Today we tendered at La Spezia, near Livorno - which is where we ported the last time in the Pisa/Florence area.  It is a bit further to Pisa/Florence than Livorno, so I opted for us to visit the villages of Cinque Terre.  We tendered in and took a ship tour.  I would have planned to visit them on my own, but with the mudslides last fall I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of what was in order.  Everything is VERY much so cleaned up and the villages are all very picturesque, but they pretty much all blend together, similar looking houses and a church in the middle.  Once again here they are all mixed up in my head.

We drove along the gulf, again windy tight roads and then arrived in Manarola, the second village, from where we walked along the lover's path to the first village, Vernazza.  It was quite a nice walk, but felt very rushed.  I am always reminded of why I hate ship tours once I'm back on one - 40-50 ppl, so rush rush rush, then stand around and wait for everyone to reconvene.

We then moved on to a ferry boat which took us to Monterosso where we got to taste a little pesto and some local wines then do some shopping and wandering around.  Back on the ferry we then road to Portovenere, pausing at a little cave where we saw some teenagers cliff diving.  BACK on another ferry (I was quite sick of these by the time we got back to the port and needed to tender back) to the port.

This was my last chance to find an Italy sweatshirt that wasn't for the futbol team, and I was successful despite the tourist shops not having much in the way of typical tourist items!  It is the one thing I had wished I had bought when I was there the last time.  I also purchased a small crystal heart shaped orange and red pendant at a store where we also bought little rose earrings for Dani.  Everywhere we went we indulged with a small snack - pastries or gellato, etc.