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British Pubs - the Druids Head, Brighton and Hove, UK.

Source: Michele Chapman Unsplash

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Tuesday of this week, an afternoon in Blackpool with friends at Ma Kelly's Station for free live entertainment and drinks, followed by the half price steak meal offer at West Coast Diner.

A quick nip to the promenade with my other half and James, who grabbed this shot of us both in front of Blackpool's famous landmark.

Then the Famous Five took the bus back home at 19:00hrs.

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Sliema to Valletta by ferry.

Sliema to Valletta Ferries.

Experience the beauty of Malta as the blue-painted foot passenger ferry glides smoothly across tranquil waters from Sliema to Valletta.

Photo Source: Unsplash Free Download Curated Images by WalksWithMyCamera The picturesque skyline of Valletta is a stunning backdrop, with elegant masted sailing yachts and vessels dotting the waterscape.

This serene journey not only showcases the vibrant culture but also offers an unforgettable view of our maritime heritage.

Don’t miss this unique perspective on your next visit! INFO:

Is there a direct ferry between Sliema and Valletta? Yes, there is a direct ferry departing from Sliema and arriving at Water Polo Pitch. Services depart hourly, and operate every day. The journey takes approximately 15 minutes.

Schedules & Prices. There are two ferry services. One from The Strand – Sliema to Valletta and from Valletta to the 3 cities. This service runs daily from early morning to late afternoon / evening, till late night in summer all day, every day. View the full details of the Valletta Ferry Services for Summer and Winter schedules here. Enjoy your journey!

Thanks for reading, Shell xx

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Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

Manarola village on the Cinque Terre hiking trail viewed from the small harbour slipway below the clifftop village. Did you spot the wedding couple on the balcony? If not (here's a tip) you need to click through the blue link above which says "Manarola village" to see the bigger image on Unsplash.

Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy: looking down on painted houses and people walking through a narrow street with the sea in the background.

Photo: 28 September 2024, a visit to Manarola during our travel exploration of the Cinque Terre villages on the Ligurian coastal region of the Italian Riviera.

Our journey started from NCE airport on the Cote d'Azur taking us through Genoa to Rapallo and beyond.

We visited all 5 of the villages along the route, starting out at Riomaggiore (the furthest point from our hotel accommodation in Rapallo) and ending at Monterosso, before heading to Vernazza to catch the train back to our hotel.

Photos ITALY Travel and Tourism: Unsplash.com

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Guadalest, Spain

Photo source via Unsplash Free Images

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My life in Cyprus after leaving UK in 2004 to 2016 and some of the things I did to keep my head above water and a roof over my head.

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Rapallo, Liguria, Italy 🇮🇹

Cured meat shop window display at night via Unsplash

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I was so pleased to capture this shot of bright red Ferrari supercars during my trip to Italy last month.

For the petrolheads out there, like me!

Photo Source: Alamy Contributor WalksWithMyCamera

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Rainbow over Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy Photo is available on EyeEm.

A rather menacing sky with a rainbow greeted us after our 5.5km scenic walk back from Portofino.

It was an impossible task to get the small bus back to Santa Margherita Ligure (at least a couple of hours waiting in the queue) after being informed heavy rain and bad weather was approaching.

But, we made it - and caught the bus back to our hotel in Rapallo without any sign of rain.

We stayed at the Hotel Italia e Lido by the castle on the corner of the promenade in Rapallo and were very happy we switched our original destination of La Spezia, which after taking a visit there by train to see what we had missed, we found it was quite a large and sprawling town with more of an industrial feel about it.

Rapallo gave us the benefit of being able to 'wind down' and relax (a little) after the previous few days of hotel hopping on one night stays after we arrived into NCE airport late on a Sunday evening in September.

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It seems we both had the same idea for the place, but not the activity...

Watch carefully and you might just spot him 😂

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A post shared by LittleManTravels (@cypruspictures)

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Rapallo, Liguria ITALY

We're going to be train🚆hopping from Rapallo to Riomaggiore, the furthest village in the Cinque Terre national heritage park and steadily working our way back over the course of the day.

The main Cinque Terre villages aka the '5 Lands' are: Riomaggiore ➡️ Manarola ➡️ Corniglia (387 steps up from the station) ➡️ Vernazza ➡️ Monterosso

But, it hasn't all been plain sailing, so to speak...

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HERE'S HOW WE ROLLED:

NOTE! External links (hightlighted in BLUE) open in the same window, I have to figure out how to resolve this - so PLEASE, use the Back Button on your browser to return to the post thread, or right click to open in a new tab or window. THANK YOU!

The weather forecast we received just a day before we were due to depart on our "Italian Escapade" hmmmm

An orange weather warning was in place for heavy rain, possible flooding and strong winds 🤐 all from the moment we arrived on French AND Italian soil 😭 Dammit, we'd planned long and hard for this trip - we hadn't accounted for flooding!

But, we were lucky… it was dry with pleasant temperatures when we arrived some 2 hours behind schedule at NCE airport 🇫🇷, which was excellent as we had a 20 minute walk to our hotel for the night.

Moving on to Genoa 🇮🇹 the next day by Flixbus we awoke to rain but by the time we'd had breakfast and shipped out of the hotel it was improving and had stopped fully before we reached the bus terminal at T1 NCE Airport.

It was a bit of a grey journey, as can be seen from the image below, but with some fabulous views of ravines and little picturesque French towns hugging the coastline were visible all the way from the high route road.

Next, a refuelling stop just after we passed through the tollbooths at Ventimiglia - WOW! See the image below...

