Molto Bene (Part Uno)

It occurred to us early this year that despite having lived in Europe for ages, we hadn't been to Italy since 2003, when we whipped through as part of a breakneck European tour. We loved Italy then, and wanted to make sure they hadn't broken it since. When Stu confirmed that he'd be visiting again for another Euro-summer (you may remember him from such blogs as Glastonbury last year), with his new lady-friend Mandy, it was a perfect opportunity.

Over many emails we concocted a plan (by "we", I obviously mean "the girls") to revisit the classic Cinque Terre area, on the Northern Italian coastline between Pisa and Genova. Google Map here. We'd spent a few hours there previously, but wanted to really explore the "five lands" while gorging ourselves on pasta and fabulous fresh seafood. Well, Mission Accomplished.

We were arriving from different places - us flying in from the UK and Stu and Mandy rolling in from France, freshly-engaged(!) - so our first Italian evening was spent apart, with us in Florence and ze 'appy couple doing the Pisa thing. Tragically, our one night in Firenze coincided with the Florence Wine-Festival and we were forced to drink copious samples of the delightful local vino until late...

The next day we met up at Pisa station and made our way to Vernazza, which was sparklingly lovely - as was Mandy, to our great delight! After chillaxing down by the harbour for a while, we chillaxed some more after a strenuous climb to a bar overlooking this beautiful fishing town. I like saying "chillax".

The following day had been earmarked as "The Big Walking Day" - our plan was to walk south down the coast and see as many of yonder 3 Cinque Terre towns as we could. The weather was superb and in the end we saw all of them (Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore), dined superbly, had some quality pebble-beach time and walked back most of the way as well. Words cannot describe just how perfect this day was - we need a montage: