Radioactive women and loud backpackers

After we left Paris we took a fast train (we actually had to buy separate tickets for this train) to Cannes. We thought this might bring a nice change to all those car and bus fumes and we wanted just to breathe in a fresh sea breeze. Also, the weather in Paris wasn't really hot, only warm, and we were looking forward to some Mediterranean heat. We scored right on this one as the heat was truly on! Goodbye jeans and hello shorts and dresses! Cannes seemed to be a true holiday resort where you could almost smell money; five star hotels right on the beach with their private sand patches and bars. Everyone seemed to be completely unaware of the dangers of the sun as they were tanning their bodies and wearing really skimpy clothes. We were slapping on the 30+ sunscreen every time before we stepped outside but still those rays of sun have found their way on our skins too. We found out that Cannes really is a place for young and beautiful people with buck-loads of money. Not our kinds of shrinking violets :) Nevertheless, Cannes was a fun place to stay one night and see all those youngsters to pass by in their bikinis and bathers:

Beaches aside, we were on our way to a city once again. We thought of having a stopover in Monaco but it turned out there weren't any lockers at the train station for our backpacks so the visit was very short, it lasted only 30 minutes. During this time Leena ran outside, took some photos from the principality and ran back to the train station where Craig was waiting with our luggage. These are the photos from that short period we spent in the world's second smallest country:

And hey we were on a train again and this time we crossed Italian border. Unfortunately the train was a regional train which meant there was no 1st class (Eurail pass is for both 1st and 2nd classes) and we "had" to sit with the cattle class. Everything went rather smoothly until later some very loud Italian boys came aboard and we couldn't even hear our own thoughts. The same thing happened later on when we had a day trip to Cinque Terre and after that we both thought that we are not taking regional trains EVER AGAIN! Anyway, Genova turned out to be a beautiful medieval city with houses and other buildings just running up the mountain wall. Only about a day seemed to be enough to see the main sights in the city and have our first real Italian pizzas. We turned to the Lonely Planet Guidebook for some advice where to find good Italian food and the book turned out to be correct; pizzas in Ristorante Pizzeria Piedigrotta in Piazza Savonarola were cheap, huge and tasty. We likey!

A day trip to Cinque Terre was a smart move as it was only a 1.5 h train ride away from Genova. Well, at least on our way back to Genova as the outbound train was again full of loud backpackers with no manners whatsoever. Craig was almost losing his nerve when a French guy tried to push his way through on a Cinque Terre ticket line and eventually succeeded. But as we all know Craig appeared as calm as a lamb and only later on he told me about this incident. Eventually we were hiking up the beautiful coastline from Riomaggiore to Manarola where we had lunch. Unfortunately the path between Manarola and another village Corniglia was closed so we had to take a train to Monterosso and spend the rest of the afternoon in this delightful small village. From the photos below you can see how beautiful this national park is. Immediate waters of the coastline and their flora and fauna are protected by law and luckily that seems to be working. Later that day we returned back to Genova and prepared for our next city break in Rome, from which Craig has already wrote about.

On our way to Rome we had a brief stopover in Pisa, two hours. This proved to be just enough to put our packs in the left luggage, buy a map, walk briskly to the tower, take some photos, walk back, buy some lunch and get back on the train.

As you can see from this picture Leena succeeded in straightening up the tower!