SNO PLACE LIKE ROME: Cinque Terre, Italy

CINQUE TERRE

L to R: Alyssa (my roommate), Katie, Kristen and I.

I spent this past weekend in Cinque Terre, Italy. What an amazing place!! It was absolutely beautiful. It's located at the no

rthern part of Italy, off the coast of the

Mediterranean Sea. The water is so clear and SO blue...no words can even begin to describe it. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 villages, each having something unique about them. One village specializes in wine, another in Pesto sauce, one in beaches, etc. I can't remember exactly what every village was. The only way, besides train, to get from

one village to the next is to hike. We chose to hik

e the coast (which I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Cinque Terre). They also have the option to rent a mountain bike and take the higher trails. If we had more time we would have done this. We took a train into Cinque Terre on Friday morning, leaving Roma train station at

7 am! We camped at a city right outside the 5 villages called Deiva Marina. For wha

t we paid, it actually turned out well. Since Cinque Terre emphasizes in the beauty of nature, camping while visiting Cinque

Terre only enhanced the experience. There was a lot of traveling

students also at the campsite and it was a perfect

fit for us. We had tent cabins...it was basically 2 single beds on wood

en floors with a tent over our head. The first day we got there (traveling by train for the first time went smoothly) we settled down and headed into the villages, starting with Riomaggio

re. Trains come maybe twice an hour, sometimes only once an hour. We caught a train from Deiva Marina after waiting for about a half hour. Whi

le on the train, Alyssa was looking for her camera to take a picture only to discover she didn't have it and she left it at the train

station. We got off at the next stop (which was about a 5 minute ride) and waited to

catch the next train back. The only problem was the next train was in 45 minutes. So we waited at the station, finally got on a train, and headed back. She went to the tourist information and they had her camera!! What a relief..wow! We then figured out the next train into cinque terre wasn't for another hour and ten minutes!! we walked the town of Deiva Marina w

hile waiting, but that set us back a few hours. We didn't get to Rioma

ggiore until around 6 and we hiked the coastal trails. endless beauty. Riomaggiore had the via dell amore (which is in a movie..not sure which one) and had locks everywhere to symbolize people in love who bought a lock from there and put it somewhere on the fence.

It was cute. We hiked to Manarola,

which had a cute little town on the coast and this is where everyone was cliff jumping. After that we did the hour hike to Corniglia which is where we c

aught the sunset. beautiful! We took the train back to Riomaggiore and ate dinner at a cute little restaurant in the village and then headed home for some much needed sleep and to regain energy for the full day of hiking on Saturday! We got up early Saturday and started out at Corniglia and walked to Vernazza (specializing in Pesto Sauce). The hike took us around an hour and a half and it was mostly stairs. We had to stop a few times to rest because our hike to the top of the mountain was so tiring! What a GREAT workout though. And the view from the top of the mountain made it all worth it. We then got to Vernazza, walked through the

village and took the train to the next village, Monterosso. The hike to Monterosso was 2 hours long and much harder and there was no way we would have made it because we hadn't stopped to eat anything yet. We got to Monterosso, the beach town. Th

e beach there reminded me of a beach you would find in

Mexico, except mountains surrounding you. Here, we got the chance to kayak for 6 euros a person for an hour. First time kayakin

g was done in Cinque Terre-doesn't get much better than that! We kayaked to a point on the coast and then headed back to the beach. After that, we decided to go shower and get dinner in Deiva Marina. We found a small restaurant, ate dinner, then went back to the campsite for more sleep. We were so tired...katie and alyssa somehow managed to fall asleep in the train station while we were waiting for the train. We woke up super early Sunday morning to hike to the southern point of Cinque Terre and went to a small swimming area in Riomaggiore where we got the chance to cliff jump (we did this on our own..) What an adrenaline rush, but so fun! We met some people there from California who were going to Culinary School in Italy. I've never known you could do this, but what a perfect place to study to become a chef. We headed back to Roma around 4 pm via train and got in at about 8:30. Long train ride and exhausting weekend, but so worth the trip!

Here is my attempt of capturing the beauty of this place...but it doesn't even come close to seeing it in person.