Cinque Terre

Let me start this blog post by saying, there is no possible way to fully describe how completely breathtaking, beautiful, and amazing the Cinque Terre actually is.  Everyone should have this destination on their must see list.  When Margaux and I were walking around Riomaggiore the first night, I said "Oh my gosh, is this my life right now?"  It became the motto of the trip, because we were in so many places where we just could not believe what we were seeing.  Everything was beautiful.  That being said, I will share my wonderful experiences there in hopes that you might get a hint of how incredible a place this is.

Cinque Terre is italian for "5 worlds" as there are 5 cities that make up the Cinque Terre: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.  The cities were built in the side of a mountain for the sole purpose of developing the vineyards in the area.  It was amazing to see these vineyards growing up the side of mountains for as far as the eye could see.  All of the little cities have colorful buildings and while each of them look a lot alike, they are all very different in feel.

We started our adventure in Riomaggiore where we were staying.  Our hostel was unlike any other hostel I had ever stayed in.  Instead of the hostel being in one place, there was a reception office and then small apartments all over the city that were transformed into dorm style rooms.  I was a little worried because I had read in reviews that some of the rooms were not all that nice, but we lucked out and got a great apartment in a great location.  On the first floor, there was our room with 4 beds and a toilet.  Up the stairs, there was another room that would have been a living room, complete with 5 beds, a kitchen, toilet and shower.  Margaux and I met all of our roommates the first night and we became an instant family with all of them.  It was such a good group!

riomaggiore

watching the sun set over the water

view from our room

The next day we started our hike along the trail.  Riomaggiore is the first town of the 5 so we made our way towards Manarola.  This was by far the easiest part of the hike between cities.  It's completely paved, there are no ups and downs, in fact it's called the Via dell'Amore or "pathway of love".  It only takes 20 minutes to get from Riomaggiore to Manarola.  We got there right when the trail first opened so there were a lot of people but soon enough we were in Manarola.

beginning of the trail

coming up on manarola

main street in manarola

Unfortunately, because these trails are built into the sides of mountains, there had been a landslide between Manarola and Corniglia and the trail was closed.  But luckily, there is a wonderful train system between all of the cities so we just hopped on the train to Corniglia, instead of taking the longer, steeper path which would have taken us 2.5 hours.  So we got to Corniglia in record time and took a little time to explore the middle city.  Corniglia is the only city that is not down by the water.  There were a lot of cute little stores just like in the other cities, but this one did not require a lot of time to explore.

corniglia

houses in corniglia

surrounded by the sea

last picture with corniglia before heading to vernazza

After snapping a few pictures, we were anxious to start the next portion of the coastal trail to Vernazza.  Up until this point, the trail had been fairly easy.  This is where it got a little more difficult.  There were more ups and downs on this trail and it took us about an hour and a half to get to Vernazza.  But it was so worth it once we got there.

first view of vernazza

walking into the city from our hike

view of the buildings and the sea beneath

port area in vernazza

absolutely beautiful

Vernazza was definitely one of my favorite cities.  There was a lot going on in this little town.  More restaurants than the rest and a lot more tourists. There was also a very lovely port area, where little kids were swimming and boats were coming in and out. Besides the trains and the hikes, it is also possible to travel by boat between all of the towns.  There was a stop in Vernazza so there would be waves of people coming and going when the boat would stop.  Margaux and I stopped to eat lunch here after our hike from Corniglia.  I had pesto pizza with a fanta.  This was basically my meal the entire time I was in Italy, although the pesto was not nearly as good anywhere else but the Cinque Terre.  Pesto is a speciality of Northern italy and now I know why, it was amazing there.  After our big lunch it was neccessary to rest for a bit, before starting the big hike from Vernazza to Monterosso.

After that, we started our hike to Monterosso.  From the beginning, it was almost straight up.  For this hike I took videos to show where we were and where we were going to.  This was by far the most fun hike, probably because of the people we met along the way.  This was the hike that we met Ben and his dad from Sacramento!  Anyways, enough of this, see for yourself!

When we finally made it to Monterosso, we crashed on the beach for a couple of hours to relax.  Monterosso is really the only town of the 5 that has an actual beach.  There is a little boardwalk, as well as the best gelato I will ever have in my life.  That day was my first time going swimming in the Mediterranean and it was perfect after a long day of hiking.  That night we were so exhausted, we went to sleep early to rest up for our next big day.

We woke up the next day after making the decision that we would take the longer 2.5 hour hike from Manarola to Corniglia.  We had heard it was absolutely gorgeous and less crowded than the others trails.  So Vanessa (one of our roommates), Margaux and I made our way to Manarola first and then to Corniglia.  I am very happy that we stayed in Riomaggiore because it was perfect to start hiking, being on one end.  However, there really wasn't that much to do in our little city.  In fact, Margaux and I basically saw the whole thing the first night we walked around.

But anyways back to our morning hike.  We didn't take any time to stop in Manarola but continued on to find the trail that led to Corniglia.  There were a lot of stairs and it felt like it was straight up.  But we had water and the view was so gorgeous we couldn't complain at all.

perfect morning in the cinque terre

view of manarola from our hike in the vineyards

surrounded by vineyards and water

view of corniglia from up high

see why i think this place is beautiful?

vanessa and me on the trail

We didn't even stop in Corniglia but headed to the train station to get to Vernazza, there was no way we were hiking again.  Margaux and I had lunch again, and when we were hanging out by the harbor, Vanessa had just walked up from her hike from Corniglia.  So the three of us stayed and relaxed for awhile before taking the train to Monterosso, finding our other roommate Naomi on the beach and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon.

hanging out our last day in monterosso on the beach

I should also mention this was a 2 gelato day.  Yes, the gelato in Monterosso was so good, we had it twice in 1 day.  More like twice in 4 hours but who cares, we were on vacation. We took pictures on the beach, ran into Ben and his dad again and invited Ben out for a drink in Riomaggiore that night.
After getting back in Riomaggiore, I figured out that I didn't have any good pictures of Manarola and because it was so close, it wouldn't be a problem to just walk over at sunset.  So Margaux and I walked over, and thank goodness we did.  We didn't think it was possible to get any good pictures of the city because of the landslide but the trail wasn't closed off until the landslide so we were able to walk down the path a little to get some beautiful photos.  I was so happy!

start of our sunset walk

all of the locks on the via dell'amore

gorgeous manarola

another view

sunset in cinque terre, italy

after the sun had gone down

So Ben came and met up with us that night and we had one last drink together at the (only) bar in Riomaggiore.  So much fun with new friends!

the girls: vanessa, naomi, margaux, and me

our little family one last time

And that was it.  The next morning as I was leaving, I felt like it was my last day at Disneyland: here were all of these people so happy to be starting their days, and we had to get on a train to go to our next destination.  I was so jealous of everyone staying.  Some people think you can do the Cinque Terre in a day, I mean all the cities look alike right?  I think to really appreciate its beauty you need at least 2 full days but I could have stayed longer.  I will definitely go back to the Cinque Terre one day, and I hope through this post I have convinced you that you have to see it too!

Next up: Venice and Florence.  More great things to come, people!

C'est la belle vie! :)