Cinque Terre Weekend Trip

Jessie at the beach
see all photos »

Note: More pictures for this entry will be added later!

This last weekend, we decided to take the train to Cinque Terre, the italian riviera resort towns on the Ligurian Sea.  The area is comprised of five small towns from the renaissance era that are encaptured in a national park and have hiking trails in between them.  Four of them are on the sea, and they all consist of a small mainstreet with some shops and restaurants and hotels.  Some of the towns had small beaches or rocky places were tourists sunbathed, but the main attraction was just the beauty of the area and the sea and the great hiking trails all along the towns.  Because the area has become very popular in the past few years, we weren't able to get a room in any of the five towns, so we found a place to stay at a hostel in the next town over named Levanto.  It turned out that Levanto was a great choice, because it was a bigger city, with less tourists and a great big free beach.  The hostel was also cheap, clean, and very big, and was a great place to stay for a night.  They even gave us free breakfast!

Riomaggiore
see all photos »

Since we wanted to spend more time at cinque terre then at parma, we worked a few extra hours on thur. and fri. so we were able to leave bright and early on sat. morning for the train.  Gian Luca drove us and we hoped on the early 8:45am train to cinque terre.  When we arrived we started with the first town, Riomaggiore, which was actually one on my (Jen) favorites.  It was a fairly small town with only one big street with shops and restaurants but there was a gorgeous rocky beach and a good amount of locals.  We didn't stay too long, but got some of the areas famous focaccia and a cappuccino for breakfast, and then headed out on the hiking the trail to the next town.  On the way we passed through the via dell'amore.  It was a very cute waklway filled with painted rocks and graffiti professing eternal love.  This hike was really easy and only took us 20 minutes.  The hike was all along the coast and very beautiful.  The next town was Manarola.  This was a small sleepy town with a tiny beach.  We didn't stay very long because there wasn't much to see and then headed back out onto the hiking trail.  This time the hike to the next town took about 120 minutes, and it was a bit more rockier then the other hike.  It was still along the coast and very very beautiful, but by this point it was midday and really really hot.  At the end of the hike there was a huge flight of stairs up a mountain to get us to the next town, Corniglia, By the time we reached the top we were completely tired and hungry, and decided we'd rather go to the next town which was famous for their restaurants and get a good meal.  So we took the bus back down the mountain and hopped on a train to the next town, Vernazza.  This town was a bit bigger, and had a small beach, but it was swarming with tourists.  We decided to splurge and ate at one of the fancier restaurants in the main square, and we got a delicious gnocci with shrimp and saffron and a cheap spaghetti and meatsauce.   We had planned to stick around Vernazza and hang out at the beach that afternoon, but the beach was sooo tiny that tourists were putting their towels out on the cement steps leading to it, so we decided to head to our hostel to check in, and then on to the last town which had a bigger beach.  On our way to our hostel we discovered how amazing Levanto was, and walked right through an open air market and the beautiful main street gardens.  Though we didn't stay long this time, we knew we had made the right choice for where to stay.  At The next town, Monterosso, we did find a bigger beach, but unfortunately most of it was covered with umbrellas and chairs that you had to pay for.  There was only a small section that was free, and that was right in front of the train station.  By this point it was the late afternoon, so we decided to sit out on the beach for an hour or so and read as the sun went down.  Jessie went in for a short swim, which she said was absolutely amazing and perfect!  Better than california in her words.  After we relaxed for a bit we tried to find somewhere to eat, with little success because everywhere was booked and needed a reservation.  We finally went a little inland and found a nice pizzeria with outdoor seating and got a great meal.  We stayed their with the wonderful atmosphere for quite a while, until it was dark (maybe 10pm) and then wandered around the town a bit more before heading back.  Our stay at the hostel went well, and we got a good nights rest before our final day at Cinque Terre.

Levanto's beach
see all photos »

The next day was sunday, and we decided to stay in Levanto for a bit because it had a really nice beach.  We headed over to the beach at around 9;30am and found it almost completely empty.  It was amazing! We had our pick of spots, and we were able to read in the shade for a bit before it got too hot and sunny.  After an hour or so the beach started filling up with locals and their kids, and we swam in the sea for a couple of more hours.  The beach was really lively and fun, and we even bought some fresh coconut from one of the vendors walking around.  Around lunchtime we left the beach and decided to find somewhere to eat in levanto.  We ended up walking all over the town, before finally deciding to go back to the beach and get some cheesy focaccia.  It was sooo good and filled with tomatoes and basil and cheese!  Then we decided to get some gelato and jessie tried the puffo flavor which was blue because it means smurf, but it is also the name of the cat at Casa Lanzaroti so we thought it was funny.

same as above
see all photos »

Finally we decided to say goodbye to wonderful Levanto and headed back to Monterosso and Corniglia for one last walk around the towns.  Corniglia turned out to be a lot smaller than we expected and we just sat on some rocks and drank a coke before catching our train back to Borgo Val di Taro.  All in all the weekend was incredibly relaxing and very fun, and we're both very glad that we made it out there before we leave Casa Lanzaroti this week.

We will be leaving on wed. or thur. to go to florence for a day or two and then we'll be heading to our next farm in tuscany! So far everything has been great and we are looking forward to the next part of our trip!