Cinque Terre, Italy

It has been a lot of years since I have been in Italy so it was a little challenging to research and put together these posts, particularly because either I have forgotten the name of half the places we went or half the places we went are now out of business.
I won’t say Cinque Terre was my favorite place, even though I am tempted to, only because I feel like I could say every place I have been is my favorite place and after a while the word looses it’s cache.  But I will say Cinque Terre is a very lovely place, that I would readily visit again when the opportunity arises.

It is fantastic for anyone looking to slow down a bit. Rather than the hustle and bustle of visiting every monument and museum Italy has to offer.
The name Cinque Terre means ‘five lands’ in Italian and is named because of the five small villages that are nestled next to one another on the Italian Rivera.They are connected by rail, which runs often and is a great way to get from town to town. Or by two walking pathways, one the upper route which winds through the vineyards that are nestled on the hills. And the lower route which is a cliff side path over looking the Mediterranean. However there were some mud slides that occurred in 2011 and significant portions of the trial were damaged. If you want to walk the lower path I suggest you do extensive research beforehand to ensure the parts you wish to walk are open again.

When I visited we actually didn’t stay in any of the villages of Cinque Terre. It made more sense for our travel needs to take the train from France to La Spezia and then walk up to Biassa where we chose to stay at the Ostello Tramonti. We then hoped on the national park bus which dropped us off at Riomaggiore the furthest east town of the five. We wandered around for a bit, went into a grocery store which is one of my favorite things to do in different countries.  We of course sampled some pizza from a teeny little shop at the end of the the main street. I think it may have been La Lampara but its been too long to know for sure.

After sitting in the harbor and taking it all in, including the pizza, we made our way to the cliff trail and walked to the train station for a ride to Monarola for some wine tasting. We wandered around and found a nice little tasting room overlooking the water where I proceeded to just drank water. It was so hot all I could think about was water. But the view was incredible and I am told the wine was as well. We eventually made our way back to our hostel in Biassa via the same route we came. And I have been dreaming of the place every since.