100 steps to the front door of our luxurious apartment – 3 mins to the train, 3 mins to the cafes, bars, gellatories; restaurants, boutique shops, 1 min to the supermarket, 5 mins to the beach – what more could we wish for Coffee in Levante to start the day is an essential – at a local cobbled alley, sidewalk table – the simple soy flat white or latte at home is but a distant memory. Accidentally ordering lattes resulted in enormous glasses of hot milk – we then ordered caffe and added the ‘short black’ to the milk – not a bad result at all. caffe americana may or may not come with milk; caffe with a little latte could have a few drops of milk, a jug of steamed milk or froth … we have learned to enjoy them all and maybe it will be hard to go back to the humble soy flat white. Shopping in La Spezia- a lovely afternoon of wandering – La Spezia, the other side of the Cinque Terre from Levane is the Port for NW Italy and will be our train interchange for Firenze (Florence) and Rome. As usual any activity must always be accompanied by the obligatory icecreams and drinks. … so hard to remember whether its oui monsieur or si signore – bonjour or buongiorno – merci or grazie – pardon or scusami – un, deux, trois or uno, due, tre … quel pris or quant’e  

ciao ciao Levanto – grazie mille
loved everything – food, ice creams, little shops, the beach, the walks … watching the World Cup soccer at respectable hours …