Cinque Terre: 5 Cities and 4 Friends

It was time to get out of the city and we were excited to relax on Mediterranean coast for a few days.  We had to switch trains in Pisa so we decided to do a quick side trip into town to see the leaning tower. 

Pisa was hot and it was a 30 minute walk from the train station to the tower.  The square that contained the tower, church and baptistery was beautiful with well trimmed grass surrounding all the buildings.  The tower was amazing and really was leaning!  According to the guidebooks it is 15′ off center.  I thought it was interesting that the original builders tried to correct the lean by making the very top perpendicular with the ground.

We decided not to climb the tower as it was a 4 hour wait and instead opted to check out the baptistry and church.  The baptistery was octagonal shaped and its best feature was the acoustics.  The ticket lady demonstrated by standing in the center and used her echos to sing harmonies with herself.  It was so beautiful and amazing that they could figure this out in the 15th century!

Mike and I were a bit nervous about arriving in Cinque Terre as we had no room reservations.  At one of our train layovers, we asked information and they directed us to go to Riomaggiore (the first town).  We walked into town and were in awe of the views as we were on a small cliff above the beautiful blue sea.  We found a room very easily, for a good price and it even had a view – relief!! 

In the evening, we waked down to the harbor to enjoy the views and check out the swimming.   We started talking to an American couple on their honeymoon from Richmond, VA – Michael and Danielle.  We hit it off right away and got drinks at a cafe over-looking the ocean to watch the sunset.  We were enjoying our new found friends so much that we had dinner together too.  The spaghetti with fresh seafood baked in tinfoil was amazing!!

The four of us decided to met in the morning to hike the trails linking the 5 towns.  The first section of the hike was a short 20 minutes along a pathway hanging on the side of the cliff.  It was dubbed the amore (love) walk and there were plenty of padlocks on the fence too just like in Florence.  The views were breathtaking. 

The next portion of the hike was closed due to a landslide and the detour hike was 2.5 hours long – almost as long as the whole hike!  So we decided to take the train to the next town and did some yoga while enjoying the view.

After enjoying some amazing foccacia bread, we were ready to start the harder section of the hike (90 minutes).  It was getting warm and I was ready to go swimming.  Upon arrival in Vernazza, we quickly found the beach access.  We decided to enjoy the water by jumping off the pier between ferryboats.  The water was the perfect temperature and really salty so it was easy to float. 

We finally pulled ourselves away to finish the last portion of the hike, another 90 minutes with lots of steps!  The views were amazing and at one point we could see each of the towns that we had visited.  The beach was inviting and we all enjoyed swimming.  Danielle and I tried to get on a boat with a water slide, but as soon as we started swimming for it the guy quickly moved the boat away from us!  Too bad:(

We enjoyed a nice dinner in town and Michael introduced us to Limoncello, a local, lemon flavored liquor.  It was excellent and we are hooked.

What an amazing few days of relaxation and new friendships.  It was great to share our time with them.  We are really hoping to meet up with them in Rome as we both have our last nights in Italy on the 16th!