Cinque Terre, Day 2

April 20, 2012 - Cinque Terre, Day 2

Our second day in the Cinque Terre turned out to be an amazingly beautiful day!  

I started my day out with a walk along the love path between Riomaggiore and Manarola, it was a nice walk right along the coastline

 
 The water was beautiful but it was freezing!!!

 This picture cracks me up ... after we had our reunion with Caleb, Ann lost her contact on the beach.  It was a pebble kind of beach.  They actually thought they might find the contact.  They didn't.

 Awesome human-sized chess/checker board!

 It was hot and sunny that afternoon in Monterosso, so we decided to walk to the next town to the south, Vernazza.  What we didn't know was the walk was really a 2km hike up and down the hills.  It took us almost 2 hours to get there.

There were vineyards along the sides of the steep hills, you could almost call them mountains.

The first sighting we had of Vernazza, I was thrilled because we were all exhausted!

 The beautiful water off the coast as the sun was setting.

Many times when we went to restaurants, we received a free drink or sometimes appetizers.
This time is was some kind of fishy appetizer ... Thea was brave enough to try it.

Another round of tasty pesto pasta!  Yes, the noodles looked a bit like worms but it was sooooo good.

Ann, Caleb, Thea, Laura and I

The town of Vernazza, one of the five Cinque Terre towns.

This is definitely a place everyone should visit in their lifetime.  Beautiful and the people are friendly, the food is fantastic.  I will return here one day.

Cinque Terre, Day 1

April 19, 2012 - Cinque Terre

Ahhh, Italy, the adventure continues.

On our way to La Spezia and then to the Cinque Terre.  Not a bad train ride from Rome, very scenic.  It was just beautiful on the way to La Spezia...from mountains to the ocean.

 Our little Italian village of Biassa.

Looking through the mountains down on La Spezia.

 Lovin' it!

 The Mediterranean ... unfortunately, it was not the best weather when we arrived.
Who cared? No one! We were in Italy!

 Riomaggiore

 Stairs down to the water, these were everywhere but roped off due to the water being rough.

 Dinner in the second town of Manarola.

 Cheers!

 Can I just say yum! Grilled veggies and pesto spaghetti.

 This was one of the best desserts ever!  It was a chocolate cake with a layer of pears in it, surrounded by fruits and a cherry sauce.  Ann, Thea, and I about fell over when we had a bite because it was that good!

After walking around in the cold rain, we decided it was time for a little bit of warmth.

There was this tunnel in Riomaggiore that connected up to the train platform, the entire tunnel was fill with these mosaics, absolutely stunning works of art!

Our first day in the Cinque Terre was lovely, the weather wasn't the greatest but we were hoping the next day would be better.  That night when we got back to our hostel, the owner informed us the hot water and the heat had been knocked out when the storm came through.  We all slept with about six blankets on top of us and the next morning took the coldest, fastest shower ever!