Day One
Cinque Terre means, in Italian, 5 Cities. The region of Cinque Terre is on the West Coast of Italy, right on the Mediterranean Sea. It has gorgeous landscapes and colorful cities. The region consists of the following cities: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.
We arrived at 7pm on Friday night. I traveled there with 3 friends: Britt, and two new friends Nina and Abby, who also attend UW-Madison. When we arrived we met up with 2 of Abby’s friends who are studying abroad in Madrid this semester. We chose to stay in Monterosso al Mare, which was one of the largest cities. Our hostel had no bells and whistles, but it was quaint and got the job done! Below are some pictures of where we stayed, and the view from the balcony attached to our room!
It was much cooler than we had expected and after a long day of traveling, it wasn’t a welcomed surprise. Granted, my body has grown accustomed to Sevilla’s 85 degree weather, so Cinque Terre was really only 55-60 that night. Our hostel didn’t provide any heaters as well, which didn’t help. We decided to get out and experience our first Italian food that night. Our hostel recommended a good place for pasta, and it was AMAZING! I ordered linguine with pesto, and it was the freshest, most delicious pesto I’ve ever eaten. Every person ordered pasta that night and there wasn’t a bad word uttered about anyone’s meal. Yummmmmmy! We also got to experience our first Italian wine: a bottle of Chianti and a white wine from the Cinque Terre region. Pictures of us celebrating our arrival...yes, Mom, I'm the one with the chipped nail polish.
We went out later that night to the only bar open past 11pm in Monterosso. It was a very American bar, and we even found a dollar bill that was signed by UW Badgers that had previously been there. They played what they considered to be American music for us…it was a very interesting selection! I’m always amazed when traveling at how small the world truly is. While sitting in this bar I met people who were studying abroad who grew up with people I knew in high school, who knew where Stoughton was, etc. etc. That idea of 6 degrees of separation has been proven to be true!
The next morning we got a later start as we were all pretty tired from traveling. We went out for breakfast at a little bar. I got a ‘brioche’ or croissant, which was filled with Apricot jam, and coffee. Delicious. I can already tell I’m going to be spending my life savings here, and the bulk of it will be on food. We decided to spend this day traveling throughout all the cities. There’s a foot path that connects all of them but, unfortunately, due to a landslide, the foot path was out between all of the cities except for the route from Riomaggiore to Manarola. We bought an all day pass for the trains and traveled straight to Riomaggiore, which was the end of Cinque Terre to work our way back up. While Riomaggiore was beautiful, the main attraction there was going on the footpath to Manarola. We went straight up to start the treck. It was called La Villa della Amore and the landscape throughout was absolutely breathtaking. The path was laden with couples stealing kisses and hugs. It’s definitely a place to go for a romantic vacation! I’m happy to say though, that I was content to be there with great friends J
We took that trail into Manarola; a cute town that was filled with restaurants, tourist shops, and another beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea. There was a restaurant recommended by a guidebook, and it definitely surpassed our expectations. Although to be completely honest, I haven’t had any food yet that hasn’t! I decided to go for my first Italian pizza experience. I ordered the Margherita Pizza, and it was the best pizza I’ve ever had. It was layered with cheese, fresh tomato sauce and basil. Deeeeelicious! Britt got mussels that had a lemon-butter sauce on them and I’m happy to say that I grabbed a hold of my adventurous spirit and actually ate one. (For those of you that don’t know, I dislike all types of seafood and fish.) While I still prefer pizza, pasta, beef, chicken and pretty much any other kind of food before it, it was not as bad as I expected it to be! Not a great review, I know, but Nina and Britt both really enjoyed them.
After lunch, we had 2 more cities to visit. We decided to save one for the next day and just finish with Corniglia. Corniglia was a bit of a disappointment because you had to climb a steep, winding road to get up to the city, and even then there wasn’t much once you got up there. But it, once again, had beautiful views!
That night we met up with the rest of the girls and went out for dinner again. I was still stuffed from my pizza so I just got bruschetta with pesto and tomatoes. Again, a superb meal. Although, when we ordered wine our waiter doubted whether we were actually 18, which we all took as an insult! I wasn’t quite stuffed after that, so I decided to go for my first Italian gelato experience. It was great, but I think I can find better!
Day Two
Since we had saved one last city for Sunday, we woke up early and took a train to Vernazza, the last of the 5 cities. It was a very cute little city. Mostly we just took pictures, enjoyed the views, and did a little shopping for souvenirs J We returned to Monterosso al Mare to explore the city a little more and had our last lunch there. We didn’t go for anything fancy as food is expensive and we were all pretty full from all the other meals! After lunch, we ran back to our hostel to grab our bags and hopped on a train for Florence!! The first two pictures below are from Vernazza and the rest are from Monterosso!
So, in summary, Cinque Terre is amazingly beautiful and a great place to spend a few days if you want to enjoy great food and have a nice relaxing vacation!! Highly, HIGHLY recommended if you are coming to Italy. I’ll continue to update you – Lydia’s adventures in Italy, Florence and Rome to come :-D
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