From the rocky roads of Rome to the rocky outcrops of the Cinque Terre, my endless summer continued.

The group I joined consisted of seven Australian / New Zealand women plus me. At the briefing (with the female guide it now totalled eight) I felt like I had entered a sort of TV reality program that combined dating with hiking…a sort of Bringing The Mountain To Mohammed.

On the first night, dinner conversation turned to embryo bags – and I turned to shots, while any thoughts I had of viewers turned off. More hammered is what I might need to be to get me through this.

Onwards and upwards anyway with our first walk from Levanto to Monterosso.

It was 94 per cent humidity in 35 degrees and no breeze. Three hours there and three hours back through very hilly terrain. The weather was such the horizon and sea merged; sweat was pouring off me like someone had hit an arterial vein, when the only pouring I wanted was the local tasty beer into a cold and frosty glass.

Verdict?

Cinque Terre-riffic…the chatter of my companions was replaced by that of nature, and the occasional toot of the train rushing though the hills…I was transported back to my youth of watching The Guns of Navarone. A classic.

Each day, same weather conditions occurred and six to seven hours of trekking were achieved.  Villages appeared…offering themselves to the ocean, in return enjoying spoils of cool, clear water and endless vistas…whilst knowing Mother Nature might decide to take them at any moment. In total I walked from Portovenere to Moneglia, and then around and over the outcrop that is Portofino in six days. It was breathtaking, beautiful and bloody hot.

The trekking gave us a sense of being at one with the towns, yet we knew this was as short lived as an afternoon gelato and the local’s agreement on anything.

Notable mentions were the freshly made lemonade on a trek by a crazy Frenchman….pasta lunch by Ciak as he finished the preparation right next to you…the walk from Corniglia to Riomaggoire…and the swim at Grotta Byron in Portovenere – the water made every hot and hard step completely worth it.

As to the group, we bonded over the week…Emily was just like my two close friends at home – Emily and Christina combined, so was tremendous company; and Sue was a great walking companion who would set a cracking pace each afternoon.  Although when asked if I like tramping…silenced followed…as my first thought was is it something Clive Palmer would do on Saturday night on Oxford St?  In fact it is a combination of trekking and camping…New Zealanders and their fandangled terms….hard to keep up.

All in all it was, which one reader will be pleased to know, Cinque Trimming.

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