Cinque Terre

 

This place took our breaths away, it is such a stunning little place!  If you every get the chance to visit, its a must do! These two photos were the first thing we saw when we arrived at our hotel!

DAY ONE

We arrived at 3pm after a train from Pisa to La Spezia and then a short taxi ride to our accommodation which was about 3km south of the five fishing villages.  Our accommodation was a little cottage on the side of a hill over looking the sea, it took us 150 steps to get down to it and with all our luggage this was a good work out!)

We had arrived to late for a bus into Riomaggiore (this is the first of the five fishing villages) so we decided to walk down into the village, this took us about 50 minutes and was a stunning way to start our visit to Cinque Terre.

The walk down to Riomaggiore, Josh loves this hat!

Riomaggiore township

We spent the afternoon here swimming, jumping off rocks (well the boys did) and relaxing in the afternoon sun (anyone jealous?)

 

For dinner we grabbed some fresh pasta and pesto from the local dairy which was divine!  We also tried some Cinque Terre bubbly wine, this was like apple juice and went down a treat!

Sunset form the hotel dinning area

DAY TWO

We didn't want to waste anytime at this beautiful spot so we rose early and caught the first bus into Riomaggiore at 730am.  From here we caught the train to the last fishing village of Monterosso.

 

Monterosso Village

We sunbathed, swum and looked around this little town before heading off on what we thought would be a leisurely stroll to the next fishing village of Vernazza.

We did not realised what this walk would involved as we set off in our jandals and togs. . . . it took us an hour 40 to complete and was extremely hot with a lot of steps! But there were amazing views and it was well worth it!

   

Vernazza Village

We stopped at Vernazza for an hour or so and explored the small village with a couple of swims and some sunbathing.  There was also some great views the top of the castle / lookout.

  

View from the top of the castle in Vernazza The top of the castle in Vernazza

We set off on walk number two to Corniglia – this was more a less the same as walk number one. With similarly amazing views!

Corniglia was up off the water so we just explored the town and carried on to the next village as a walk down to the water and back would have taken us just as long as to walk to the next village.

 

Corniglia Village

We decided to just look around Manarola as it was getting late in the day.  Saving the last swim of the day for Riomaggiore.  

Manorola Village

By the end of all this walking we were tired and a little sunburned but pleased to have completed the walk of all 5 fishing villages.

That night for dinner we had fresh pasta and salami with more bottles of “apple juice”.