The Cinque Terre. "Five Lands." Absolutely beautiful. Our hostel is in Levanto, which is the next town west of the Cinque Terre, five seaside villages. We got up early, had some breakfast, and took an early train over to Riomaggiore, the easternmost city. This is where the trail that connects all five towns begins... We hiked around, found some beautiful panoramas, (Adi bought some fresh foccaccia with olives), then began on the "Via Dell'Amore," the easy path that connects the first two villages. Fifteen minutes (and a bunch of cliffside views) later, we arrived in Manarola for some more seaside fun. [View Full Entry]

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After our stay in Assisi, we were very excited to move on to the Cinque Terre region. We traveled by train to the region, and as we came out one end of the tunnel, we caught a brief glimpse of the brilliant blue water below. We were so excited to get down to the beach! Lucky us because our apartment was steps from the water, and we had a great view. Over the rest of our stay, we trekked over 6 miles through the mountains and other villages and swam in the salty sea. It was really hard to tear ourselves [View Full Entry]

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SIKE! We actually love it here and would rather not leave... But don't let the word get out because it is becoming more touristy by the hour. Which is BAD. We apologize for the week-long lapse in blogs; internet costs a small fortune here and even now I am wincing at how much this measly little blog will cost. Basically the long and the short of it is, we love it here, gelato is great, view is great, weather is amazing, the beach kicks arse, and we would stay here forever if we could. But don't want anyone else to. And [View Full Entry]

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I woke up early today to get some milk, eggs, coffee and croissants from the market. After we made a delicious breakfast, we went to go us the internet and get caught up on everything. Lauren went to the beach in Monterrosso, Steve and Karin went on a hike, and Jesse and I decided to get some pizza and read/swim on the rocks here in Riomaggiore. After we had gotten enough sun, we ended up taking a nap, and then got ready for some dinner. The two of us decided to go out to a nice restaurant right on the main [View Full Entry]

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We all slept in again today and I was surprised with breakfast in bed (Jesse brought some chocolate croissants and coffee to me). We then got ready to head back to the beach we went to yesterday. The water was much more calm today, so we were able to spend a lot of time swimming and enjoying the beautiful sea. We had Nutella sandwiches on the beach and all enjoyed reading/listening to music for a few hours. We then took the train back to Riomaggiore and showered. Lauren and I did some laundry and then bought some pasta supplies for dinner, [View Full Entry]

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So, have you figured it out yet? Did you guess where I was heading? Or did it take you until the giant picture of a sign at a rural Tuscan train station to realize that I spent the last three days in Italy? Let's begin at the beginning. Before leaving for Europe I'd seen Brian's name in a Couchsurfing group of people going to Croatia for the same days I would be there, and we'd emailed a few times about our plans and various travel tips. He'd seemed like my kind of traveler-- easygoing, music fan, history buff-- but I'm sad [View Full Entry]

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We woke up around 8:30 this morning (probably because we went to bed so early!) and Jesse, Lauren and I went to have some breakfast on the terrace where we enjoyed chocolate croissants (I think these ones were filled with Nutella!) and coffee. After we got our fill, we got ready to set out on a day hike through the area. We are staying in Riomaggiore, which is the southern-most city and so we set off to explore the other 4. The map had a suggested hike time of 5 hours and we were determined to get there faster than that... [View Full Entry]

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After only an hour of sleep, the five of us departed Arles at 4:30 in the morning... The train rides were very interesting, we all had trouble figuring out which car and which seat we were supposed to sit in, I think I kicked a guy out of his seat because I thought he was in my seat, oops! We switched trains in Nice and then again in Genova before arriving in La Spezia. Once we were in La Spezia we only had to take a short train to Riomaggiore, which is where our hostel is. This area of Italy is [View Full Entry]

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After a couple days in Milan, Kelli, Monica, and I decide to take a day trip to Cinque Terre. So Sunday morning we hop on our 6am train ride and arrive 4 hours later to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Cinque Terre consists of 5 different villages that are all connected by various trails along the coastline or through the mountains. We started off at the last village, Riomaggiore and hiked a good two hours passing through Manarola and Corniglia. The views were amazing, just look at the pictures! Well, along our hike we ran into [View Full Entry]

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Tomorrow we leave Italy to head back to the U.S. and the heat of Texas! What a treat it has been to be here in the mountains in this magical village of Triora! Traveling always creates change and I'm sure this journey will have a lasting impact on us. One thing for sure, we're concerned about the status of the church. It seems that only the older people attend services and many of the smaller churches are suffering from physical decay. The larger cities and more famous cathedrals can charge for tours which contributes to upkeep. I wish there would be [View Full Entry]

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