Cinque Terre- Five Villages

After Venice, we headed to the other side of Italy to visit the Cinque Terre. This is a collection of five villages right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in Manarola, which is village #4. There is a 12 km (8 mile) trail that connects them all. It is supposed to take about 6 hours to do it all. This seems like a lot of time for this distance, but it is very difficult in places, with steep steps.

Our first full day in the Cinque Terre we relaxed and took it easy. We did one small hike, but mostly hung around the hostel and played board games. I needed that day to rest.



The next day we decided to hike the trail through the villages. We started in Manarola and headed to Monterosso. It was a long, hard, exhausting trail. But well worth the effort. It was beautiful. We explored each village as we passed though and really tried to take in the beautiful scenery.



For dinner on a couple of occassions we went to the grocery store and picked up some wine, cheese, meat and bread and ate it overlooking the ocean.


This was the view we got to admire while we ate our dinner.

Our last day in the villages we took the train to Monterosso, which has a "beach". I use quotes because it is not your typical sandy beach. There were smooth rocks on the beach and in the water, which made walking difficult. That didn't stop us from taking a dip in the Mediterranean. It was my first time in this body of water. The water was cool, but bearable.

Next stop: France.