Back to Riomaggiore

We all enjoyed our day so much in Riomaggiore, Gareth and the kids organised to go snorkeling and I had some much needed downtime away from them.  I drank cups of Lungo by the seaside watching the tour boats and kids in dinghies leaving the safety of the little harbour navigating the rocks out to the vast coastline.  Gareth and the kids geared up and took a boat out to a cove to go snorkeling for 1.5 hours.  Gareth commented afterward he was glad I didn't come.  Kaia did her usual 7 year old complaining about everything until she settled into the routine of what happens snorkeling off a boat.

Our kids are like fish.  Once you get them in the water it's very difficult to get them out.  But for quite different reasons.  Kaia is the first to be in the water and any water - pool, ocean, lake its irrelevant to her.  Zach on the other hand loves the water but specifically its the ocean for him.  He’s been snorkeling since he first worked it out in Fiji and never seems to be as happy as when he is chasing fish.  The ocean is Gareth’s happy place, so all three are very happy to be out for the morning.

This is Zach’s writing component for his school work:

“Our first time in Cinque Terre was getting off at Riomaggiore from Deiva Marina via train.  The first day we were in Cinque Terre we were trying to visit all of the 5 terres (except the one that didn’t have water access).  But the second day we came back to riomaggiore and did the snorkeling thing we saw the day before.  The boat ride out to the snorkeling area, which dad estimated to be around 75 metres long, was very nice and smooth as the excitement bubbled away. 

There were three different types of fish, one was a zippy little black fish, another that I hadn't really encountered was a jellyfish - three actually.  There was also a very shiny fish and what I thought to be a barracuda.”

Based on the crazy amount of people yesterday afternoon on the train leaving Cinque Terre in the afternoon, we leave early in the afternoon to go back and have lunch at Deiva Marina. While it shares the same coastline as Cinque Terre, it's just not the same.  What’s awesome about this place is that you get to stay in the wooded areas and camp.  Spending so much time in big cities takes its toll sometimes when you just want some grass to run around on.  They also provide from the beginning of July to September a free bus service that picks up loads of people from all the campgrounds down its one main road and drops them at the train station every 30 mins.  Because our rail pass covers most of our trains in Europe, it means that we pay a third of the price staying just outside of the villages, we don’t have to pay for the trains, and we don’t have the massive crowds or the inflated restaurant prices.  And the locals are super friendly.  Couldn’t work out how to weigh and buy fruit in one of the supermercado’s, so a lovely older gentleman took all our fruit and vege and weighed, tagged and gave it to the cashier.

Our last night here we have dinner at the local camp restaurant, and we walked in for dinner quite early and got the funniest looks from a massive group of people, and i’m not sure whether it was because we were possibly late to the party for the european football game, or that we actually didn’t come in to watch it at all and sat outside for dinner.  Even the chef was like - “dinner - now?” We were unfashionably early for dinner on this night but we still had to pack and clean up so my care factor was zero.  In the end we had a great conversation with the chef, he had been to New Zealand, worked in Australia and loves the All blacks, although he supports South Africa now.

The next morning, it's the usual routine, get up early, be at the train station and catch an earlier train than you need, because it's Italy, expectation vs reality can sometimes be poles apart here.  Our train to Sestri Levante is still on time, but the French family going to the Terre’s - train was delayed by 60 mins…. Rough.