Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Italy, Day 4: Cinque Terre

Oh yeah, the blog!

Cinque Terre is a group of villages along the Italian Riviera. We stayed in Riomaggiore, and took the train to the other 4 villages (Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia and Manarola). In good weather, there are trails open between the villages and it's possible to hike from one to the next. We heard that two of the trails are pretty easy and the others are really challenging. On our day, only one trail was open, the one between our village and Manarola.
As you can see, not such a beautiful day. But who cares?? We were still in Italy, and it was still beautiful.
Waiting for the train with a few other people in Riomaggiore.



In Vernazza

In Monterosso al Mare:





Not sure which village this was!

I think this one is Corniglia. We decided that we just had to get this shot, so popped off the train thinking we'd be able to pop back on in 5 minutes or so. Nope, we had to wait over an hour for the next train. It's a good picture though, right?



The sun came out! So we took the trail back from Manarola to Riomaggiore.






All these locks were along the trail (Via dell 'Amore). There is a tradition there that when you make a commitment with your sweetheart, you come seal it with a lock.


And write a message about it apparently. Lots of graffiti in Italy, and it seemed more like art than anything and is also traditional.

We had dinner that night at one of my favorite restaurants on the trip: Ristorante la Lampara. We had a charming waiter and there was a little black and white cat wandering around under the tables. Then we stopped off again at Bar Centrale for a limoncello before climbing the hill and stairs back to the hotel, Locanda Ca' dei Duxi.
Lessons learned:
No problems here. My 5 Euro umbrella didn't last 24 hours, but in Monterosso I bought a rain jacket for 15 Euros and it worked well enough for the rest of the day.
Thanks for helping jog my memory Jennifer!

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5 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I believe our hike back to the home base began in Manarolo. Beautiful photos!

7:13 PM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

You have a really good memory Jennifer! I had to pull out my guide book to find all the names of the villages. Still not sure I got the pictures right...

9:03 PM  
Anonymous Rich said...

I loved that when you ordered a salad and two pizzas for dinner, the waiter asked what the rest of us were having. He must have known you were HONGRY! :)

5:18 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

Ha! I guess had that look.

7:31 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

It seems like the place where you left a lock was featured as a challenge one year on the Amazing Race. It may not be the same place, but the idea is of it is neat.

6:47 AM  

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