Welcome to lovely Liguria, one of the most picture perfect places in all of Italy. On the coast of North West Italy, it's just down from Monte Carlo and up from Pisa, and boasts delightful old fashioned villages, an absolutely stunning coastline and some truly kind, hospitable locals. And lucky me, I was invited to stay in beautiful Portovenere (above) with my friend Gnat and her mum, Bea. So for five days I exchanged miserable rainy Britain for a laidback lifestyle by the Italian seaside: eating pasta, drinking wine and messing about on boats... Truly la dolce vita...

Portovenere

Portovenere lies at one end of the Golfo dei Poeti, so named because the romantic heroes Byron and Shelley stayed here for a while. In fact, Byron swam from Portovenere to Lerici, at the other end of the Gulf (or perhaps he swam from Lerici to Portovenere, I'm not quite sure). But then again he was a nutter...

The larger of the two islands is called Palmaria: it boasts a population of 35 and a very fine restaurant that's played host to Rod Stewart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kylie Minogue and us. The second island is a military base - The Guns of Navarrone was filmed there. The whole island is off limits, and has a rather creepy, deserted atmosphere, haunted by seabirds and the ghosts of long gone Nazis. Probably. The Famous Five would probably feel right at home...

(Above) The sun sets behind Portovenere at the end of a lovely day spent sailing round the islands with Gnat's 'Italian dad' Gianni, harvesting mussels, drinking Prosecco and driving around Palmaria in a golf buggy (don't ask).

Carleto the mussel man provides us with mussels fresh from the sea for our dinner...

...and Andy and Gianni clean them. Nothing like lying back on a boat in the Italian sunshine and watching men do all the work. Not nearly enough of that goes on, in my opinion... Note the bottle of whisky at Andy's feet. The sun goes down over the yardarm early in the this part of the world...

Lerici

Speaking of Lerici, here it is - a lovely bustling fishing village, complete with castle, which appears to be obligatory in this part of the world. The castle was closed of course - it wouldn't be Italy if half the tourist attractions weren't shut. In the distance you can see Portovenere and Palmaria. It's an hour long bus journey back to Portovenere, but I still don't fancy the swim...

Tallero

Just a few mountainous miles away from Lerici is Tallero. We loved this tranquil little village, with its pretty pastel houses clinging to the edge of a vertiginous cliff, narrow winding streets and complete lack of, um, people...

Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre are five beautiful little villages nestling along the rocky coastline above Portovenere. We visited number one, Riomaggiore (above), then walked along the Via dell'Amore, a breathtaking stroll along a cliff edge, down a walkway lined with soppy lovers' graffitti, to village number two, Manarola. Where unfortunately it started to rain. Time to head for the bar... which is also where we ended up in village number five, the charming seaside resort of Monterosso (left). During the summer months you can walk between the villages (to do all five would take a whole day) or get a boat, but given the weather, we settled for the train.

Pisa

Before I flew back from Pisa, I just had to see the famous Leaning Tower. Sometimes famous monuments can be a bit of a disappointment when you see them for real, but the Leaning Tower is well worth seeing - yup, it really does lean!

We didn't climb up the tower (15 euros - ouch!) but we did check out the Duomo (below left), the sarcophagi in the Camposanto (below right) and the sculptures and other works of art in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, where we saw this lovely Hippogriff. Eat your heart out, Harry Potter...

 

Left-right: Bea, Ruth, Gnat, me and Andy enjoy a delicious dinner in Portovenere on our last night. Unfortunately Ian was at home, having run out of holidays. Poverino...