Cannes & Cinque Terre

We left Beziers on Friday on a 9 am train headed for Cannes. We checked into our hotel and had a nice chat with the owner about what to see in Cannes. We walked down to the film festival grounds (they are starting to set up as the festival begins in two weeks). We headed along the beach and Dad and I even put our feet in.

We had a nice last meal in France -- I had onion soup, a sirloin steak with potatoes, and creme brulee for dessert. I was hoping for escargot or frog legs, but I guess this was okay.

On Saturday, we set out on a long day of train travel. We had to change trains in Ventimiglia, which is right over the border in Italy. We finally arrived in La Spezia on late Saturday afternoon and headed to our hotel. We had a great pizza dinner on Saturday night, and rested up for our big day of hiking on Sunday.

Unfortunately for us, Sunday was the rainiest day we could have picked to hike the Cinque Terre! The scenery was still beautiful but we sure got wet and muddy! We hiked all the way from Riomaggiore (town #1) to Vernazza (town #4), passing through Manarola and Corniglia on our way. By the time we made it to Vernazza, we were in a torrential downpour so we had a late lunch there before taking a train to Monterosso, just so we could say we had been to all five towns! We headed all the way back to Riomaggiore via train to have a gelato, then we went back to La Spezia and to our hotel for the night.

Vernazza

Mom & Dad on the Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola

Me in rainy Riomaggiore

We left La Spezia on Monday morning and headed for Florence. We are headed to Pisa this afternoon and I will try to update again about Florence and Pisa before we head to the last two stops of our trip!

Ciao for now!