CINQUE TERRE

Susan and Aunt Diane came to visit us from NY! They arrived Thursday, June 6th, and we turned right around and drove 5 hours to Cinque Terre the very next day. They were troopers!

I found a great 3 bedroom home on the beach on www.vrbo.com in Monterosso Al Mare. It's the most northern village of the five. 

We walked to a cute little restaurant for our first meal in Cinque Terre.

The weather was cool enough to wear light jackets! It was perfect!

It's hard to tell during the day, but the other villages dot the coastline to the south of Monterosso. One of my favorite quotes from our trip was when we stood on the beach in Monterosso counting the 4 other towns and Nick asked, "Where's the fifth town?" (We were standing in the fifth town.) :)

Monterosso is the flattest of the five villages. We walked a few blocks from our house to this cute little pasticceria overlooking the beach. 

The view from breakfast.

From there we walked to the ferry for our first adventure! The boat took us along the coastline to the fifth town: Riomaggiore, meaning "major river."

Corniglia is the middle of the five towns. It's perched up high on the rocks.

Manarola is the fourth town...

and we arrived in Riomaggiore.

This is one of the most photographed areas in Cinque Terre and it's easy to see why. There's not much like it in the world!

After enjoying a drink and some snacks, we made our way to the Via Dell'Amore, meaning walk of love. The hike connects two villages; years ago, villagers from the two towns would meet in secret on this walkway.

There are hikes linking each of the towns together, and this portion of the hike is the flattest. 

Unfortunately, the Via Dell'amore was closed due to mudslides. :(

Before heading back to the ferry we snapped a few more photos of this quaint, picturesque town.

We got back on the boat and sailed up to Manarola.

This is by far the worst spot to have a line for a ferry. Actually it's almost impossible to form a line amidst the jagged rocks. You can see Nick and Susan trying to squeeze in between the rocks and the people waiting to get on the boat. It was slightly chaotic.

We stopped for lunch at this cute restaurant overlooking the bay in Manarola.

This is where we all discovered our new love for prosciutto and melon.

We didn't have much time until the next ferry back to Monterosso, so Susan, Nick and I tried to do a fast-paced tour of the rest of Manarola.

I sprinted to the top of the town (it was quite the hill) to get a few more photos.

I got back just in time to catch the next ferry! A few people missed their boat, and tried to point fingers at us. (it's a long story) It reminded me of a quote from Rick Steve's. "If you accept it and flow with it, you'll get along with Italy much better." 

This was the line trying to get on our already very full boat in Vernazza.

We had a very full first day! We ended by having a delicious dinner at Miky Cantina. One that we would revisit later, it was so good!

The next morning, Nick, Susan and I hiked from our town to the Vernazza. I felt like I was on a stair-stepper for over an hour! 

But it was worth the view!

Our cute town from above. :)

We came across this little snake on our hike. I never imagined there were snakes in Italy!

We spotted a sticker from Nick's squadron! RULE!

We finally spotted the next town! It was mostly down hill from there. (phew!)

There were a few cats along the trail. Most of them looked like they were well taken care of. This one reminded me of the cat from the cartoon, "Peter and the Wolf."

As we approached Vernazza, we came across a few homes that had been destroyed in the mudslides in October of 2011.

We were all pretty hungry by the time we reached Vernazza, so we stopped to grab some breakfast. This gentleman appeared in the main square wearing what looked like his pajamas. He had the look of pure joy as he observed the square, holding his breakfast sandwich in one hand with his pinky sticking straight out.

After we finished our meal, I had to stop and get my picture taken with these men. I approached one of them and asked in Italian if I could get a photo all together. He shook his head and said, "No." I turned to the next man, and asked him the same thing. He's reply was the same. It didn't deter me. I sat down on the bench, and the men gathered around and we took a photo together! Haha! You can't stop me that easily. :)

Susan headed back to Monterosso, and Nick and I continued on the trail to the next town.

Looks like there were some bored hikers.

More stairs!!

Our first sighting of Corniglia.

The Italians use these carts to help harvest all of the grapes along the hills. I think it would be nearly impossible to do without these! The hills are steep, and there are a lot of vines!

We had to end our hike in Corniglia because the last two hikes were closed due to mudslides. A storm came in, so we rode the train back to Monterosso to meet up with Susan and Aunt Diane. 

It was so cold, windy and rainy (in June!), so we stayed inside until dinner. 

That night we ate at Miky; it's a fancier version of the restaurant from the night before. We were all grateful we were inside that night because a HUGE storm hit while we were at dinner. 

We walked to the other side of town in Monterosso for the last morning we were there.

It still amazes me that we were wearing coats and sweaters in the middle of June! 

The old town of Monterosso was beautiful!

I've discovered my love for taking photos with older men and women in Italy. They're so sweet! This little lady was very concerned that we were walking up the wrong path. 

Next we headed back to the main road to see the the duomo of Monterosso.

I loved the stripes!

After the flood in 2011, this duomo was several feet deep in mud and water. Looks like they've done a great job cleaning up!

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. Aunt Diane had a sweater on underneath her raincoat that was caught. Nick and Susan are pictured here trying to help her. :) It almost looks like they're holding her hostage. :)

Nick and I ran up to one of the lookout points in Monterosso with a statue of St. Francis and a wolf. This was one of our last looks at Cinque Terre.

We all headed back to our place to pack up and get ready for our next adventure at Lake Como!

We loved staying in Monterosso at this cute home. The sweet manager waived the cleaning fee because she found out we were military. That doesn't happen everyday in Italy! 

I hope to revisit Cinque Terre one day!