Ciao! We made it to one of my favorite places ever – Italia! I’ve yet to meet an Italian city I didn’t like, and I was so excited to share this place with Sean.
We played rock-paper-scissors for the window seat, and thank goodness I won! Check out these gorgeous views!
The canals of the Netherlands and the Alps from above are two of my favorite plane sights. So nice to see them again!
Does anybody know what these crazy pockets of turquoise are in the water outside the northern Italian coast?
There was also a crazy split in the water that Sean insisted was normal, though I’ve never seen anything like it before!
The first thing I did when we landed was buy a vending machine coffee. It was either a chococcino or a mochaccino, but either way, it was delicious!
We landed in Pisa and had an hour before our train ride, so we popped into the city for a quick snack and a drink. Sean had a yummy iced coffee, and I started my morning off right with a Bellini. I hesitated when I realized it was only 10am, but I’m on vacation, and it was already so hot! Bahahaha.
Our train ride along the coast was fun, but it was a bit crowded, so Sean and I were separated. I was also bummed to be on the wrong side of the train – all the views were on the other side! I made a mental note of which side to sit on for our return trip.
However, I did feel like it was all worth it when I glanced out the window to see an Italian man tanning face-down, butt-naked on a lounge chair in his backyard only twenty yards from the train tracks. Guy’s got some guts, and no tan lines! Bahahahahaha.
We arrived in Riomaggiore (“ra-mah-jee-or-ay” with rolled R’s, not “rio-mah-jee-ore” as I had been saying, lol), and good golly was it hot out! The sun was beating down, and it felt like we were moving so slow!
It took a few frantic, exhausted minutes to find our Airbnb, but once we did, the air conditioning was heaven, and the view from our window was simply magical.
We were somehow so wiped out from the journey and the heat that we just had to take a little rest. Sean played on his phone while I read, or maybe he even took a nap? I cannot remember. But we did feel a little better afterwards, and ready to take on the rest of the afternoon.
Riomaggiore is the southernmost town of Cinque Terre, five towns cut into the coastline between Pisa and Genoa. This coast is HILLY, or maybe even mountainous? Either way, while it is very possible to walk from one town to the rest, it is definitely a hike. The first three towns are actually connected with fairly flat coastal pathways anchored to the side of the cliffs, but both paths were closed from recent landslides! We had no option but to hoof it.
We started by exploring our surroundings a bit, including the nearby parish church with whose bells we would become well acquainted.
Then we made our way back down to the train station, foolishly skipping the panoramic elevator that we would soon come to rely on.
This wasn’t even the main part of town, and I was already smitten! I had a big smile on my face from my first Italian interaction (ciao, uno, prego, gratzie), and came away with a limone sorbetto.
Re-energized, we began our ascent to Manarola, the next town over.
Breathtaking or what?!
And I was doing it all (perhaps foolishly) in a dress!
I remarked that it didn’t bode well for us that everyone going in the other direction (downhill) was dressed in real workout clothes, sweating and sunburned to the nines, and seemed to be very near death. Sean pointed out that we were probably just in better shape than them. It wasn’t until the next day I realized some of them were possibly finishing a trek of all five cities!
And make no mistake. Just twenty minutes in, Sean was already sweating more than I have ever seen, and my whole face somehow felt like a giant tomato of hotness. The heat (hovering near 90F), plus the humidity (over 50%) was brutal.
We actually reached the top in about 30 minutes, but it was basically just (steep) stairs the whole way up. A lot of work, for sure! Soon, Manarola came into view below us, tucked into the valley between the terraced mountains.
The descent took about twenty minutes. Maybe 15 minutes down, some gals in dresses and sandals passed us going up, and they stopped to ask how much further to the top. Lol! They were already dying. We told them about 20-30 minutes, and one gal was shocked, the second was crestfallen, and the third was insistent that her phone said they were almost there. When we reached the bottom minutes later, we were like, dude, you just started! Bahahahaha. We got a kick out of that.
