The Italian Job

We last left off with Cal being patched up with black tape... This all started in Spain when we noticed that Cals bumper was getting a little loose and as we progressed back through France it was getting to the stage where it was going to fall off on a French highway and cause unknown damage to someones Bently (in Andrew’s mind anyway). The problem was resolved by the French equivalent to Australia’s liquid cement coupled with racing tape used to strap cars back together after they’ve had a bingle on the race track, how appropriate for our little Cal! We’ve survived with this measure so far, but will take additional measures if required.


After leaving Monaco we drove on to Genova in north western Italy. Unfortunately we ended up at one of the more questionable camp sites we’ve been to on the trip so far. It was neither cheap, nor pleasant with the highlight being having a cold shower with very little pressure in the dark. We didn’t see a lot of Genova except for the beach which was also the worst one we’ve been to. Lots of VERY sharp rocks and black sand made it a very quick visit. It was quite funny to see all the locals sun bathing in a car park and on a boat ramp next to the beach, how comfortable!

Our next stop was Portofino.... We stayed about half an hour outside of Portofino after attempting to drive into the town but being turned away by a cranky little old Italian man riding his scooter. Turns out you can’t enter the town if your vehicle is over 5m long. This turned out really well for us as we ended up staying at a brilliant little village getting a ferry into the town of Portofino itself the next day. Before jumping on the ferry we gave into the temptation and had our first Italian Pizza for lunch. It was everything we had hoped for with artichokes, olives, ham and an egg right in the middle, the egg was a little unusual but yummy indeed. The ferry trip to Portofino was spectacular and an excellent way of seeing the coastline from a different perspective, we would recommend this method of getting there to everyone. The town itself was a very small ex fishing village, the reason we say ex? Well, the tackle shops have now been replaced with Louis Vuitton and Coco Chanel shops selling ridiculously overpriced goods to American tourists. It’s a real shame to see, but obviously inevitable for a place of such beauty, and we can’t complain too much, it’s tourists like us who are supporting this sort of development.

The next stop on the list was only about an hours drive from Portofino. Andrew has been getting a pretty good deal out of these short trips as he’s holding Jamie to the “You cook, I’ll drive” deal expecting nothing less than gourmet kitchen meals from the galley of Cal. We had very high expectations of our next destination of Cinque Terra due to the enormous praise given by Mum and Dad Griffo and Fe and Graham, and boy did it deliver! The town we stayed in to visit these five pieces of art that they call the towns of the Cinque Terra is called Levanto which in itself is quite a lovely little town. We found a camp ground right near the centre of town and realised it was the same one that Fiona and Graham stayed in several years earlier after we heard the clock tower ring every 15 minutes (24 hours a day!) as warned by them. After settling in for the night we looked over our information about the 5 towns, and decided we would attempt the Blue Trail (Jamie expressing her dislike for this activity after having flash backs of our Mt Warning walk), which is a walking trail that starts at the southern town of Riomaggiore and makes its way all the way up to Monterosso Al Mare covering approx. 9KM of distance and going from sea level to up to 250M above sea level several times. Jamie covered the first couple of sections without too much trouble or complaining, then fatigue set in and the complaints started. Luckily, we came across a fitness instructor named Erica who gave Jamie some words of encouragement and helped get her through the experience, she also happened to shout us a beer half way through which also helped! All together it was an excellent experience and we’re so glad we did it. We were able to see all of the 5 towns of the Cinque Terra in a way that can only be seen if you endure the tough walk. We’ve included some photos of our walk, but there is no possible way of doing this place justice by writing, or showing photo’s, you must come to this place to truly see the beauty of the crystal clear water, and the towns that have stood the test of time. We can only thank the people that recommended this place to us and hope that we can encourage others to experience what we have.

We finished off a wonderful day by attending a concert by the Amsterdam Orchestra taking place in a beautiful church at the edge of town. It was one of those goose bumps moments....

Today we’ve spent pretty much all day laying in the campervan as we thought we would be so sore from yesterdays outing. Fortunately we haven’t been too bad so Andrew’s been out to get some local produce for Jamie to whip us one of her specialties. Tomorrow, we move on to Tuscany.

Love A&J xoxo