We decided to take a day trip to Cinque Terre. The most exciting for me, a new place! I had never been, John hadn't been in over 5 years.... the weather was beautiful... seemed like a nice day for a hike. So we packed up, drove out, and saw 4 of the 5 towns. We started at the southern most town, Riomaggiore. When I think of seaside Italian towns - this is exactly what I'm imagining. The colors of the buildings, the unbelievably clear water, the row boats sitting in the harbor. It was incredible. I couldn't imagine having to navigate these hills on a daily basis though. It was intense going down, and certainly worse walking back up at the end of the day and two hikes later.
Here is Riomaggiore from near where we ate lunch. We had focaccia bread, which tasted like butter - not really butter, but it was rich and flaky and buttery goodness for sure.. Yum!!
The boats sitting in the harbor. The girls rowing the boat on the right were quite the entertainment. They apparently thought rowing a boat was much easier than it was, and for some reason each girl is operating an oar and sitting in opposite directions. Eventually we did see that they made it out into the sea. We didn't see if they made it back.
Europeans are awesome.
We did the first hike as a group to the next city, Manarolo. The trail is called Via Dell'Amore (Lover's Walk). It was pretty easy trip... and it was great to see Mediterranean and the cities from a distance. It was really warm out, and very sunny. We noticed that a lot of locks were throughout the hike, along with scraps of anything that people could tie. Locks are one thing, but honestly, I don't understand why people were quite literally tying trash along the trail.
On the second part of the trail, there were some park people that were cutting down the trash, and leaving the locks.
Part of the Via Dell'Amore. How medieval...
Somewhere between Riomaggiore and Manarolo.
When we got to Manarolo we took the train that connects the city to the third town, Corniglia. The trail between Manarolo and Corniglia was closed from a rock slide earlier in the year. Pat and Martha continued in the train onto the fourth city, Vernazza, to wait for us while we hiked.
The second hike was harder than the first. There were a lot of stairs and just general vertical hiking. It was warm, I was sweaty, but it was still a great time. The trail was beautiful, and worth the walk.
A look back at Corniglia.
Our first real sight of Vernazza. It's amazing to think of building these homes and buildings on the side of the mountains, I can only imagine the views if I lived here.
This was a fish shop. The cat was sitting in the door with the kids, waiting for a snack. Apparently the owner did eventually give the cat something to eat.
Toes in the Mediterranean.. The sand was mostly black, and very soft. We were so warm from our hike, I was wishing that I had worn/brought a swimsuit.
Paint peeling, colors fading - Italian chic.
Beer, sun, and sea.... aahhhh....
After a little bit of relaxation, we headed for the train station and took the train back to the first city, Riomaggiore. If we had more time, or had stayed the night we could have made our way to the fifth city (Monterosso), but we wanted to get back for dinner closer to the villa.
The sun was setting as we made our way back to our car.
I think I could live with this outside my front door.
I think I would like to spend more time in Cinque Terre. I would hike the trails, swim in the sea, and just generally relax with the beauty of it all.
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