Italy - Monterosso, Venice and Milan

Monterosso

The village of Vernazza

We arrived in Monterosso, Cinque Terra on the afternoon of my Birthday. We celebrated at a wine bar and then at a seafood restaurant. Cinque Terra is made up of 5 beautiful little villages with Monterosso being the most western followed by Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

Happy birthday to me

Birthday cake substitute

The view we had at breakfast every day

The walking trail between the villages has been shut down due to a landslide that injured a few Australians but our hotel staff informed us that the Monterosso/Vernazza section was still accessible and that you do not need to pay the 5€ ... another goal for Holland. The path was very narrow in sections and with steep drops. I may have called out for Mum more than once. Chon who doesn't have a healthy respect for heights was more afraid of the lizards that were sun baking on the cliff face at about head height. When they scattered, Chon would make funny noises and move even closer to the edge of the track with the significant drop on it. The walk was well worth it when we had a magical view of Vernazza from the cliff face.

Monterosso beach

Chon looking too comfortable on a very thin rock bridge

Me looking less comfortable on the narrow path

The view we had along the walk

Main street of Vernazza

Enjoying a beer after a nervous walk into Vernazza

Streets in Corniglia

Manarola

Riomaggiore

Chon making friends with the local pets

And then the local pests ... one pigeon

Two pigeons

Then three ... we didn't have any food either. Chon the pigeon whisperer.

Venice

The Grand Canal

Venice's smaller canals

Gondola rides in the canals

Piazza San Marco

Venice was everything we had imagined, seen in movies and heard about. Our first day there was an overcast day but we enjoyed getting lost in the maze that is Venice, crossing numerous bridges and navigating narrow alley ways dropping in to cafés and wine bars along the way. We woke up the next day to be confronted with Venice's fourth worst flood in history. Our hotel was on the higher ground of Venice but there was water right up to the front door but it did not get higher than the top step. The hotel had gumboots for the guests but nothing big enough for me so I improvised with garbage bags until we came across a street vendor that had big enough boots. We were happy splashing about in the smelly water that was a little milky until we came to the realisation that the smelly water was probably part sewerage so we stopped splashing around and walked a little more carefully to let our clothing dry out. The flood waters didn't stay around for long and the shops and restaurants were quick to clean up and reopen their doors.

Alley way near our hotel that temporarily turned into a canal

My garbage bag boots

Seems the bag boots were the latest rage in Venice ... a trend that I obviously started

Testing out the proper boots

Rialto Bridge ... the photo I got whilst testing out the boots above

One of the many smaller bridges all through the city

Chon's artistic side in full swing

And again ... but this time her foreground content was a lot better than the previous image

We visited two near by islands of Burano and Murano. Murano is famous for its glass production and we were shown one factory that specialised in chandeliers and mirrors but also made vases, drinking glasses and heaps of other glass trinkets and art pieces. Burano had canals like Venice but the houses were all painted in very bright colours. It is also famous for lace but unless you are an old woman or just love lace, the colorful buildings are the bigger attraction.

Glass blowers doing their thing

Glass sculpture on Murano

Burano island buildings

More of the colorful island

We were spotted by some friends whilst in the rabbit warren of Venice and thanks to the beauty of Facebook, we later met up and had dinner and drinks with Micala and Nick. We had a great last night in Venice thanks to friends from home.

Catching up with Micala and Nick by chance in Venice

Goodbye Venice

Milan

There isn't much to say about Milan as we only had the one afternoon here in Milano before flying back home.

A beautiful girl in Milan ... one of two pictures we have of Milano

And the other ... a nice church near the hotel

Thank you to everyone who showed interest in our travels. For those of you at home, see you all soon.

 

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