Manarola was another beautiful, colorful little town with narrow paths between buildings. And to be fair, though the girls had just started the actual trail, there was still another chunk of elevation to reach the bottom of the town.
Face so red! Almost blends into my sunglasses. Bahahaha.
We wandered the main street lined with shops and tried to catch our breath as we enjoyed the soft breeze.
Down at the coastline, there was one of the coolest swimming holes I’ve ever seen!
And boy did it look like a nice way to cool off. We were bummed we didn’t have swimsuits on, but we vowed to come back another day. For now, all we could do was live vicariously through the swimmers and cliff jumpers.
For dinner, we had some seafood pasta. The waiter was initially kind and polite, but as the restaurant filled with a group of Asian tourists, he became increasingly snappy and curt. He even tried to make a guy leave if he didn’t want food, (“This is restaurant, not bar!”) even though they obviously sold drinks. Why not sell the guy a drink??? It was pretty weird.
After dinner, we walked around a little more and ventured down to the swimming area to get a different perspective of the town above.
Very pretty! After a quick train ride, we were back in Riomaggiore, where we gratefully took some nice showers and Sean promptly passed the heck out.
I spent a little longer reading and enjoying the crazy view from our window before joining him.
You wanna know the problem with falling asleep at eight? You wake up in the wee hours of the morning!
I fell asleep at a much more reasonable 9:30pm, and I was quite flabbergasted when Sean turned over in the morning and informed me, “It’s after five.”
“Um…. And????” Lolol. I reminded him that he fell asleep hours before me, and he graciously allowed me to sleep until seven. Thank goodness!
It was actually kind of difficult to find a place to eat this early, but there’s always at least one cafe with early risers. It was just us and some smoking locals for a while as we enjoyed our (super warm, fresh, and heavy) chocolate croissants, cappuccino, and latte.
Yep, I’ve been partaking in much more coffee than usual, because it just seems so tasty! Must avoid the caffeine addiction, though.
I really wanted one of these North Face Cinque Terre t-shirts, but the store didn’t open until 11. The shop owner told us as much but simply wagging her finger in slow, silent disapproval and allowing us to find the “Open at 11” sign on our own.
Once fed and prepped for the day ahead, we boarded the train again, this time to the northernmost town of Monterosso.
We wandered along the coastline, and I bought an adorable miniature Cinque Terre house, resisting the urge to buy an original watercolor.
At one end of the town was a giant holding up a platform, the better part of his right leg missing. We stood and admired him (and his very bumpy muscles) for quite a while.
Then we ventured in and up a bit, exploring deeper into the town. Monterosso is the largest of the five towns, and I think it’s the only one with more than one main street.
Sean voiced his desire to come back for a beach day soon, and I couldn’t ignore how nice laying under a shaded umbrella sounded!
Once we found the real main street lined with shops and bougainvillea, I was quickly sidetracked by some tiramisu. Apparently I’ve been going easy on the cocoa powder, because there was so much on this one that both Sean and I had coughing attacks from cocoa inhalation on our first bites.
Cinque Terre is also apparently famous for its lemons (there were lemon trees poppin’ off everywhere, to be fair), so I also indulged in a shot of homemade Limoncello. Sean got a smoothie, and it sure hit the spot.
A little more wandering, and a lot more heat later, we finally said goodbye to Monterosso.
It was time to start our trek to the next town over.
It was slow and steady going, and it took about an hour for this ascent. Near the top, an accordion player sat with his (very hot and fluffy) puppy, and his song rang out around the valley. It was so nice!
Soon, Vernazza came into view.
It was kind of fun being able to see the town and have it grow larger and closer as we descended into the valley over the course of about twenty minutes.
These streets were small, colorful, and bustling like Manarola, but people had a little more energy earlier in the day.
We wasted no time getting some gelato to cool off. Sean ordered speckled mint (a play on stracciatella – something like mentiatella), and then topped it with stracciatella – vanilla laced with chocolate speckles. His pronunciation was pretty cute, and got a sweet smile and lesson from the gelato lady. I opted for fruity – passion fruit and mango. It was so good!
