Cinque Terre, Italy

September 9th-10th

Hiking Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre means '5 villages.'  It is located about one hour north of Pisa along the western coast of Italy, with 5 really cute villages a few kilometres away from each other.  They can be accessed by either train or hiking.  Today we decided that we were going to hike from village 1 (Riomaggiore) to village 5 (Monterosso). 

The Mediterranean has continued to amaze us!  Whether it is sandy beaches in Barcelona, smooth stone beaches in Nice, or bluffs in Northern Italy, you cannot go wrong when exploring the Mediterranean!

We were so amazed by the layers of rocks that went down into the water.  We wished that we had a polarized camera because it was amazing how deep you could see the rocks under the water.  And the colours were amazing, the turquoise and blues!

The distance between the first village and the second village is only 1 kilometre.  It is known as the Via dell'Amore, which means 'The Way of Love'.  Along this path there are tons of locks that couples have placed and declared their love for each other!  We wished that we would have known so that we could have brought a lock!

If we had one...maybe we would put it here!

Everyone parks their boat on the street..bringing it in and out of the water every day.

The rocks form a gorgeous calm area that they use as a natural swimming pool. There are steps to get in and out.  People spend the day tanning on the rocks, swimming (which is basically floating in the sea water), and cliff jumping.  Since it is still early in the day we hope to go swimming after our hike!

Manarola...village 2 from a distance.  Love it so much!

Enjoying the scenery and colours of the water!

Northern Italy

Olives!!  There were olive trees everywhere!  Steven extending an olive branch!

Some of the beautiful flora along our hiking.

The trail was closed from village 2-3, so we had to train one kilometre, but once we got to village 3 we were ready to hike.  The first kilometre between village 1 and 2 was nicely paved, level and flat terrain, making everyone believe that the rest of the trail would be so easy but that was just a trick!  Let the real hiking begin...with 382 steps!

We were following Trail 2.  To hike from where we were in Village 3 all the way to Village 5, which is Monterosso it is suppose to take 3 hours and 30 minutes.  So we decided to time ourselves and with our 7 weeks of walking almost every city in Europe we were well prepared for this hike and it only took us 2 hours!  We were quite impressed with ourselves, especially since the majority of the hike was uphill!

Lots of lime trees!  Steven got really thirsty along the trip, but we had ran out of water and he kept saying that he wished he kept this lime so that he could drink the juice!

Walking through the vineyards

We made it to the top of a very big hill!  Looking back over village 3, Corniglia.

Made it to Vernazza, village 4!!

Continuing on our journey but making sure we continued to admire the view around us!

In this picture you can see a few of the villages that we had already passed.  

Found a cute bridge...this setting of this picture just looks like it was taken out of a fairy tale!

Lots and lots of grapes!  We were sooo thirsty at this point...we wanted to eat these grapes so bad, but none of them were near the trail.  We ran out of water between village 4 and 5!  The sun was hot and starting to move down in the west, so it was just beating on us.  Up until this point there had been little places to fill up your water bottle, but we had not seen one since we left village 3.  But don't worry...God always provides!

We turned the corner after probably 30 minutes of being SO thirsty and not seeing very many people, and out of no where is the Lemonade Guy!!!  He was the owner of one of these fields that have grapes and lemons.  He uses his lemons to make lemonade to sell to hikers!  

Lemonade Guy!!!

We were the HAPPIEST people alive!

We made it to Monterosso, village 5!!!

The water was so refreshing!  The sun was starting to set, and we were not sure if we felt like swimming anymore, but then Steven just got the urge to jump in!

Floating in the Mediterranean!

Next Stop...well our plan was to head down to Sorrento and Capri, which is near Naples, but after an amazing day hiking in Cinque Terre, we decided that we needed to come back and spend the day swimming.  So tomorrow we decided to train to Pisa and check out the Leaning Tower and come back to Cinque Terre!!