Cinque Terre

I looked forward to Cinque Terre, and I dreaded it just the same... the beauty, the beaches, the hike (yes I said it, hike), and the seafood... but also... this city marked 1/2 of our vacation done... caput... finito.

It was amazing to be in the Italian Riviera.  Cinque Terre is made of 5 small towns.  We stayed in Monterosso, one of the largest and with the best beach.  Each town is connected by a pathway, that you can hike.  Our first stop however was the Ligurian Sea for a quick dip.  We had been traveling by train all morning, and then once to our hotel had to climb with our luggage 4 flights of stairs.  We were hot.  And the water was cold.   

We had dinner later that night on a cliff overlooking the water and afterwards went exploring the Old Town Monterosso.  Life was good.

Day 2:  Here's me reading my Italian survival guide while waiting for the boat to take us to Riogamorre.  We decided to start our hike there and work backwards to Monterosso.  The ride was amazing since we were able to see the coast from the boat.  I loved every minute.

Once we got there you seriously felt like you were in another world.  The charm of these towns was like nothing I had seen or felt.  

Basically everything in Cinque Terre is postcard worthy.  Here is one of our favorite pictures.

Prior to us arriving in June 2012, the people of Cinque Terre were devastated with land slides in October 2011, and slowly they were rebuilding.  Because of this 2 parts of the hike were closed for safety reasons.

The hike is no joke.  I don't do that whole hiking thing well, getting up 3 flights of stairs is a struggle.  It's sad.  God just didn't give me good knees.  While Adam had no problem, I was huffing and puffing.  We skipped out on the last part which we were told was the hardest.  The 2 parts we did do took us about 2 hours each.  

The up and down dirt steps that were uneven did a number on my knees and thighs, and I didn't want to push it since we still had 2 cities to walk through.  Also, there were no guard rails and some parts of the path got really narrow.  I was so focused on not falling, we had to stop here and there to just take a look around.

But each and every view looked like this!!!

Day 3:   Adam and I are very much beach people and the exact midpoint of our trip we rented 2 chairs and an umbrella, and laid out from 9am to 7pm.  We did nothing else (but eat lunch and lots of gelato).  Glorious.  

 Fresh seafood, 24/7, was one of our favorite things.  We ate 2 nights at the same restaurant, Ciak, because the first night was so good.  We stumbled upon it after the first night's dinner.  In Cinque Terre you can see inside most kitchens and we watched at Ciak as the chef's prepared the food and all the fresh vegetables and seafood involved.  We made a pact to go the next night.  We had a fresh seafood risotto that was meant to be shared.  This included large octupus, which I count as a personal achievement of eating.  The suctions were still on and visible.

We are so glad we visited this very beautiful place.  It was such a contrast from the rolling hills of Tuscany, and the city life of Rome.  The waterways of Venice are next...