Kim: The Cinque Terre is a remote area of the Italian Riviera, quite different from the bustling cities of the French Riviera. No traffic, no museums. Just sun, sea, and beach. Oh the life! Direct translation is "The Five Lands", consisting of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. Our journey began in Riomaggiore. We stayed in a nice little studio apartment with an amazing view, our own roof-top terrace overlooking the Ligurian Sea. The only downside to this was the amount of stairs we had to climb to get to this top floor apartment, 85 steps. Doesn't sound too bad eh? Well...try that with two 50 lb suitcases, 2 backpacks and extremely narrow stairwells. F-U-N! Our first night there we ate at Ristorante la Lampara. Darren had the seafood penne and I had linguine with clams (see pics below). The food was great although a little too fresh looking. The next afternoon we went on the Via dell'Amore walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. The story goes that due to the extremely isolated location of the towns until the last century, villagers rarely married anyone from outside their town. After the blasting of the train line in the 1920's, a trail was made between Riomaggiore and Manarola and became established as a lovers' meeting point for boys and girls from the two towns. Due to all the amorous graffiti along the path, a journalist coined the name Via dell'Amore: Pathway of Love. It is the current craze in Italy to close a padlock with your love along the path. We saw a ton of padlocks linked to railings, fencing, etc. We did not have a padlock so we weren't able to contribute (though we did find an extra suitcase lock later and decided to lock it around a fence in Hallstatt while hiking) Why not? ;o)
The next couple of days were spent in Vernazza hiking around the town and in Monterosso lying on the beach. We rented lounge chairs and an umbrella and spent two days chillin' at the beach. You can't get much better than a beach, a book and a cold drink. We even tried fresh coconut. Men walk up and down the beach selling pieces of fresh coconut. They dip them in cold water then hand you a piece to gnaw on. Good idea. Not a great taste.
The Cinque Terre was amazing. We can't wait to go back.
Darren: Yeah, my least favorite part of the Cinque Terre were the 85 steps and the less-than-impressive coconut...everything else was incedible. I liked the porthole windows in our room, shuttle boat ride between towns, pizzas by the beach, and just sitting on the rocks by the ocean at night talking. I loved sitting in our lounge chairs up on our roof-top patio, reading, writing in our journals, or just listening to the ocean while we looked at the stars. I even surprised Kim up there with a dance. No stereo, no problem. Just had her share one of my ipod earphones. Works great if you plan on standing really close. :) She likes when I try to be romantic. ;)
The next couple of days were spent in Vernazza hiking around the town and in Monterosso lying on the beach. We rented lounge chairs and an umbrella and spent two days chillin' at the beach. You can't get much better than a beach, a book and a cold drink. We even tried fresh coconut. Men walk up and down the beach selling pieces of fresh coconut. They dip them in cold water then hand you a piece to gnaw on. Good idea. Not a great taste.
The Cinque Terre was amazing. We can't wait to go back.
Darren: Yeah, my least favorite part of the Cinque Terre were the 85 steps and the less-than-impressive coconut...everything else was incedible. I liked the porthole windows in our room, shuttle boat ride between towns, pizzas by the beach, and just sitting on the rocks by the ocean at night talking. I loved sitting in our lounge chairs up on our roof-top patio, reading, writing in our journals, or just listening to the ocean while we looked at the stars. I even surprised Kim up there with a dance. No stereo, no problem. Just had her share one of my ipod earphones. Works great if you plan on standing really close. :) She likes when I try to be romantic. ;)