Beautiful Cinque Terre

We recovered from our crawl the previous night, with some greasy McDonald’s goodness. Soon after wards we boarded our train for La Spezia, just outside of Cinque Terre. Our plan was to spend 3 days and 2 nights there, we were staying at a nice bed and breakfast for fairly cheap.

We got in pretty late when we arrived in La Spezia, but on the train we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean coastline. We dropped our bags off at a very classy looking bed and breakfast, so we could wonder around the city and see a bit of the nightlife. We grabbed some Calzone at a local pizzeria, which had to be one of the best we had. There was the white night happening in town, which meant we enjoyed some great live music from our bedroom window.

The next day we got up early to enjoy our free Italian breakfast, which consisted of a cappuccino and a pastry, we were still hungry after eating. So we all shared two plates of bacon and eggs, which reminded us of home. We then were off to visit Cinque Terre, which is a National Park consisting of 5 little towns connected by walking paths and train lines that extend beside the coast. We got a 2 day pass for the trains and that park, jumped on a train excited to explore the coast. It was an 8 min train ride from the place we were staying (La Spezia) and most of it was under the cliffs. So we were in the dark until all of a sudden we were right on the cliff over looking the water and most of the people on the train gasped at the beauty only for a second then we were plunged back into darkness, we all laughed.

Off the train in the first city, Riomaggiore, we quickly found some gelato for our fist snack, after wards we started off on the Via Della Amore, the path connecting the 5 Cinque Terre cities. The first walk didn’t take that long and was full of beautiful Cliff side views as well as good opportunities for pictures of the cities build into the rock. We also took a sketchy looking staircase to the bottom to dip our feet in the ocean off a few rocks.

As we entered the 2nd city, Manarola, we were getting pretty hungry, the first walk wasn’t too long, but the smells of all the small pizzerias most definitely had our mouths watering. We each bought something different and shared and were in awe of how good foccacia and pizza was here. In Manarola we found out that the path between the 3rd and 4th cities were closed due to a rock slide, so we decided to take our time. The walk between Manarola and the Corniglia was a little longer, so we took a break down on some rocks along the waters edge. We relaxed doing some sunbathing, we moved some rocks and set down our sweaters making comfortable beach side beds, along with the sound of the waves I could have had an hour nap.

We eventually continued our hike to the Corniglia. Arriving at the train station first ,at the bottom of the hill which the city was built on top of, Jamie’s leg was starting to give her some sharp pains. We decided to see if there was an alternative to walking up the steep cliff side steps. The bus that ferried people up wasn’t coming for a good ½ hour so we took the train onto the 4th city, Vernazza.

Vernazza was built at water level, so we didn’t have the stair issue there. The plan was to spend a short time there and then get back to La Spezia in time to pay our bed and breakfast lady for our stay, and get back in time to take some sunset pictures in Cinque Terre.

We managed to succeed with our plan, capturing some nice pictures as the sun met the earth. That night we stopped at the Donair place right next to our B&B. It was the BEST Donair/kebab/Gyro place we ever tasted, the meat was so juicy and tasty, gawd it was delicious, we are craving them right now. The next day we decided we would put our bags in storage at the Train station and see the 2 cities we had missed.

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