Cinque Terre!

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  Riomaggiore, Italy
Monday, June 4, 2007

This once quiet area of Italy is becoming a lot more touristy as the years pass on and more people hear about it. I'm really glad we saved our last two nights in Italy to come here, since it is well worth the 3 hour train ride from Rome. The Cinque Terre is the five lands, or five small fishing villages along the Italian Riviera. These towns are connected by sea, rail and hiking trails. As visiting the area has become more popular, the trails have been vastly improved. However, there is still a lot of variability. Some trails are flat, almost paved, 20 minute strolls. Others are two hours of up and down steep climbs along the edge of cliffs. I was a little nervous of being on the edge of a cliff, and some people called the trails "very dangerous" but actually they really didn't bother me at all. There is always brush in between you and the rocks below, so my fear of heights (and primarily falling to my death) was abated by the fact that I would probably just fall 20 feet and get stuck in cactus bushes... painful, but something I could easily survive.

The five towns all have hotels, restaurants and of course the peaceful inhabitants. Due to the age of this area, farms are squished in everywhere! Along the hiking trails locals have "levelled" out areas for vineyards, lemon orchards and the like. White wine, pesto (it's home), olives and lemon liquor (limoncino or limoncello) are the area's specialty. All the towns have areas to swim, although one has a half decent beach that we took advantage of after finishing our hike.

Food was delicious, gelato rivalled Florence and Rome and I had the best gnocchi with pesto of my life. I also had the best (and freshest no doubt) olives in my life. I can't believe that 4 years ago I wouldn't have touched an olive for $100. We also discovered a decent Italian beer here, Bierra Moretti, since sitting on a pier sipping wine after a long day's hike just didn't fit... if you look closely in some of the photos you'll notice we went from 3 glasses on the pier to 2... a slight arm waving accident occured, but the bartender didn't seem to care at all! If I could only come back to one city in Italy (well all 5), I would come here!

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And to break a glass	Cactus flowers!	Good time for a beer break	How do they get to that vineyard?
Manorola	Not even sweating	The beach in Monterosso	The easy hike
The hike begins	Vernazza

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