Cinque Terre, Italy

After an interesting journey on the Italian train system from Genoa, we arrived in the beautiful town of Monterosso. It marks the start of the famous trail between the Five Cities or Hills; which are located on the Western Italian coast each about 2 km apart. The area has been named a UNESCO world heritage site, and must be one of the best things we have done thus far on our trip! The hotel we stayed at was an adorable family run place called “5 Terre” and we would highly recommend staying there if you’re looking to visit in the future.

On our first full day we decided to hit the trail and hiked from Monterosso to the second town of Vernazza. We were surprised with how rigorous the hike was between these two towns, and felt like we did the grouse grind x2!! We reached Vernazza after 1 hour of hiking through the Italian hills and took a break by the beach before carrying on to the third town of Corniglia. We packed swimsuits and a change of clothes, so after another hour-long hike to Corniglia we went for a swim in the beautiful Mediterranean sea. By this point we were feeling quite exhausted and so decided to reward ourselves with a pasta lunch in one of the quaint hilltop town cafes. Mmmm mmm! After lunch we took the train back to Monterosso (a 10 minute ride) and rested up before strolling the streets in the evening for dinner and gelato (our lives pretty much revolve around food).

view from Monterosso of the remaining four towns of Cinque Terre

town of Vernazza

swim time at Corniglia after a hot day of hiking

The next day we got an early start and trained to the fourth town, Manarola, and hiked the 1 km walk towards Riomaggiore. This “hike” was nothing like what we had experienced the day before, as it was paved and completely flat! It surprisingly only took as 20 minutes to finish it but it was a beautiful walk along the coastline. This part of the trail is known as “lovers lane” and was the most “ability friendly” section we had come across. Once we finished exploring the last town Riomaggiore we decided to head back to our town and rent a beach umbrella with some chairs for the afternoon. It was swelteringly hot out again, and cooling off in the sea was a great way to spend the rest of the day!

birds eye view of Vernazza

Manarola postcard shot

our blog's namesake!

Today we left Monterosso (3 trains and 1 bus ride later) and arrived in the Eastern Italian town of Ancona. We will catch a ferry tomorrow morning from the port over to Split, where we will start our Topdeck cruise for a week in Croatia!

Wish you were here,

Rose and Sydney