Cinque Terre was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited. The combination of the dramatic clifffaces, azure blue ocean, colorful townships and ancient oceanside ruins meant many WOW moments – and me snapping away like a maniac on our camera!

We have LOADS of posts to write about the best places to see, where to stay and how to get around – I promise they are coming soon – but for now here are some of our favorite snapshots.

I’ll let the photos do the talking…

Cute township of Riomaggiore at sunset

Beautiful coastline at sunset in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Overlooking Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Overlooking Riomaggiore in the evening

Amazing view from the train station in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Lovely township of Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Vernazza, Cinque Terre: My Favorite Spot

Stunning Oceanside in Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Awesome rocks in Monterosso al Mare

Beautiful beach in Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre

Unfortunately, the walled city is in Lucca is all we got to see, but I don’t doubt that, as one waiter told us, “there’s a whole world of Lucca outside the city walls”. NOT unfortunately, Lucca turned out to be one of our favorite spots in Tuscany. This is why…

You enter the city past a wide mote of green grass surrounding the outside wall of the city. You can imagine an actual water filled moat was there at one time – something that looked far more intimidating – but today, the entrance to the city is both enchanting, and inviting. The wall is an attraction itself. You can hire a bike and ride round it’s edge, indulging voyeurism and peering down into the city from on high the whole time.

Inside the city is a generally typical small European city feel. Small cute shops, motorbikes and bicycles making their way along narrow streets, occasionally cobblestoned, tourists sauntering along with their gelatis, corners opening up into bustling Piazzas at many a turn.

But as you walk, Lucca begins to show you it’s depth. It boasts a bustling high end shopping quarter, with countless trendy boutiques. I’m not much for shopping but I can see it making a perfect place to spend some money outside of the token shopping locations like Florence. It has a small botanic garden that you can tour for about 6 Euros, complete with a little pond and a wide variety of flowers. And it has a multitude of proud, character filled antique shops, interesting even to the person with little interest in the subject.

That’s not even the half of it. If I could recommend a few things:

1. There’s a famous bakery right behind the church in the main square called Pasticceria Taddeucci. They sell, among other things, the local Tuscan cake called Buccelato. There is a special version of this made just in Lucca called… surprisingly, Buccelato di Lucca, which is apparently amazing. I say apparently because we actually passed this up for some of the other amazing sweet pastries on offer – ohhh boy. None of them are named, but we got a little tart of stacked, really thin slices of pastry, with custard in between and chocolate and icing sugar on top. Another was a cookie, half covered with chocolate, and with a lump inside it filled with this real orange paste stuff: also amazing. Anything you get from there will be good. Just do it. Apparently Prince Charles tried the Buccelato there during a trip to Lucca once. If you weren’t sold before, THAT should do the trick

2. Just walk. It’s a small town, there are maps everywhere, and it’s walled in, so basically impossible to get lost. There are a handful of piazzas, and you’ll easily find your way to whatever takes your fancy once you’re there. You can also hire a bike if you want to expend energy. There are bike hire shops all around and while we didn’t do it, they seem inexpensive.

3. Dinner: Don’t bother going ANYWHERE but Cantini Bernadini. Don’t look up restaurants, don’t check reviews, just do it. It’s number 1 on Tripadvisor for those interested, but even if it wasn’t, you would be a fool to miss it. We had probably one of the best meals in our life there – and I DON’T say that lightly. They serve high quality dishes with local ingredients. That’s local meats, local cheeses, local olive oils, local wines. The waiter Fabiano is a champion. He knows everything about the places each of the ingredients come from, everything about how to match the right wines with the right food with the right olive oils… and in fact everything about Lucca itself. Yes, he is a guru. We had delicious pastas, and freakishly sweet desserts (including soft Italian meringue just to whet your appetite). I repeat: If you don’t go there for dinner at least once, you’re a fool.

4. If you have more time, spend just a day, maybe 2 inside the walls, then venture out to the other sites in the region. There are some beautiful gardens, a cave, some cool ATV tours, and more. You’ll need a car to get around because each of these places are pretty spread out – some half an hour apart.

5. If you’re staying for a night or more, don’t get fooled into thinking you have to stay inside the walls. There is a lot of accommodation just outside the walls, a 5 minute walk to the city entrance, that is perfectly convenient and much cheaper. The area around there is nice, perfectly clean and safe feeling and because there’s more room out there, you’ll likely get a bigger hotel, bigger room, possibly better facilities too.

Lucca is scenic, kinda magical, and you’ll find it very tough NOT to enjoy.

Here are a few of our favorite Lucca photos…

Cute little square in Lucca, Italy

Historic Centre of Lucca, Tuscany

Beautiful cathedral in Lucca, Tuscany

Incredible pastries from Pasticceria Taddeucci in Lucca

Historic centre in Lucca, Italy

Couple of twists at the airport. Tip: There’s a whole different part of the terminal JUST for the rental car companies. You have to exit the airport, turn right, and walk over to a shuttle bus station that takes you 100 meters round the corner to where your rental car awaits. Of course no one tells you THAT when you book.

