Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre was probably the part of the trip that both of us looked forward to most. I had a calendar in high school that had a picture of Portofino (near Cinque Terre) on it and I've wanted to visit ever since. Charming town for me, the sea for Todd, and hiking for us both.

On Google Maps, the icon for our hotel didn't look like it was even in the town. I didn't want to ask a local because my Italian was so bad! I figured we just walk to where the icon is on the map, duh.

We hiked nearly to the top of a big hill on the outskirts of town (with backpacks, getting super sweaty, and starving) and there was absolutely no sign of a B&B. Todd was thrilled. On the bright side, the view was great! We found our B&B at the bottom of the hill right next to the train station... after I asked a local. Oops. :)

I think I picked for us to stay in the prettiest of the five towns. Vernazza was charming and quaint, even with crowds of tourists. It's precisely as perfect as it looks. Every alley turned into another and another... there's no city plan whatsoever and every street was straight out of a dream.

The towns are connected by cliffside hiking trails. We tried the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso, where we stopped for lunch and Todd took a quick dip in the rocky Mediterranean. 

There was a guy playing piano in the pedestrian tunnel (former train tunnel) by the beach. He played a nicer song before the one I recorded, it was perfect!

Todd ate some adventurous things on this trip (here, baby octopi). Lots of pasta with new kinds of fish. I did try the local pasta-- trofie. This would probably insult the Italians, but I don't see much difference among pasta varieties.

We had a day pass for the national park and trains, so we decided to take a train from Monterosso (the town farthest north) Riomaggiore (the town farthest south) and work our way back to Vernazza. But we got on the wrong type of train and had the misfortune of being in the carriage with the ticket taker, who gave us a 115 Euro fine. I freaked out enough to get the fine cut in half. Most expensive 10 minutes ever!

The last morning we were there, we sat on the rocks in the harbor and watched the town wake up before we caught a train to Milan. (I loved listening to the church bells chime that last note on the hour!) The train followed the coast to Genoa before turning inland, so we got some amazing views on the trip out. If we visit again, maybe we'll stay somewhere on that train route between Levanto and Rapallo. Gorgeous.