Cinque Terre!

Yesterday was a long, but wonderful, day.  We woke up at 5 am to make the 6:10 train to Cinque Terre - I kept repeating to myself that 1) it could be a lot worse and I could be getting up at 5 for work and 2) I'm going to the Italian Riviera for Christ's sake, but it was still a little hard.  The train ride was pretty uneventful and we were able to finally see a sunrise, but about 20 minutes outside of Pisa a gang of kids boarded the train and interrupted our naps.  All of these teenagers were headed to school in Pisa and our train car was literally packed.  One of the louder and bigger teenagers who, by the way, had bright green pants on with black stars all over them (they also did not adequately cover her backside) plopped down across from me and literally sat ON Courtney.  Court happened to be sleeping at the time so she shot up right away and we just counted the stops until they would get off.  After Pisa we had a relatively quiet ride into La Spezia.  To get to the towns of Cinque Terre you have to take another train from La Spezia and ours was unfortunately delayed for almost an hour.  We finally made it to the first town around 11:30 and began our trek through the towns!

Cinque Terre, literally meaning 5 lands, are 5 fishing towns that are relatively untouched by modern hands and make up part of the Italian Riviera.  They are known for their gorgeous views, which definitely did not disappoint.  The trail connecting all 5 towns is called Sentiero Azzurro, Light Blue Trail, and we started at the first town on our side: Riomaggiore.

View from Riomaggiore

The trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola was more like a stroll and it was on the Via dell'Amore.  On this trail you find tons of locks from lovers declaring their eternal love for one another.  Courtney was able to get a very romantical picture of Caroline and me on a bench on the walk of love...how appropriate!

The trail between Manarola and Corniglia was closed; I was assuming because of the rain the day before that they closed the trail in fear of landslides, which are apparently common on that trail.  Because of this, we had to take the train to Corniglia and start our real hike to Vernazza.  In my Italy book it described this hike as a steep ascent and then going almost immediately into a descent.  They were very, very right.

First climb up from the train station

view of Corniglia from the trail

Our descent into Vernazza!

The climb was pretty hard, but the views were breathtaking.  We also saw many vineyards and olive groves that are prevalent in that area.  After the hour and a half long hike we finally made it into Vernazza, arguably the most picturesque village of the 5.  We decided that we didn't have the energy to do the hike to Monterosso and wanted to spend a couple hours relaxing at the water.

While enjoying our pizza and cokes by the water we saw a few giant jellyfishes, which Court thought were cool and I thought were gross (to each his own).  We then just lounged around and enjoyed the gorgeousness of the day.  I loved it here and will definitely be coming back at least to finish that last hike :)

Giant jelly

At least it's a little different than the ol' "feet on the sand" pics

Yes, I realize there are a lot of pictures, but it was just so pretty I couldn't choose which pics to post!  

On to the next adventure!