Cinque Terre

Hey guys, Lindsay here.

We made it to Cinque Terre! Cinque Terre is an area in Italy made up of five small villages along the coast. The village we are staying in is called Monterosso. As we got off the train I knew I was going to love it here.

Right away, everyone we met was so friendly and helpful. We were a little lost trying to find our hotel and some people stopped us to offer help, since there was a bit of a language barrier, they decided it would just be easer to show us the way. We only had reservations at our hotel for one night so our first mission was to figure out a place to stay for the other three nights. We had heard of a place called Manuel's Guesthouse and thought we would check it out. We ended up meeting Manuel who is an artist that has lived in Monterosso his whole life and runs a guesthouse with his nephew. They were full so instead of just sending us on our way he offered to help us out. He called a few friends of his friends, including Luigi, and ended up finding an apartment for us to rent. How cool is that, we get our own place with a washer, dryer and a kitchen! We have a whole new appreciation for the little things. Not only that, but our apartment is right off of the main street in Old Town Monterosso with a balcony that overlooks the whole street. As we were gettting our keys to our new pad, we ran into the guys we met in Rome. We ended up hanging out with them that night and chatting all about our funny travel stories and favorite places we've been along the way. The next day the girls and I decided we needed a day at the beach to relax after our busy travel schedule. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing than spending a warm summer day swimming and lounging at the beach in Italy with my two best friends. It was perfect.

After a day relaxing we were ready to get out and explore the area. We woke up early and got ready to hike the trail between all five villages. We took the train to the farthest village and worked our way back home. The path between the first village and the second is called Via Dell'Amore (Love Walk). All along the trail couples put locks on the fences and railing to symolize their love.

The hike was amazing, we got a chance to visit the other villages and see some the beautiful countryside. Everywhere we looked there were vineyards, olive groves and views of the Mediterranean.

The trail was about 9 kilometers long and took us through some pretty rugged areas, just to add to the adventure, we got hit by a torrential downpour that lasted at least half an hour.

We loved it, plus it was nice to cool down a bit. Once we got back to our house we were ready to shower and chill out around town.

Our last full day in Monterosso we spent hanging out at the beach, visited the outdoor market and just enjoyed the area. I've really loved the slow pace of Cinque Terre, its been quite a change to the bigger cities we've been visiting. I like not having a list of sites to see or maps to read. As the end of our time here approaches, I'm sad to be leaving, but so happy I got a chance to visit. I'll definitely be back.

Next stop... Barcelona!

Ciao