Monday 19th August and Tuesday 20th August

Today we left London and flew to Pisa to make our way to Montorosso in the Cinque Terre region of Northern Italy.  It was a fairly long day of travelling not made any easier by lugging two over weight suitcases around.  We travelled via 2 taxis, 5 trains and 1 plane to our destination.

We arrived at our hotel about 6.30pm.  It was very hot so a nice cold glass of Prosecco welcomed us which was much appreciated and even more so the second.

Our hotel is perfect and our room very comfortable with very effective air con and a great view to the beach.... A bit like home really!!

View from Villa Steno, our hotel.

The beach in the "old town" of Monterosso

S Croce Oratory - ran the village hospital and looked after the ills

Inside Mortis and Orationis Oratory - looked after widows and orphans

Church of St John the Baptist 

The beach in the "new" village of Monterosso accessed by a long tunnel under the hill.  The railway is in the new part but most other activity is in the old part.

My reward to myself.  Peter had gone off to do the 90 minute walk to the next village and I was relaxing and resting my very tired feet.

You can hire these cubicles to change in and to lock up our valuables.  You also have to hire the sun lounges and umbrellas at a rate of 27 euros for 2 for the day.  We went to the free sections and laid on the stones which were pretty comfortable and not as messy as sand.

We spent about 4 hours here as it was soooo hot but surprisingly the water was quite refreshing and a bit on the murky side.  There were certainly lots of different shapes and sizes and some very tanned people.