Cinque Terre!

Hi folks, So right now we have just arrived in Roma after spending an absolutely lovely time in the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is a collection of five (cinque) villages along the northwestern coast of Italy. It is so beautiful there and absolutely picturesque. The land is really rocky and there are heaps of little terrance bits of land that is farmed for olives and grapes. It is really steep there and the villages are just clinging on the edges.

We landed in Pisa after a very very early flight from Birmingham and immediately hopped on a train up to La Spezia. Luckily it was the right train as we couldn't really tell because the electric signs weren't working at the airport station. We had a really yummy lunch at a bakery in La Spezia (we had Focaccia and pizza bread and some elcairs and chocolate filled canelone pastry). Then we caught the regional train to Riomaggiore. The village was all tall terrace apartments painted in pastel pink, cream, and orange. All with regulation green shutters too!

After finding our hotel up the steps (lots of steps on this holiday!) we had a nap (which was very needed) and then walked along the coastal path (via dell'Amore) to the next village called Manarola. After looking briefly around there we headed back and watch the sun set over the Ligurian sea. How lovely.

We had dinner that night at the only open restaurant we could find. It is the middle of winter after all! We both had mussels in our dinners which were quite small, we're so spoilt in NZ.

This morning we got up early for breakfast which was in a building across from the hotel and we had mini toast out of a plastic packet and cakey croissant with apricot filling (also out of a plastic packet) and the same chocolate cereal we had in Paris. oh and real italian coffee for breakfast! Then we took the train to the furtherest village called Monterosso which was a fantastic beach town and was soo cute. All the villages how tiny little narrow steep streets with buildings on either side going straight up! We could see that Monterosso would be packed with tourists in the height of summer so it was really nice to have it all to ourselves with just a few locals haggling over stuff in the market.

We bought focaccia again and then walked along the coastal path to Vernazza which was way more of a hike than the via dell'Amore. It was really steep going up, and the track was really narrow in some places. Everytime we turned around we were amazed by the views. We took heaps of pictures which we'll put up when we get back. We didn't feel up to walking any more steps after we got to Vernazza so we took the train to Corniglia. Unfortunately the station is way below the village and we had to walk up 382 steps to get there! After looking around the final village we hopped on the train again and had a 5 hour trip to Rome! Which is where we are now.

Our hostel has free internet so hopefully we'll be able to blog about what we've been up to each night that we're here. We have 4 full days in Rome so we've got plenty to do and see.

Ciao!!