The Cinque Terre region of Italy is incredibly beautiful. The five towns are all close, located all along the coast of the Ligurian Sea. You can take a train or a boat to get back and forth between them, or you can hike along through the mountainside, along the cliffs and retaining walls, on very rustic, very old paths. After exploring Vernazza in the morning, we were excited to hike to Monterrosso. A beautiful trip, not for the chubby and out of shape – but I did it anyway!! Tommaso, my exchange-student-son from a couple years ago, was a great companion who was patient and helpful when I so often threw myself to the ground panting “HOW CAN WE KEEP GOING UP?! DOES THIS MOUNTAIN NOT HAVE A TOP?! When do we go DOWN?!”, trying to catch my breath and drink my water. 🙂 It took about two hours, I lost track of time because I kept passing out and Tommaso would have to revive me. Actually, even though it was challenging, we had a blast, walking from Vernazza north to Monterrosso, and collapsed into a bar the minute we got there for a well earned beer. We then spent the day exploring that beautiful city, and I put my feet in the Ligurian Sea, just because. Then, in the evening, we took the train back to Vernazza and enjoyed a relaxing dinner, and got to see how beautiful that place is at night!

Friday, we’re taking the train to Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the “5 Lands”, to explore that city, as well as Manarola and Corniglia as we take our time and make our way north back to Vernazza by evening! I’ll post about that Friday night or Saturday.