Ciao Italia!: Coastal adventures (with the parents part 1)

Two weeks ago I set off on a series of metros, trains and walks to meet up with my parents in Monte-Carlo. This trip was going to allow me to make a big dent in my number of cities/countries visited list, so seeing my parents wasn't the only thing I was excited about! After about 5 hours of trains running on time, then running late, then arriving early, then leaving late, I eventually arrived in Monte Carlo- about an hour ahead of my parents whose train was, as was to be expected by now, also running late!

Not too sure what there is to do in Monte-Carlo other than head to the casino and gamble (or in my case lose a carefully rationed 5 euros), we set out to explore the hills and walk alongside the many many boats, each one bigger than the next! With the Formula 1 race happening later this month, there was much construction going on, setting up the big screens and grand stands for spectators, as well as painting and re-tarring the roads for the speedsters. We soon found out that the hotel we were staying in was actually one of the best placed for when the race occurs, with a view of the start/finish lines, the main grandstand, quite a bit of the track and the giant screen all seen from the roof-top restaurant.

Our room overlooked the harbour, and Dad and I had great fun watching the boats as they were set up for the day, being meticulously cleaned, only for no-one to arrive and use them. All I can say is I am glad I do not have to clean my room as well as those cleaning crews worked, otherwise I would have time for nothing else! One boat even had the crew using an electronic buffer to shine the sides- madness! Definitely would have to say that our favourite was the boat that had a helicopter, speedboat, jet-skis and other rather large paraphernalia on board- anyone want to chip in for a birthday present next year?

After an unsuccessful night at the casino we woke up early the next morning to begin our road-trip back into Italy, and to head down the coast to stay near-by to the Cinque Terre in Sestri Levante. While Dad (being the anti-GPS person that he is- now you all know where I get it from) had printed out instructions from Google before leaving home, the rental company had thrown in a GPS for us to use, the only problem being that we could not switch the language from French. The porter at the hotel programmed our route into the machine and off we went, expecting the journey to last about 3 hours. What we did not know is that he had programmed us to by-pass all the tolling booths, and therefore our coastal adventure lasted closer to 7hours, a lot longer than expected! Being in no rush this did not matter, but by the end of our trip I think we could all recite our lefts and rights in fluent French.

The next morning we set off to find our way to Portofino, where we had been told was a great place to spend Sundays. What we did not know before was that not only was there a train strike, but there was no direct buses we could use. Four buses and 2 hours later we managed to arrive, and mixing it up on our way home we threw a ferry into the mix! I thought I take a lot of public transport here in Milan, but nothing compared to this day! Who knew changing buses so often was so exhausting.

Even though the weather was a bit up and down, we still managed to get through all the Cinque Terre towns. Two of them had been badly damaged by the flooding last year and some of the paths between the towns were still closed from the landslides, but it is still such a beautiful place! So colourful and quaint, they really are quite special towns that you wouldn't see anywhere else. Each town is either on a rocky cliff, or right by the sea, and virtually the only way to get to them is by hiking, train or, if the weather is good, then ferry. We did manage to see an exhibit of some outstanding driving though, look for the picture at the end of this blog!