Cinque Terre

So I am going to preface this post with just saying that I had never heard of the Cinque Terre until I got here and I will never forget the Cinque Terre. It is fantastic and I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys good views and hiking.

For those that don't know, the Cinque Terre are five villages (that's what Cinque Terre translates too): Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa set right along the Gulf of Genova (the northwest side of Italy at the top of the boot). They are connected by hiking trails and there is swimming, and vineyards, and very good food. They are absolutely beautiful (there are 581 pictures I took to prove it).

FRIDAY:
We got into Monterosso about 5 o'clock and headed down on the train to Riomaggiore where we stayed. There were four of us and we met up with one of the guys in our group's girlfriend and three of her friends as well. We basically took lots of pictures of Riomaggiore and then ate dinner, had some gelato, and went to bed.

SATURDAY:
Now, this is the big day. We were told to walk from Riomaggiore north to Monterosso on the trails (opposite of what most guidebooks say but I think it was better). We started about nine am and finished about five pm so here it goes:

RIOMAGGIORE TO MANAROLA:
This section is the Via Dell'Amore and it is the easiest part to hike because it is flat and paved. It has beautiful views of the water and there are all these love words engraved on the walls in marble set into the cliffs. There is a lot of love related graffiti (they also like to carve their names into cacti we discovered) and people put locks up to represent their love. It was all very touching and a very nice warm up to the beginning of the hike.
We explored the town of Manarola which has a very nice marina and I bought some foccaccia bread which the Cinque Terre are known for. It was fantastic and a great snack for as I got hungry.

MANAROLA TO CORNIGLIA:
So, this part of the trail was closed due to risk of landslides. Apparently this is common. This also means I need to come back so I can hike this portion. However, we took the train to Corniglia and it turns out to get into the city center (and the rest of the trail) from their train station you have to climb 382 steps. I didn't count, they congratulate you at the top with a sign.
Corniglia is beautifully set out on a small peninsula and, like all the Cinque Terre, a cute little town. We went to this panoramic view area to get some great shots before continuing on our adventure.

CORNIGLIA TO VERNAZZA:
This is the hardest part of the entire hike. The paved paths were gone and we were left with stone paths, lots of steps, and beautiful views. Although it also took us pretty far from the coast compared to the rest of the hike. This portion took us over two hours, despite the fact that it says it should only take an hour and a half. However, we stopped for water a lot, and to take pictures. The sun was coming out at this time (the morning had previously been overcast and the forecast predicted rain all day) which made things pretty but it was also hot. I took a lot of trail pictures so you should check those out. Pictures are worth a thousand words in this case.
However, Vernazza may have been my favorite of the Cinque Terre. It's set almost like a pier coming out of the coast (it also has a pier coming out of the coast). It was 1 when we got in so we had lunch at this place called Blue Marlin. I had Trofie pasta with pesto (Cinque Terre is known for pesto!) and it was fantastic. Probably one of my best meals so far and well priced. We spent a good amount of time in Vernazza because we were so tired. We went out to the pier area, took some pictures, and relaxed on these big rocks for awhile. It was quite nice, but it was onto the final leg.

VERNAZZA TO MONTEROSSO:
This part was not as hard as the previous leg, but it was the second hardest and the most treacherous I think. I was so glad we started in the south though because our trip had a ton of steps at the beginning going up and then was pretty gradually downhill plus some small uphills. Meaning coming the other way it was a lot of uphill instead.
The trail here got pretty narrow for awhile and it had started to rain which made the stones that marked the path rather slippery. It rained for about an hour but it was refreshing since we were so hot from hiking the other two legs (particularly the first leg). My friend Allie almost fell down a hill from slipping on the stones, luckily there was a railing at that part (some parts do not have railings, this is not for anybody bad with heights).
This part goes through a lot of vineyards at the end which was fun to see. The grapes looked gorgeous.
The very end part of this was a TON of steps downhill (hence why I was glad to go down, not up). The rain had stopped but some were still slippery. We got into Monterosso and were so proud of ourselves for taking the 2 hours they say it takes to complete that leg that we celebrated with, what else?, gelato!

We ended up not exploring Monterosso but heading back to our hostel (which was really nice, much improved over last weekend) and showering before finding some dinner in Riomaggiore. I had gnocci stuffed with tomato and mozzarella which was fantastic. We wandered Riomaggiore's main street a bit before heading back up to our hostel (we were rather high up on the hill). We talked a bit before more or less passing out from exhaustion.

SUNDAY:
We slept in until about 9, and packed to leave by 10 (check-out time). Three of us headed back to Vernazza to explore the Castello Doria which had fantastic views of the area. We had lunch at Blue Marlin again because we loved it so much and I had anchovy pizza. Allie stared at me through my whole first piece since she thought I was crazy for having anchovies on pizza. We then headed onto Monterosso to explore for once.
The biggest thing with Monterosso is there is beach access. So we walked a little but we were so tired that we ended up wading into the Gulf of Genova (part of the Linguarian Sea) for a good amount of time.

We finished our trip with some gelato and our three hour train ride back to Milan thoroughly tired but with beautiful memories and pictures of the Cinque Terre!