Cinque Terre

Holy cow! This trip just keeps getting better and better...or maybe the whole thing is just incredible. We are blown away by each new city that we spend time in. Each one is so unique and has so much to offer.

We are absolutely in love with these 5 little towns nestled in the coast of western Italy. They take a little bit to get into, as they are sort of remote, but we made it. We flew from Barcelona into Pisa, and then took multiple trains to reach our homebase of Vernazza. We stayed in a small, 4 bedroom residence of an Italian woman named Martina. Her place overlooks the main square in Vernazza. It was wonderful. Just the place to relax from our whirlwind trip that we have had so far.

The first night, we got in around 8 p.m. We were starving, so we headed out to our first Italian dinner. 'Our boy Rick Steves', a phrase that we have picked up after seeing all of the Rick Steves addicts over here, recommended a beautiful restraunt at the top of the town. It overlooked the ocean, and it was the perfect way to start our Cinque Terre vacation. We were craving pesto, since it originated in this area, so we had their homemade pesto lasagne and some pesto pasta...yes, it was amazing.

The next 3 days consisted of hiking through the 5 towns, relaxing on the beach, meeting new friends, crazy good Italian foccocia and limone gelato, and completely enjoying the beauty of this area. The total distance between the towns is about 7 miles. We broke the hiking up into 2 days. Though the hiking was pretty strenuous, the views throughout the hike made them worth it. We spent the remainder of our days lounging on the coast, while listening to a great book called 'America America' that Marks parents recommended to us.

One night during dinner, we met a couple from CA. Their names were Larry and Clara. We spent a lot of time with them during our trip. We hiked/survived the Vernazza-Monterosso hike together, and enjoyed some of the local white wine. We spent several nights enjoying the sunsets and getting to know each other. Larry, a photographer, taught Mark a ton of things about photography, which was a ton of fun!!

All in all, Cinque Terre was everything that we hoped it would be! We loved it, and can't wait to return!!

Ciao Ciao!