Cinque Terre: the Five Lands

Have you ever seen pictures of the cliffs off of the Italian coast, dotted with clusters of brightly colored houses, looking almost unrealistically picturesque? Well, I've officially been to those little villages and can report back that they are indeed real.

This is Cinque Terre, which translates into the Five Lands. The Cinque Terre is a strip of the Italian Riviera located in the region of Liguria. Five villages make up these lands: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare. Normally, pathways directly overlooking the sea below line the cliffs and provide a connection for hikers from village to village.

Unfortunately, in 2011, this area endured major storms that led to severe flooding and these paths experienced a lot of damage. We were only able to hike between Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare, which happened to be the most intense of the village-to-village hikes and takes an average of 90-120 minutes. To get between the other villages, we took the regional train.

We stopped first to explore Riomaggiore, the first village after La Spezia, the town we rode our train from Pisa into. The streets felt so quiet, serene, and most apparently, isolated.

After poking our heads into the tiny, ornate church, we caught the next train to Vernazza. Because of our time restraint (we had a train to catch back to Pisa at 6:30) we couldn't visit all 5 villages. We all decided we'd love to do the long hike between Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare and so we cleared out our day to have enough time in each village on either end of the hike.

While I'd definitely like to return to Cinque Terre when all of the paths reopen, I'd especially like to return to Vernazza. This seaside town offers anything from boat rentals to underwater diving. We also decided to tuck into lunch here--bowls of pesto for all, as that is supposed to be one of the specialties in Cinque Terre.

Needless to say, I enjoyed mine--I even polished off the rest of Anna's when she was too full to finish.

All loaded with delicious carbs, we began our hike. I didn't really know what to expect when they said this was one of the more advanced trails. I think I sort of figured it didn't really apply to us, as young girls who are all in shape.

 Quite the contrary, we were all sweating within a matter of minutes in the cool yet humid November air. There were more or less some sort of stairs in every part of the hike, but there were definitely a lot of up's and down's. The spectacular views were beyond worth it, however.

The entire hike was gorgeous, both the parts that led us teetering to the edge of the coast, and the parts deeper into the hilly wooded lands.

Have you ever seen a better spot for a hotel pool? 

Around an hour and 45 minutes later, we finally had reached Monterosso al Mare!

This last village of the Cinque Terre is a picturesque town of restaurants, beaches, hotels, and a great sense of community. Though it seems slightly more touristy than the others (likely because the beaches here are good), we still saw so many locals chatting together, kids playing soccer together, and just overall felt like it was a place where everybody knows each other.

After having a rejuvenating snack, we got on the regional train back to la Spezia to make our way back to Pisa.

We were only in Pisa for about another hour and a half by the time we got back, as we had a train to Florence to board that evening. We decided to check out the pizza place recommended by our hotel to kill the time.

Delicious, thin and crispy!

After collecting our bags, we soon were off to the next leg of our journey: 3 nights and 2 full days in Florence!