And that wasn't all of it, the driver also put in almost 30 EUR from a second pump. We assumed it was a mixture, a bit like the 'old skool' way of mopeds having to have a measure of two stroke oil.

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Immigration Officials boarded the coach at Ventimiglia, so passports or ID cards had to be produced.

The weather stayed dry through the remainder of the day, although not during the full bus journey - and we eventually reached Genoa at around 14:30hrs (2.30pm in the afternoon), still some 90+ minutes behind schedule owing to a late departure from the Flixbus terminal in Nice.

---000--- We had another overnight stay planned in a hostel closer to Brignole train station.

This meant taking a bus from the Genova Principe area, which was no easy task.

And yes, we finally did uncover the secret that you cannot purchase tickets from the bus driver - they had to be purchased either from a machine or a Tabac shop and each single ticket must be 'validated' in the machine as you board the bus. This was the most difficult part of our transport in and around Italy, as although many blogposts I'd read during the research for this particular trip, all referred to the 'validation' - not one person actually made clear what was involved in this particular process...

Basically, you stick one end of the ticket into the machine which date and time stamps it. The same applies for the majority of train tickets if you purchase card or paper tickets. Usually, there's an indictor line, which states you must keep the ticket to the left side of the slot when you insert it. Please be aware of the rules for your ticket - if inspectors board the train and you have not validated before boarding, you could receive a large fine!

The Bus and/or Metro ticket lasts for a duration of 110 minutes, which allows you to change to another en-route if necessary.

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Meanwhile the next morning, the weather outlook was most definitely although slowly improving, as we made our way into Rapallo by train a little before lunchtime on this, our second full day after departing the UK from LPL John Lennon Airport on our easyJet flight.

Our stay in Rapallo at the Hotel Italia e Lido by the castle was booked for 5 nights and we were most pleased to find our room was ready even though we arrived a little earlier than the official check-in time. So, as the weather was definitely better than we anticipated from the forecast, we dumped our bags and headed to the bus station which we had passed on exiting the train station.

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WE WERE OFF TO PORTOFINO!

We certainly weren't taking any chances that this part of the trip was going to be thwarted. As the saying goes 'make hay while the sun shines' meaning 'do it now.'

Two buses were required, the first being the number 707 from Rapallo to Santa Margherita Ligure (the next proper town) and from there another bus (I believe it was the 782) to Portofino. The cost came to €20 for the return journey for both of us.

Whilst having that drink along the small harbour front at Portofino, one of the waiters began to furl up the large umbrellas, as we watched a dark mist begin to form out of the bay over the Ligurian sea.

We were informed heavy rains were expected in around 20 minutes time, so it was a quick decision and we decided it was probably better to see if we could grab a bus back to the next town and if necessary, sit out the weather there...

But, upon checking out the rather long snake queue for the half hourly small Portofino bus back to Santa Margherita Ligure, we were looking at a 2 hour wait at the very minimum and although a couple of ladies we got chatting with said they were happy to share their taxi with us (when it eventually came), we gave up on the idea... Because every man and his dog were trying to flag down each passing taxi to escape before the threatened bad weather arrived.

So, we took the 5.5km footpath walking route which meanders partly up above the road and for the majority of the time, away from passing traffic.

You can see the route here on Rome2Rio website (our 'go to' for getting from A to B research), or check out the alternative options.

There is a ferry route (you will see the details through the Rome2Rio website link posted above), which runs between Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, but due to the predicted bad weather the last one had just headed out for the day and then, wasn't scheduled to run until the weekend due to strong winds approaching...

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And, CINQUE TERRE?

We stuck to our guns and held our nerve for our last full day in Rapallo - we booked the rail tickets for the Cinque Terre part of our tour the day before - and awoke the next morning to this.

Exactly the kind of day we were holding out for!

Yes, we did make it to Cinque Terre - with a few hiccups on the way back, such as a delayed and then a cancelled train which made it a bit awkward getting back from Monterosso and Levanto - plus a little 'argy bargy' over the request for a bathroom break in a bar where they wanted us to order drinks first. Something we were perfectly happy enough to do and had already planned to do so, but they were holding us over a barrel and not pointing out where the mysterious bathroom was.... so we got up and left - after our drinks had been poured, but without touching them. Lots of shouting in our faces and arm waving, but we weren't having any of it.

More will follow on the Cinque Terre, once I've processed my images and thoughts....

Thanks for reading, Shell xx

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Nice, Cote d'Azur, France 🇫🇷

Holiday travel theme street sculpture / street art.

Source Unsplash photography Shell Chapman

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Genoa, Italy

Photo source Unsplash

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People walking along the main road between Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure 🇮🇹

Source Unsplash

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📍San Michele di Pagani beach, Rapallo 🇮🇹 where a half litre (500mls) of wine from the beach bar, costs 6 EUR, or 4 EUR for 250mls.

Friday 27 September 2024.

Tomorrow, we're taking the train to Riomaggiore where we begin to do what we came to Italy for - to visit the Cinque Terre villages.

We've had to hold off until the very last day for this part of our trip, due to poor weather forecasts.

On Sunday we head back to Genoa for 2 nights as we make our way back closer to the airport (NCE) and the flight back to Liverpool with easyJet.

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Brunch in Italia - Gelateria Gepi Mare.

Via Tommaso Bottaro, 40, 16038 Santa Margherita Ligure GE, Italy

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Cyprus - Pavlou Valsamaki, Larnaka.

Source: Unsplash