Is There Such a thing as too much Cheese?: Italian Riviera + Cinque terra

We headed over the border to Italy on the Thursday – catching our local train to Ventimiglia and then a fairly gross, stinky train to Rapallo.

We originally thought we would stay in Portofino, but since none of us has a spare couple of thousand dollars, we found a place in Rapallo, which is just around the coast, and we were pleasantly surprised. Rapallo has a lovely, sleepy beachside town feeling to it – a bit like Brighton in England or even Victor – but a much much older Victor!

The first evening (which was just the three of us + Coco, M didn’t get in until midnight) we just wandered around, had a few drinks, some gelati, an early dinner and a peaceful night. The hotel was good too – certainly nor 5 star luxury, but we’d booked a family room and it did actually have 2 separate rooms except the two extra beds were like fold down bunks – which made us feel like we were on a ship – but were actually really comfortable! The room and bathrooms were kept meticulously clean and the staff were really helpful.

We got up the next day only to find the skies overcast and our plan to catch a boat around to Portofino scuttled by the “bad weather” – we decided that the boat drivers must have wanted a day off, as the weather really wasn’t that bad and it got better as the day went on, but even in the afternoon, when we were standing in glorious sunshine – nope. Still no boats.

So after negotiating the buses – we arrived in Portofino. It really does look just like the postcards, it is TINY and such a weird blend of this little, coastal fishing village and designer shops. Where we sat and had lunch was right next door to a Louis Vuitton store, and there were lots of people rushing around getting a fancy yacht display set up, complete with three BEAUTIFUL yachts.

Walking around Portofino – especially the climb up to the lookout, where there were amazing gardens and villas tucked away behind high stone walls, was so lovely, in fact, the whole day was lovely and we obviously timed our visit right as there really weren’t that many people there. We capped it off with a few drinks sitting over the water, just soaking up the view.

Once home the boys ( I think it was mostly M, but Lovers went along with it) decided that we would try and track down the mini golf course we’d seen signs for. Sure! As we were approaching the city limits, after about 40min of walking, we thought we might have made a bad choice – it was about 7.30pm on a Friday night, so when we finally found the place and the gate was locked, we all kind of shrugged our shoulders. Then this little old lady waddled down to us – we thought she was going to tell us off – but no, she let us in, took our money, gave us our clubs, tunned the radio into the best of the 80s love ballads and even produced some ice cold Coronas! Hilarious. The competition itself was fairly amusing, especially the par 2 that M managed an impressive 16 shots on and Lovers’ final shot for the evening that cleared 2 fences. I’ll also point out that I putt like a dream, and totally kicked butt.

After the mini golf extravaganza was completed we went searching for somewhere to eat and we stumbled upon the most wonderful little restaurant and had one of the most delicious meals ever. Beautiful wood oven pizza for the boys and house made pastas and sauces for me and Holly, a couple of carafes of rosé and finished up with Tiramisu. Divine. An awesome day.

The next day we set off on the train around to Cinque terra – which is comprised of five little towns and coastline that are all part of a national park and are full of walks and trails. Unfortunately we lucked out a little with the weather – it was a little drizzly and overcast – which resulted in the frizziest hair I’ve experienced in awhile, and meant that the spectacular views one sees on postcards were a little ... muted. We also felt that is wasn’t always entirely clear where you were meant to go, but the walk between towns itself was quite pleasant and M fulfilled his aim of having a different kind of filled foccacia bread at every village – so yummy.

We had planned to go back to the same restaurant and had, in fact, made a booking the night before (where the truly delightful waiter pointed out that the way I was pronouncing the number nine – meant that it sounded like I was saying I wanted to F... him up the bum. Whoops. He thought it was hilarious!!) but the Coconut was a little unwell, so we had pizzas and UNO in the hotel room – and lots of laughs!

The next day the Lovedays had to bid farewell to Ramsey as he headed back to Cannes and the rest of us moved on to Venice!

I love this photo - lovely Lovedays in Rapallo looking tanned and relaxed

Having dinner in Rapallo - the first night, this isn't the amazing restauarnt, I don't have photos of that, was too busy stuffing my face!

In Portofino

Walking up above Portofino. I wrote this on my facebook, but it still cracks me up; Lovers described this view as "you know, like the painting everyone has in their toilet". Oh Lovers, I adore you and your positive/wacky spin on everything.