Cinque Terre

After our stay in Florence, we took a series of trains over to our first stop in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre literally means "five lands" and it is a beautiful rugged area on the Italian Riviera. There is a hiking trail from town to town that goes right along the coast so you can see all of the beautiful sights as you travel from town to town.  As the trail leads into each town, we slightly deviated in order the explore each town or get a snack/meal.

Our first stop in Cinque Terre was in Riomaggiore. We took the subway to this town, which we were staying in that night. This town was one of the smaller ones, but lacked nothing in its quaintness. The subway that took us to this town is right along the coast also. Once we got off the subway, we discovered that there is really only one mail street in Riomaggiore- Via columbo. Our apartment was right in the heart of this main strip and was so adorable.

This is the view from the back steps of our apartment. It was so sweet, I just wanted to sit out there and read a book all afternoon. 

After we got our bearings, we went out to explore a little bit. Since this was one of the smaller towns, there was not a whole lot to see. We initially went to the beach, which was very close to our apartment, however, this beach was unlike any beach that either of us had seen before. It was a rock beach, literally. And I'm not talking small pebbles- it was very large boulder rocks in some areas and medium rocks in other areas. It was very uncomfortable to walk around on or lay around on and getting into the water was even more uncomfortable. But, it was pretty!

All the men wore speedos and it was w-e-i-r-d.  I tried to talk David into partaking in that little tid-bit (when in Rome, right?) but he didn't buy into it.

 This was our view of Riomaggiore- simply breathtaking. You see all of these pictures online of this area, but theres just nothing like seeing it. And it truly is a pile of houses on top of each other as far as the eye can see.

Riomaggiore is known for its pesto, which works out because I LOVE pesto. The first meal I had here was pesto lasagna- it was fantastic.

After our nights stay in Riomaggiore, we took the trail to the next few towns, with our final stop being in Monterosso. Two of the easiest sections of the trail were closed , so we were forced to take the subway to the third town and then only hike to the fourth and fifth- however, this section was plenty difficult.

We made a wise decision and paid a guy 55 euros to take our bags to our final destination- with the bags weighing in around 40 lbs each, we were just afraid it was going to be too difficult. I am so glad we didn't bring our bags, because a couple sections of the trail were ROUGH.

This is one section of the trail to Monterosso. It was very steep! A person in good to average shape could make this trek, but I certainly wouldnt suggest carrying much baggage. Plus, the trail is right along the coast and alot of areas have very little to no safety rails. I could definitely see myself losing balance and falling to my untimely death if I had carried my bag.

Here are several pictures from our views along the way of the trail.

Once we made it to our final destination in Monterosso, we went to a beach there, which was very different. This beach, as odd as it sounds, was more like the texture of kitty litter.  It was much more pleasant to lay around on- and that we did! We were exhausted from our hike (which ended up being about 4.5 hours) so we lounged on the beach for a few hours before getting a shower and getting ready for dinner.

The hot thing in Monterosso were these huge terracotta pots full of rossotto and all the seafood you can think of--just piled high in a pot! Even though I think I cracked a tooth or two, it was delicious.