Rapallo to Lucca

We left Rapallo and decided to drive along the Ligurian coast to Monterosso al Mare, one of the towns in the Cinque Terre (five lands) National Park. (I'd been here in the summer as well.)

The Cinque Terre is a beautiful rugged stretch of coastline south of Rapallo and there are five fishing villages dotted along it. Monterosso al Mare is the only one that's easily accessible by car though, although I hope to come back one year and visit the others by boat or train.

After finding a good smugglers' cave; (well, what would have been a great smugglers' cave were it not for the huge hotel on top of the cliff above it and all the tourist boats coming into the harbour); a head of the smugglers' ring lair up on the other cliff, ideal for signalling and having rowdy parties high above the harbour; lusting after the traditional Gozzo fishing boats and refuelling with a nutty ice cream, it was time to leave this colourful town.

We climbed back up the hillside and headed towards La Spezia, and then on past the marble quarries and workshops of Carrara and Massa, which were quite something, to Lucca.