We took our time wandering the street and made our way down to the water to spend some time envying the swimmers and beach-goers. We were prepared for water time today, so after some debate, we hopped in! The water was cool and refreshing, but not cold. We waded in up to our necks, but we were too nervous to leave our bags unattended to do any real swimming. It was still lovely anyway!
We both basically stood with our backs to the water so we could keep our bags in sight, and every time I turned around, Sean would be another ten feet out. We both ended up to our necks!
A sweet British mother-daughter duo took our picture once we were dressed and ready to hike again.
I didn’t take a photo, but after our swim, we got a little flatbread pita pocket-type sandwich to share, filled with veggies and prosciutto. We sat on some steps to eat it, and we got so many longing glances from passersby! It was pretty funny. Finally, one man even approached to ask where we had gotten it. I guess we were good advertising!
Our appetites and sugar cravings somewhat sated, we made the bold decision to continue on.
The view of Vernazza was fun from the other direction, and note the tower that I (for once in my life) had no interest in climbing! I couldn’t stomach the thought of climbing any extra stairs.
Just look at the non-optional ones!
At the top of the steps was a little lemonade stand with very friendly (and chaotic) people running the place. Somehow we were convinced to investigate the “special lemonade,” packed with syrups and fresh fruit.
Sean is convinced that the guy making the lemonade was “drunk AF” because he was kind of a mess. Very smiley and happy, but a definitive mess.
We decided to share one lemonade, and when the man asked “still or sparkling water,” I asked if he could do half and half. Boy, oh boy, was that a tall order! “Halve and halve, mmm, halve and halve, okay, okay.” Meanwhile, his counterpart in the little building next to him, a Swedish woman who looked exactly like Meryl Streep, shook her head and said something about us being, “so difficult.” She was joking, but I really didn’t think it would be such a big ask!
After fulfilling the previous order, the lemonade man finally started on ours and two others’ behind us. Meryl continuously tried to get the man to focus on our drink instead of asking about the people behind us, but the man couldn’t be stopped. Once he started really making our drink, he got confused again and thought I wanted the half and half and Sean wanted something else. This prompted Meryl to exclaim, “No!” And then she covered her face in her hands and shook her head in laughing exasperation before finally giving up her efforts.
We did eventually get our lemonade, and the man gave us “half” a watermelon slice for our “halve and halve” lemonade drink.
As we sipped on it nearby, we heard him telling the next customers that everybody would get “halve and halve” from now on, lol.
Thoroughly satisfied and entertained, we continued our trek and began our descent to Corniglia. The center town, this is the only one without a port because it’s built so high up on its rocky outcropping.
Enjoy some pretty buildings and long pathways:
Down in the town, we wandered the streets again.
I think I may have had a bit of heat exhaustion, because I was feeling a tad nauseous at this point. We found a little cafe and ordered a “smoothie” (it was more like a juice) and a Panna Cotta. Yum!
We did feel pretty silly for sitting inside the tiny cafe and then later realizing they had a big outdoor terrace across the street with a view of the water. Oops!
It was after five by the time we were ready to move again, but the thought of trekking to the last town while feeling slightly nauseous (and facing the heat yet again) just did not sound like a fun or responsible time.
So instead, we decided to come back to finish the trek tomorrow and take the train home for now.
The stairs down to the Corniglia station were gnarly, and I was not looking forward to going up them the following day!
Back in Riomaggiore, we showered and rested until we both felt better.
Then it was time to hit the town for dinner.
The waitress was very fun – seemed like she may have been from New York based on her accent, but she spoke rapid Italian with the locals and her wait staff. She may have actually been the owner, honestly.
We got a cute little outdoor table and each got a glass of local wine. We started with the beef tartare, and then I had ravioli and Sean had pesto with some very funny homemade noodles.
Overall, I would say the experience was good, but the food was not outstanding. Still a nice evening out!
We got to see Riomaggiore by twilight as we headed back for another nice long sleep to prepare for our last day in the area. I’ll fill you in on that next time!
Ciao!
-Lizzy-wa