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Ligurian Coast &
Como
The Cinque Terre
17 August 1997
An early start this morning in order to catch
the train to Pisa for a connection up the coast. We didn't stay in Pisa long enough to
visit the leaning tower, but saw it briefly from the train window.... enough to establish
that it does lean. Great.
Santa Margherita
Ligure is about 30km east of Genova, just near
Portofino. This is the famous region of the Cinque Terre. This entire coastline is very picturesque and dramatic. When we
arrived, a rain began (the first we've seen of clouds, let alone rain on this trip) which
looked as if it was settled in for a long stay. Fortunately, it cleared up after lunch,
and the region returned to its postcard-beauty!
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| Santa Margherita 17/8/97 |
| This first picture was taken while the rain
was still falling, and shows the town of Santa Margherita. It also shows Tracy running
(dodging rain drops) towards the shoreline to take a picture by the sea. |
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| Santa Margherita 17/8/97 |
Near Portofino 17/8/97 |
| We visited the handibank again! We've gotten
by exclusively on ATM machines on this trip. This pictures is interesting for the painted
walls of the bulding, with its 3-D effect (they're actually totally flat). Practically all
the buildings feature this 3-D paint work, usually much more elaborate that that shown
here. |
After lunch, we started out on what proved to be a very
long walk all the way to Portofino, some 7 kilometres away. This picture of the rugged
coastline was taken about half way on the journey |
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| Portofino 17/8/97 |
Portofino 17/8/97 |
| At the end of the walk, Portofino. |
A Portofino street scene. |
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| Portofino 17/8/97 |
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Portofino 17/8/97 |
| Panoramic view of Portofino, taken from a castle high
above the town |
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A Police Scooter, Portofino.
They don't expect too many high-speed chases around here! |
* * *
After leaving Santa Margherita Ligure on the Italian Riviera, we
journeyed north of Milano to Lake Como where we stayed in Cernobbio, just a couple of kilometres from
the town of Como itself. |
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| Como 18/8/97 |
Como 18/8/97 |
| We didn't waste much time, and headed straight for the
funicular railway which climbs 500 metres up a steep mountain above the city. Here is the
view from the top (from the village of Brunate), just before sunset - unfortunately, it
was abit hazy. |
Back at ground level, we hunted for ages for a place to
eat, more or less unsuccessfully. Como doesn't draw a huge number of tourists, which is
reflected in the limited number of eateries around town. Here is one of the many streets
we trundled along in our quest for food. |
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| Como 19/8/97 |
Como 19/8/97 |
| Next day, we went on a boat trip around the lake. |
Here we are on the lake |
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| Como 19/8/97 |
Como 19/8/97 |
| ...continued |
The main Duomo in Como. |
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* * *
So much for Como. It's not the world's most exciting place, but its very nice,
for want of anything else to say about it. We had planned to go to Lugano, in southern
Switzerland from here as a day trip, but decided to just get out of the place. We returned
to Milan Central station and transferred to a train bound for Geneva. To see the
Switzerland pictures, go to the Switzerland Archive.
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