Cinque Terre

< Hiking from Vernazza to Corniglia.

^ Notice on the sign "to Corniglia" the small

barred circle in the bottom left corner. It's crossing

out a stiletto, this made for a good laugh.

Cinque Terre in Italian literally meaning “five lands” consists of five picturesque villages’ nestled on the rugged Italian coastline. The five villages are, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. You can hike to each of the villages, either on the coastline or in the mountains. The scenery is stunning, with the sparkling Mediterranean, the vineyards on the hills and the quaint Mediterranean style towns.

We stayed just outside of Cinque Terre in a town called La Spezia. It was not a nuisance to get around thanks to the trains connecting all the towns along the coastline.

Our second day there we decided to do a bit of hiking, as that is what most people come there for. The trek ended up being harder than I expected, but this may be due to the fact that we chose the hardest and longest two trails. Unfortunately, we started our walk a bit late and were stuck in the afternoon heat, but the view and the beach that awaited us after we were finished the hike made it worth while.

Cinque Terre is hands down, the most breathtaking place we have visited on our trip so far and it will be hard to beat in terms of landscape. The only thing that would be a turn off, is that there are bucket loads of tourist, this impressive strip of the Italian coastline is the least “Italian” place we’ve been to during our trip. I’m thankful we weren’t there during the heart of summer vacation, because that place would be packed like sardines with globetrotters.

The fact that we stayed outside (in a town called La Spezia) of these five towns was enjoyable. On the streets of La Spezia, there wasn’t a word of English, only musical Italian, this sound enhanced by the delectable smells wafting out of the trattorias and the gelato shops. Although notable travel writer Rick Steve’s quoted, “If you want the easy life, stay in Monterosso…” we found it pleasant to stay a bit outside the vacationist’s zone and get to mix in with the locals.

An amazing place to visit, even if it was a tad touristy. Beautiful, stunning and well worth the trip.