Sunday, July 21, 2013

Cinque Terre

My brother and sister in law (Brian and Whitney) both talked about how pretty Cinque Terre was when they vacationed in Europe a few years ago.  I couldn't wait to go to this area and see it for myself.  I really enjoy scenic places, something Lance says is a "Weir thing" (Weir is my maiden name).  I think he's amazed that I'd rather look out the window for 4 hours on a train than read a book or play games, but I just really enjoy seeing the landscapes in different areas and taking it all in. If you are unfamiliar with Cinque Terre, you are not alone.  It's on the north western side of Italy and is five little villages that run along side the coast of the Italian Riviera.  If you can imagine mountains next to the ocean, then you've got a pretty good indication of what the area was like.  We visited the two most northern villages, Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza.  There are nice trails that run along the coast connecting each village, so we started in Vernazza and hiked to Monterosso.  The hike took us approximately an hour 1/2 I believe.  It was definitely not an easy hike, but the views along the hike were one postcard view after another so we definitely took advantage of taking another good picture on the camera.

Vernazza!







 I think Chris is getting tired...
 It's the little successes along the way :)
 Still smiling!


Monterosso!

Monterosso al Mare is the most touristy of the five villages and has two beaches available for swimming and lounging.  Chris and Mel thought ahead and packed swimsuits so they could swim, while Lance and I enjoyed laying in the beach chair with the ocean view.  Other than getting up for lunch, we spent the majority of the afternoon lounging on the beach.  After three weeks of traveling, including a lot of walking in Rome, this part of the day was absolutely wonderful!






Later that afternoon we got back on the train and went back to Rome for the rest of the trip.  The train was 6 hours long and unfortunately we had no time to eat dinner.  When we arrived in Rome all of the eating places around the train station were closed, and we realized that because we chose a hotel close to the airport it was further away from the rest of the city. Needless to say, we went to bed that night without eating much of a dinner.  The experiences along the way are what make a vacation a vacation--right?! ;)


*little did we know this would be one of the last things we would eat for the day...Glad it was really yummy!!

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