Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre might not have been the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life... but I can't think of anything that beats it. Literally breathtaking. It consists of five cities on the northwest coast of Italy, with cliffs along the Mediterranean. The hillsides are covered in vegetation, from vineyards to cacti!

After a freezing, dreary week in Paris it was great to get off the train to a bit more warmth in Riomaggiore (the city we stayed in), despite the rain. Danielle stayed at Eos da Simone, and Simone was waiting at the train station to meet us and walk us to the apartment when we got in. The apartment was great, nicer than the one I live in here! We had 2 bedrooms, one with a twin bed and one with a queen, an eat-in kitchen with dishes, a super clean bathroom with a showerhead I didn't have to hold myself, and best of all a sitting area with TV!


view from the sitting room window

View from our front door

There was a longer panoramic walk that we took into town, along the cliffsides overlooking the ocean. Simone told us how to get from our apartment into the "city center," which is basically like three blocks long and only one street. Super small but super cozy.

We got in around 5, so we went into town and bought local pasta, pesto, and some wine. We also got our first gelato (one of many for Danielle!), and in non-food related activites we looked at a church, where I lit a candle to make up for the one I didn't get to light at the Duomo.

church

Cherry and chocolate gelato

The next day we woke up ready to head to the other cities of Cinque Terre. There are scenic hikes along the cliffs. We bought a ticket to hike and were told that one of the paths was closed for a landslide. Not so good, but we decided to buy tickets anyway so that we could at least do the Villa dell'Amore, a paved path that stretches from Riomaggiore to the next (and I believe largest) town, Manarola.

First we had to go into Riomaggiore to pay Simone, who insisted that we see the harbor. The weather on Saturday was ideal. It was sunny and warm, when the forcast had called for rain. I couldn't have asked for nicer weather

PERFECT


You can't tell, but the water was really rough. They'd been having bad weather all week and the ocean still showed it, even though it's thet beautiful bluee-green color.


Yeah, I was there

Alright so after the habor we walked back over to the Villa dell'Amore

That's the first stretch. As you can see, it's barely a hike.


At the gates (see the hearts?)

The translation for the walk is (roughly) "Lover's walk," so the entire span was covered in lovey-dovey graffiti, but I thought the graffiti on the cacti was most interesting:


Something about Cinque Terre inspired me to climb every set of stairs I could. Yes, lazy little me. I guess I thought I could get cool views from up there, but really they were just higher up. I still had fun climbing all over the place, though

That little dot down there is Danielle


Villa del'Amore also has benches and stuff so you can sit and rest if need be.


I'm not sure if you can even see me in this picture, but the kissing people are like.. the logo, I guess? of Villa dell'Amore.

Once we got to Manarola we stopped for lunch

Seafood pizza, two birds with one stone!

Chocolate and hazelnut gelato

After lunch we decided to try to keep hiking, and at least see how far we could go before we got stopped.

Looking back at Manarola


Oh, you know, palm trees in November.

And, long story short, we eventually reached as far as we could go.


And then we headed back. Remember the graffiti I was talking about?

I love you mama!

And I finished the night with some "small gnocci with a touch of shrimp"

mmmmmmmm

Meaning I managed to reach my goals of gelato, pizaa, pasta and seafood all in Cinque Terre!

Anyway, I took nearly 200 pictures in Cinque Terre alone, so please please please check them out!