Arrived in Verona

...just before the "intensa" rain set in.

Total miles to date: 4803 (7730km).

Lake Garda

Hot hot hot! Visited Venice yesterday. It was OK. Not overly impressed. Escaping the heat today at Lake Garda. Might be here a couple of days as the lack of access to AC its taking its toll.

San Marino

Betty did a great job of getting us up here yesterday. A machine.

So glad I pushed to come here. The views are amazing. There's some medieval festival on at the moment so we're going to hang around for the dancing and flag waiving later. Woop Woop!

Sestri Levante and Cinque Terre

We left Savona, (where I watched the Hawks loose to Geelong for the 11th successive time) and camped at Sestri Levante, a few train stops north west of the Cinque Terre National Park which would be our destination the next day.  After successive days with temperatures above 30 degrees we were getting used to the obligatory trip to the beach. The local haunt even provided decent sand and shade. Kudos.

Taryn

Italian Bam Bam

The bay of Silence

Me

The next day we took the train to Cinque Terre     with little info other than "a stretch of spectacular Italian coastline". We're so igorant. First stop Riomaggiore. 

Then after a slight miscommunication about validating and a run in with the train conductor, Monterosso.

After lunch we had a choice between beer, beach or ferry. Beer won (but we did get to the beach after beer). I really wanted to get to Vernazza though as some photos I'd seen looked amazing. So at about 7pm we caught the train 3 minutes down the line and went to dinner at a local pizzeria. The pizza was bloody good and the wine was welcome. And the view didn't disappoint. 

We both fell asleep on the train home and the hill to the campsite was not kind to cycle but it really was a great day. 

Next stop; Pisa. 

Nice

We caught the train from Biot to Nice, walking far too briskly to the station for my liking as the temperature had been creeping up the last couple of days. In Nice we wandered along the esplanade where the Tour de France stage had been two days before.

The old town in Nice has a great atmosphere; small alleyways and an abundance of restaurants and cafes. Old cathedrals and buildings also.

We stopped at a cafe that was supposed to be good and although they weren't serving 'French afternoon tea' as hoped the food was excellent.

To work off the calories we walked up Castle Hill, past the man made waterfall and up to the  lookout.

That's it for our France adventure (apart from our ferry from Calais to Dover next month). Next post will be on our first stopover in Italy; Savona.

Tour de France and Cannes

We walked down the road about 1km to the point where the Tour de France was to go past.  When Taryn asked how many cyclists there would be I said I didn’t know.  When she asked if it would be close to 1000, I knew she was about to be severely underwhelmed.  I fully expected the event to be over within 30 seconds and yet when it was, I still felt disappointed.  Was all the organisation, and police, and road closures, and marketing/publicity, and coverage, just for that short blitz of riders? Surely this must be the least live spectator friendly sport in the world. 

When it was all over we jumped on a train to Cannes.  The film festival was in May so I lowered my expectations of running into Natalie Portman.  

Big boats as usual around the marina. 

With nothing to do in particular we just had a look around and ended up catching a ferry out to Saint Marguerite island for a few hours in the late afternoon.  Did you know that at Fort Royal on the island, the man in the iron mask was held for 11 years?  Hmmmmm... me neither.

Fort Royal on Saint Marguerite Island

The view of Cannes from the ferry.

Taryn, contemplating life.

Wetlands on the island.