Trip Recap: Cinque Terre.

I'm back with another installment of our European vacation recap.  After Paris, we headed to Cinque Terre, Italy.

We were originally supposed to fly into Genoa, but Air France cancelled our flight and re-booked us for two days later.  Yeah, not cool.  We found out that the day we were flying into Italy, there was a general strike there affecting flights, trains, and all other public transportation.  Just our luck.  We finally figured out a way to get to Italy on the day we were supposed to by flying into Pisa later in the day.  Instead of getting to Cinque Terre in the afternoon, we got there at 9:30 at night.  This incident was the only hang up with traveling during our entire trip, so not too bad.

It was pretty amazing in the morning to wake up to what our hotel overlooked that we couldn't see at night.  I jumped out of bed and ran to our balcony to see this . . .

Beautiful, right?

We stayed in Manarola. As a little background, Cinque Terre is on the coast of the Italian Riviera. It translates to "The Five Lands" and is composed of five villages:  Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. (Thanks, wikipedia.) 

(photo: here)

You can hike in between all of the towns.  We hiked in between Manarola and Riomaggiora (the Via dell'Amore) and between Corniglia and Vernazza.  The trail in between Manarola and Corniglia was closed because of a landslide.  We went to all of the towns, and if we didn't hike to them we took the train.  Then on the way back, we took a boat from Monterosso to Manarolo.  From here on out, I will let the pictures do most of the talking and will just note which part of the trip they were from.

On the Via dell'Amore:

From Corniglia and Vernazza:

The view from the top of the hill overlooking the Corniglia train station, after we walked up 382 steps.
 

Looking back at Manarola on the hike.  As you can tell, it was very cloudy in the morning.  I guess I am thankful that the clouds kept it a little cooler during the hike, but some of the pictures look a little dreary as a result.

This is a shot of the town of Corniglia during the hike. 

The trails were a little rough.  You definitely had to watch were you were walking. 

It took us about 2 hours to hike to Vernazza.  We stopped a lot for pictures and took the time just to enjoy the view.  The trail was steep in places and we were a little worn out by the end, likely because we are out of shape (and I also chalked it up to eating way too many macarons and crepes in Paris).  But it was totally worth it.  We saw some of the most incredible views.

Here's what we saw once we finally got there . . .

 

The Vernazza beach:

Then we went to Monterosso via train.  I loved the umbrellas at the Monterossa beach.  I didn't see Meagan had "tagged" me--or whatever it's called on pinterest--in this pin until after we got back.  But this picture is pretty darn close to it! 

I am so glad we took the boat back to Manarola.  It was cool to see where we had hiked and you can't get the same views any other way.  It was also great because the sun was shining by then!  And of course, Justin repeatedly sang the song "I'm on a Boat" (previously blogged about here). 

Back in Manarola:

And what do you reward yourself with after a hike?  If you answered gelato, you would be correct!

Shortly after I polished off my gelato, we hopped on a train to Rome.  We had a whirlwind day in Cinque Terre, but it was well worth it.   I saw some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen before. 

I was going to try to recap Italy in one post, but that's not going to happen.  Ciao for now.  I'll be back with my Rome recap.