This Day in History v.13

Anything I blog about Cinque Terre cannot possibly do it justice or communicate how in love with this place I am and how amazing it really is. This was BY FAR the best vacation I've ever taken because it was just so breathtakingly beautiful. What a way to cap off a year worth of traveling!

A little bit about Cinque Terre:

Cinque Terre, which means Five Lands, is five small coastal villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso and is located in the region of Liguria in the province of La Spezia in Italy. All the towns slope down to sea-level except for Corniglia, which is perched on top of a tall cliff.

We flew into Pisa and took a train to Monterosso and a local train to Corniglia, where we stayed. Remember how the description above said it wasn't at sea-level? Yeah, well we had to hike 377 steps to get to the top or catch the once every 30 minute bus up the moutain. We rented some lady's flat and had to meet her at her restuarant to get the keys. It was a perfect space for the 4 of us (Jessica Hill, Andrea Parsley, myself, and Laurie Gaulin); it had a loft with a full sized bed and a full sized bed on the bottom, fridge, and stove. All you really need in a summer jaunt to Italy.

Highlights of the trip: falling in love with Capressi salads and pesto, Jess's horrific infection from skimming up the dock from the ocean, beach rave at Monterosso, the hot lifeguards that Andrea ran off with, drinking off way too much vino on the beach because cabs don't run after 2 am, unblacking out at the train station, hiking, the beach and the views!

These are some of the pictures from the 5 cities:

Vernazza

The trains go in and out of the mountains. I will always remember the feeling of coming out of the first tunnel and seeing the beautiful sea.

Sunset in Paradise

No wonder why Italians are so skinny...they climb stairs like this!

Manarola

During our hike there is this place called Via Dell'Amore, a path between Manarola and Riomaggiore. The legend holds that this was a meeting place for lovers from the two towns; its now a favourite site for tourists to place their locks and throw the keys into the sea.

And then there is this chair thing...so of course I had to pose for a picture!

There were lots of graffiti and people's signatures everywhere.

The yummiest gelato...from what I remember it was lemon and chocolate.

Corniglia

So cool!

View from the train

Yeah, I'll take the blue one.

Monterosso

We ended the trip by going back to Pisa to fly out. Since we had about a half day or so to kill before catching the plane back to London, we decided to play in Pisa. Since we didn't have that much time and there was a few hour wait to go up in the tower, we had to settle for just looking at it and basking in the hot sun. All in all a PERFECT trip!!!!!

We found it!

Of course I had to do it.

Look at how much it leans!

Yes, this was our dinner. Wonder WHY I gained 20 pounds in a year????