Correcting this, we then walked into a large and noisy protest! No it wasn't the Gilet Jaunes whom we seem to bump into in Grenoble every weekend. These protestors looked to be high school students. We later learnt that the students were protesting peacefully against a variety of issues contained in the recent reform of the baccalaureate. Anyway we had to shelter in a shop front alcove as the thousands of students marched pasting chanting and whistling. At this stage we were getting edgy about the time and tried to hustle the girls along a little faster. Not wasting any time, we beelined straight to the platform and on to the train with 5 minutes to spare!
The regional train rumbled along adjacent to the coast. It was a short trip, only an hour to Riomaggiore. From the station, we followed the directions from our airbnb host, walking through a long tunnel covered on one side in mosaics emerging on the main street of Riomaggiore. Sabina was waiting for us in her tasteful souvenir shop. Happily she closed up and led us off the main Street into tiny alleyways and up, up and up several flights of stairs!!
Sabina's apartment was spread over three floors. On the bottom floor was the girls room, the bathroom and our room was on the second floor, while the kitchen / living area was on the top floor. It was all very snug and cosy! Lunch and a few supplies were our first main priority and then it was time to explore.
Initially we originally planned to do a short walk north to the next town Manarola however the main trail was closed. Instead we headed down to the harbour for a look around. What a stunning place! Riomaggiore is situated in a small steep valley with an even smaller harbour. The colourful, tall houses cluster together and are nestled into the hillside. There was lots of restoration work being completed, I assume in time for the high season of summer.
We rock hopped out to the point before trying to reach the beach to the south only to be shooed away by workmen saying chiuso (it's closed). Instead we wander back up the main street in search for gelato and coffee. Only half of our family was happy when we found coffee but not gelato. Continuing climbing, we looped around to the far side of the valley for panorama views over the town (spotting our apartment) and out to sea.
Returning to the harbour once again via a different route, the three explorers made it out to the end of the spit, only for Ella to misjudge a jump on the way back and land on her knee resulting in a rather nasty graze / bruise. She had a swollen and a stiff leg for a few days - not great for how many stairs needed to be negotiated around here!!
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