Otherwise, rental car pickup is easy, and before long we’re off on our drive to Cinque Terre. The internet had some nasty things to say about driving to and in Cinque Terre, but having made it there, we submit them all to be unfounded. The drive is about 1.5 hours North West of Pisa on the A12, Genova-Livorno highway.

You head toward Genova until you see the signs for La Spezia. You roll through La Spezia where you follow the signs to Cinque Terre. 20 minutes further up and around a mountain through some tunnels and past some spectacular & dramatic coastline scenery, you arrive at Riomaggiore, the Southernmost (and apparently most vehicle friendly) of the 5 “terre”s.

Another tip: As you drive around the cliffs into the village of Riomaggiore, you won’t ever be as high up as you are when that drive begins. Stop to take some photos at this high vantage point, because you won’t be at that altitude again until you exit and the landscape… or rather, the seascape is completely breathtaking.

Viewing the ocean from so high up, you can’t help puzzle at how there seems to be “so much water”. It’s like looking at an ocean from any other shoreline, but viewing it from high above, the water somehow looks bigger… it takes up more of your field of vision. It’s grandiose and mystical all at once.

We find our accommodation – “I Limoni” on the cliff in Riomaggiore. After ringing the bell at the gate, a tiny 50 something Italian lady with a orange brown hair and a hoarse voice shows us up some stairs and to our room. She doesn’t speak English, but somehow she’s so friendly that with almost no Italian, we find it easy to understand her – she even insisted on helping us with our bags!

Cinque Terre is impressing so far.

Our apartment at I Limoni is surprisingly modern. Yet all the reader needs to know is that the bedroom opens up to a generous balcony that overlooks the ocean. In the day, you can open the door and let the sun caress you as you nap, read, or take in the view. And in the evening, lying in bed, we could gaze up at the moon.

Finally leaving our room we stroll down and around the hills, into the village of Riomaggiore. There’s an ancient castle perched on a cliffside, an old but recently restored church, and a single main “via” into the village and along to the water’s edge.

Finding something to eat in the Riomaggiore village is a little bit of a challenge. We came across maybe 12 restaurants, of which: 4 weren’t open at 7pm on a Wednesday evening, 1 we sat down at but left after we saw the food that was coming out, 1 that was seafood only (a no go for Elysia), and another 2 or 3 that only served what looked like drinks and entrees.

Finally we picked what looked slightly less touristy and stopped in a little chocolateria that happened to also serve Pizza, and that had a few decrepit old men inside taking keen interest in the Italian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” on TV.

While our pizzas were made on site, they weren’t the highlight of the day. They filled an empty stomach but that’s about it. We resign ourselves to continuing the hunt for perfect Italian Pizza as the trip continues.

Finally the day ended with one of those uncanny instances of “travel luck”. In an effort to shortcut our walk home, I suggested an alternate route. It could have easily failed, leaving us an even greater, steeper walk home, but instead it lead to a little Cinque Terre gem…

Reaching the peak of a hill, we returned to that old castle we passed earlier. To it’s side there is a wooden cross monument, next to two benches in front of a lookout. In the backdrop of the lookout is a glowing red sunset. You’ve got a view of the sea, the mountains, and the sunset, and a chunk of the township all at once. And we reached it exactly as the sunset was at it’s most vibrant. Certainly a case of Buona Fortuna!

I discovered the author Elizabeth Gilbert in 2008 and absolutely devoured her book “Eat Pray Love” and BOY I’m glad I did because otherwise I would have never found this little piece of heaven!

In Elizabeth’s book she talks about her time in Rome, the amazing self-discoveries she made – and the pizza she had in Naples! In fact, Elizabeth had this to say about the delights she found at Pizzeria Da Michele… “If you go to Naples and don’t eat this pizza, please lie to me later and tell me that you did.”

After a review like that we simply HAD to go when we visited Naples in January 2009!

Armed with a poorly hand-drawn map we braved the noisy streets of Naples in search for this holy grail of pizza! The cobblestone roads, the crazy drivers and the weird and wonderful smells of Naples made the experience even more exciting – you REALLY know you are in Italy!

Finally (after a few wrong turns) we stumbled across “Via Cesare Sersale” a teeny little back road that no tourist (unless they were looking for it) would ever find.  The smell of fresh dough hit us first and then we spotted the queue outside and they were ALL locals – that’s when we knew we were DEFINITELY in for a treat.

We joined the queue outside Pizzeria da Michele and were handed a number which was great except that we don’t know ANY Italian so as they were calling out the numbers we were completely at a loss and just stood their hoping we weren’t losing our place in the line!

Finally after holding up our number with confused expressions many times it was our turn and THAT’S when the fun began…

Stepping inside the Pizzeria Da Michele was like stepping into an Italian dining room in the fifties when the whole family (and extended family) were over for a very boisterous and delicious dinner!

