During the second week of our trip to Italy we walked with Country Walkers in the Cinque Terre.    The food and the accommodations were excellent but they paled beside the companions, the guide and the spectacular hiking.  We stayed in Santa Margherita , Levanto and Portovenere and hiked every day.

Portovenere

Our Country Walkers guide was Alessandro Gullo (call me Alex).  He knows everything and will patiently explain it to you.

Alex and Nurit

This trip was Nurit’s “big birthday” gift from last year, much delayed by our family troubles but well worth the wait.  I’ll go on vacation with Nurit anytime.  She chooses the best places.

The only other couple on the tour were Marty and Bruce A.  They were, from my perspective, very simpatico.  They had excellent stories, similar likes and dislikes and they tolerated my occasional outbursts and bad jokes.  Of course Nurit does that all the time so I should give her some credit.

An intrepid hiker

Some of the main trails in the Cinque Terre were closed because of the heavy rains.  So Alex took us in taxi’s to the top of the hills and we walked on beautiful paths down to the even more beautiful villages.  The weather while we were there was spectacular.

One of the Terre

As usual there are more pictures on Flickr

For more Links to our Italy trip click here