Sardinia travels

Out of the breakwater just a bit windy

After the Cinque Terra walk we headed south by train to Civitavecchia a city destroyed during WWII andf boarded the care ferry for our eight days in Sardinia.
Golfo Aranci coastline
Arrived in Golfo Aranci in the evening and the next day rented our Mistra Daedoo care from Formula One Rentals no recognition at all to any formulae one and headed NE to the Smeralda Coast. The small Mistra , no power steering, no aircon,brakes marginal, top speed 50 kms uphill was perfect as speed limit tops was 70kms. Drove past the rich and famous of Porto Rotundo ,Porto Cervo and Capriccioli heading towards Palau & St Teresa Pennisular.


St Teresa Pennisular
All the beaches were golden sand, crystal clear warm water and sunshine which beckond for lazing and swimming.

Headed across the north coast past Castelasardo and stayed at Platamona Lido and onto Alghero
Alghero the old city
a traditional old city and the beautiful beaches of the west coast. Alghero is a reasonable large city uilt on the rocky coast overlooking sandy beaches a tourist mecca. Ventured south for a day to the magnificient Bosa township
Bosa River
an absolute gem, the beach must be the best in Sardinia. Tiem was running out drove across th isalnd through the port town of Olbia
Heading towards Olbia

and stayed the one last night on the beautful Smeralda Coast in a luxury hotel on the beach just awesome. Headed to Golfo Aranci staying in a family run hotel before ccthing the ferry back to mainland Italy. Sardinia lives up to its reputation of beautiful beaches, sunshine and gorgeous scenery. Now in Ladispoli for three nights a coastal resort town about 45 mins by train from Roma
looking out over Castelarado- our mean machine

A Sardinian herd!!!

Italy

Celebrating Vavra's Silver medal World Champs- with the IRL, NZL GBR and FRA supporters

World champs are over for another year and the LJ Kiwi residence is disbanded. Kay and I headed for Italy with Cairan and his parents we had a great night in Brescia eating at a traditional travottoria pizzeria which was yumm....

Montorosso

From there we headed on the train to La Spezia via Palma and out to the Cinque Terra only to find no accommodation availalle as the local tourist info informed us until November. Should we be homeless until then or proactive decided on the latter and heaed back to La Spezia where we found the last room for the night in a 3 star hotel thanks to a cancelleation- rain was on the way. Moved to another less expensive hotel for the next two nights also due to a cancellation Hotel Cassir which was great. First day we headed out on the train to Levanto and walked from Levanto to Montorosso and then onto Vernazza. Two great swims in beautifully warm water so salty required no effort to stay afloat. The walks were harder than expected we were really expecting a walk in the park but day one was certainly a challenge especially in the heat 34 degrees and exposed to the sun. Absolutely wonderful, glorious views and not too many people on Levanto to Montorosso I think they must have heard it was a little demanding typical NZL tramping. Vino, hot showers and food solves and takes away any sore muscles and we were rearing and ready for day two of the walk. Up again bright and early and off to the train station heading to Vernazza to finish off the walk Corniglia, Manarola and onto Riomaggiore. An easy days walking with crowds of tourists making their way along the paths. Did a bit of a detour into the back vineyards and up another hill face which just added a new dimension to the scenery and took us away from the scores of walkers. The scenery is spectacular, the villages still every authentic, food great, vino better, too many Americans and at times apart from the architecture we could be in NZL. very worthwhile ad now we know while Ian and Paula suggested to book as it is so popular even out of the traditional tourist season. Had all weathers and the local fisherman pulled up there boats so they knew a med storm was on the way and the crashing of the waves and the tempest sky added another mood from the first day.

Heading towards Vernazza

Leaving Vernazza

Cornigilia


Riomaggiore vino well deserved

Now in Civitavecchia about an hour out of Rome and heading tomorrow to Sardinia on the ferry- had another mission finding accommodation at a reasonable cost but finally managed it and had the best pizza and salad tonight for dinner. It is all about eating, friend and doing it !.

The Czech Pre Nationals and Nationals held at Lipno about 4.5 hours from Ljubljana. Great course that only flows one weekend a year and we were there.

On top of the Lipno Dam looking back to the start of the slalom kayak course. Very much like NZ