There were four men (of varying ages) crowded around an ancient-looking cash register yelling in Italian at each other, as only family can do, whilst simultaneously bidding farewell AND greeting new customers to their little pizza heaven.

We were hurried to a teeny table before the poor people that were there previously had even got their coats on, unceremoniously plopped down and offered a drink – or that’s what I thought he was asking at least!

There are only two options on the menu at Pizzeria Da Michele – Mozzarella and Marinara – so we ordered one of each with two cokes and waited for the magic to happen!

Sitting in the restaurant is an experience in itself as you watch these amazing pizza creations whipping by you at the speed of light while a team of Italian men work like a well-oiled (and LOUD) machine all around you! The smells are enough to make anybody fall to their knees and BEG for a slice  – luckily it didn’t come to that

I’d say within 15 minutes our wood-fired pizzas were plonked down in front of us and our life changed forever – ok this may be a slight exaggeration but only slightly.

This pizza was like NOTHING we’ve ever had before, EVER, and it puts Dominoes to shame – in fact they should just close up shop right now! We have never looked at pizza the same way after Michele’s pizza and probably never will!

The pizza dough was fluffy, chewy and crunchy at the same time. The sauce was made from scratch and there was just enough of it but not TOO much. And the cheese, well… it was ridiculously amazing! There was no meat, no fancy schmanzy toppings, it was just traditional Italian pizza heaven.

Safe to say, each and every part came together to create the most amazing taste sensation you could EVER imagine. My mouth is salivating just reliving it

Basically what I’m trying to tell you is that you simply CANNOT miss Pizzeria Da Michele’s if you go anywhere near Naples, Italy! This century-old restaurant is a true Italian gem and you should definitely get your behind there before its taken over by tourists from every corner of the globe! And like Elizabeth Gilbert said, If you go to Naples and don’t eat this pizza, please lie to me later and tell me that you did.’

You should definitely check out Pizzeria Da Michele at www.damichele.net

After a tip from my travel-wise brother-in-law I checked out Booking.com to try and find a bargain and boy did I stumble across a gem! Our travel experience has taught us that the hotel is merely where you rest your head so we weren’t looking for luxury – we were looking for location!

We ended up settling on Hotel Traiano for our 2 night stay in Rome, Italy and we were VERY impressed with our experience! At just $90 usd per night it was a bargain and the location couldn’t have been better!

I’ve put together a mini review of Hotel Traiano, Rome for you all to enjoy…

Location Location Location

Even if you’re looking for a cheap hotel in Rome you don’t want to sacrifice on location! A few extra dollars in your pocket is not worth the time and money you’d have to spend trekking all over town to the main tourist attractions.

Hotel Traiano’s location simply could not have been better for Andrew and I. Located on a corner of a quiet-ish street right in the hub of Rome, Traiano was a short walk to dozens of Rome’s prime attractions not to mention great restaurants and bars!

Strolling across the road you’ll immediately come across a charming alleyway that acts as a gateway to your first glimpse of the real Rome! Andrew and I gasped as we caught our first sight of the beautiful Roman buildings, amazing ancient ruins and the of course the iconic Colosseum – mere steps from the hotel doors!

Hotel Traiano is close to a huge number of major Rome attractions…

• Colosseum – 12 minute walk
• Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II – 5 minute walk
• Arco di Tito – 8 minute walk
• Trevi Fountain – 10 minute walk
• Pantheon – 15 minute walk
• Vatican City – 15 minute taxi ride/30 minute walk

Roman Rooms

Hotel Traiano is rated across the web as between a 3.5 and 4 star hotel and I think that’s a fair classification!

The hotel wasn’t overly fancy but it was very nice, clean and exactly what we were looking for during our stay in Rome.

The hotel has 42 rooms including single, triple and double deluxe styles – Andrew and I stayed in the double deluxe room for 2 nights and we totally satisfied with the choice.

Our room came with a queen-sized bed, huge bathroom (very clean), satellite TV, telephone and daily maid service.

The room was spotlessly clean, really roomy and really quiet despite the super central location!

Keeping The Wallet Happy

One of the main reasons we picked Hotel Traiano for our Rome stay (other than the location) was the price. As I mentioned earlier, Andrew and I were wanting to stick to a relatively low budget and this hotel definitely kept our wallets happy!

We parted with just $180 usd for the 2 nights we spent at Hotel Traiano and that was for the double deluxe room AND continental breakfast each day. Breakfast options included pastries (croissants etc), cereal, yoghurt, toast and spreads plus coffee and tea.

Free wireless internet was available in the lobby for guests.

Overall Verdict?

We were very happy with Hotel Traiano and would definitely stay there again if we were ever to return! The location and price are perfect for any couple or family traveling on a moderate Europe budget!

If you have any questions about Hotel Traiano feel free to leave us a comment

For more info you should definitely check out Hotel Traiano’s website at www.hoteltraianorome.com

Author: Elysia Brooker