Saturday, June 4, 2016

Enamored with Cinque Terre

May 17:  Today we woke up bright and early and said goodbye to beautiful Rome!   We would have been happy to stay another week, but alas, it was time to move onward.   We took a train to Pisa and walked from the station to the infamous leaning tower (with all of our luggage) so we could take our obligatory propping-up-the-tower photographs.  


We were only mildly successful in our attempts....


so we branched out and tried other poses too....

Or in Adam's case just stood there for good measure.....

And we're Goolds, so we had to do a jumping picture too!

After Pisa, we got back on the train and headed to La Spezia, where we were spending the night.   La Spezia itself isn't that beautiful a town, but it does lay claim as the home to the main train station that brings you to Cinque Terre.   So as soon as we arrived, we dropped off our luggage and headed for the station!    

Never heard of Cinque Terre (which is pronounced "Chink-uh Tair-uh") ?   Let me enlighten you with  photographs that will make you drool and immediately add Cinque Terre to your bucket list too!  

Cinque Terre is Italian for "Five Towns".  These five picturesque towns happen to lie on the west coast of northern Italy right on the Mediterranean Sea.   You can hike or take the train to each town.  We were short on time, so we took the train from town to town, then got out in Corniglia and hiked to Vernazza, because the guide books said that this hike had the best views.

It was about a 90-minute hike....

through some mighty gorgeous scenery....

We were pretty enamored with the whole experience...


When we neared the town and came across this restaurant right on the side of the cliff...

we decided to stop, eat dinner,  and watch the sunset over the town of Vernazza.  

Between the hike, the scenery, and the seaside dinner, it ended up being one of our favorite experiences of our entire trip!

If you're planning a trip to Italy anytime soon, I highly recommend a couple of days in Cinque Terre...


Our only disappointment of the whole experience....


is that we didn't leave ourselves enough time to hike between all five towns.

I'm pretty sure there's a spot in heaven that looks a lot like this picture....
Amo bella Italia!
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1 comment:

R said...

Eating while looking at that view must have made the food taste even better. What an amazing trip and what wonderful experiences you are having.

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