Five Little Villages on the Sea

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Cinque Terre is on the northwestern coast of Italy, five small villages connected by a 12km walking trail. Each village is unique, and the entire area is surrounded by local farmland and protected by the government to maintain this amazing place.

We stayed in the first, or southernmost, "terre", Riomaggiore, in a small hostel. The town is seriously tiny and is built into the side of the cliffs. Only two shops to buy food, and they closed from 3-6pm each day. Very "local" here, except for the thousands of tourists who visit each year.

Our first evening we just hung around town, walked by the marina and small beach, watched the sunset, met our roommates in the hostel.

The next day we spent walking the trail. There are no cars in the towns, the only way to get to and from them is the train. We rode it to the last town, Monterosso, to begin the hike. Quite hilly and actually more of a workout than we planned! Through local farmers' land with olive trees and small vineyards, spectacular views of the sea below the cliffs.
We stopped in each town to look around and get photos. The first two sections were definitely more difficult than the last two, and we later learned that many people skip the first one all together, though that was our favorite!

The towns are literally something you would see on a postcard, colorful buildings--pinks, yellow, oranges, and splashes of green and blue all over, little shops, everything is just so "cute".

A great day, and we ended it with coffee and wine at a restaurant back in our town overlooking the marina and out to sea. This is somewhere you should NOT miss if you are going to Italy!

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Photos

The Marina of Riomaggiore
We stayed here, the first "terre", tiny town on the water's edge.

The bay in Riomaggiore
A nice spot to watch the sunset

Early morning sun in Cinque Terre
This view greeted us when we stepped of the train in Monterosso

The beach of Monterosso
Where we began our little jaunt

Vernazza , the second terre
See how far down it looks? We had to walk up before we could get to this high point to walk down. Isn't it beautiful?

Heidi sweating on the hike
Walking up and down through the olive groves is gorgeous, but I was hot!

Taking a break to pose ourselves for a self-portrait
Honestly, it was much steeper than this photo suggests!

Cornigula, the third terre
The only town actually situated entirely above the water. We ate our lunch we'd packed sitting on a ledge high on the cliff.

Manarola, our fourth stop
From here it was a short walk on the pathway above the water to get back to our place.

Wine after the hike
The perfect ending to our day. I think I was tipsy after one glass!

The restaurant on the corner above the sea
The end (or beginning) of the walking path is behind it, the train runs below. The most surprising thing is that this was the cheapest place in the town!