European Vacation (Cinque Terre)

The last stop in our European Adventure didn't disappoint. 

We woke up early on Friday morning, drove to the train station at Sestri Levante, parked the car and took the train to a little town down the Ligurian coast called Riomaggiore.  Devin and Sarah had visited Italy a few years earlier and raved about a trail that connected 5 cities on the Italian Riviera called Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside. 

We were prepared to hike to all five towns, but when we got to the train station in Riomaggiore we learned that the path connecting Riomaggiore to Manarola had washed out in a flood in 2011 and was closed for repairs.

There was an alternate route that we could hike that went up and over the mountain, so like dumb tourists, we tried that route.

It was literally straight up!

We finally made it to the top

and then had to hike down!

But we finally made it!

Thankfully we took the train to the next town, Corniglia 

(because the path to it was also washed out) and I wasn't too excited about hiking up and over another mountain.

The only problem was Corniglia is up high on the hill and you had to climb about 2000 stairs to get to it from the train station.

The ultimate stair stepper

It was beautiful and quaint once we finally arrived but lacked a few essentials like a public bathroom.

Why don't Europeans believe in free public restrooms and drinking fountains?

We found a little cafe that served paninis and the Cafe owners let us use their private restroom

We hiked back down the hill and took the train to Vernazza

We spent a few minutes in Vernazza and then began our 

final hike to Monterosso Al Mare

Sporting our BYU shirts! Cougars around the world!

It was more up, up, up

but the views were breathtaking.

Towards the end of our hike we found this little Italian farmer 

selling homemade lemonade and wine.

We opted for the lemonade.

Nothing has ever tasted so good!

 Our final destination, Monterosso Al Marre

Gorgeous!

We wandered through the town and found the train station and took the train back to Sestri Levante, picked up our car and drove to Milan.

On Saturday morning we flew from Milan to Salt Lake City, well at least Tom and I went to Salt Lake. When we stopped in New York to change planes Whitney stayed in NYC for a few days of fun with her friends.

When we got off the airplane in SLC , these cutouts awaited our arrival.

We were pretty shocked to see Taylor's head greeting us.

Farewell Europe, we can't wait for our next visit!