Cinque Terre!

Yesterday we arrived in Cinque Terre after a series of 4 trains. Oh man. But once we saw the beautiful cliffs and coastline it was wellllll worth it. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 small towns on the cliffs of the Northwest Italian coastline- Monterosso is the main one, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorolla (where we stayed), and Riomaggiore.

We got to our hostel in Manorolla and they told us it was full! Luckily they had 3 beds, but one was in a different room. Which was fine. Livin on the edge here people! But everything was fine. The town of Manorolla is notorious for its church bell. It rings every half hour, starting at 7 am. Yup. You read that right. This town is completely the opposite of any other European town when it comes to sleep schedule. As opposed to waking up, going out, having a siesta, getting dinner around 10 pm, and staying out until 2 or 3 am...Cinque Terre wakes up at 7 am and lights are out by midnight. Therefore, such is so with our hostel.

But dinner is served here for cheap and it is amazingg food. Cinque Terre is the creator of pesto. So we have had as much pesto as possible. Combined we have had linguine, penne, gnocchi, lasagna, ravioli, and troffie with pesto. We also had Caprese sandwhiches which were delicioso! And of course, the real italian gelato is to die for. Goes well with a cappucino :) We have also had special Cinque Terre white wine which is a lot fresher and richer than any of the wine we have had so far. MMMMMM Italy!

After exploring our small town last night we got up this morning (to the church bells) and set out to hike the other 4 towns. A path winds around the cliffs throughout all 5 towns. The whole time you have an aamazing view. We first hiked to Riomaggiore via the Tunnel of Love (Via dell Amore). This tunnel has something to do with Abbey Road because we saw a sign and an acordion player was playing Yesterday as we walked through. The walls of the tunnel are covered in paintings and graffiti all having to do with love. There are also padlocks hung on every available gate or fence or plant with lovers' initials on them. We wrote a note with our initials and a quote and put it in between the stones of the tunnel. We also each made our marks on the tunnel of love :)

After this we hiked to Corniglia and caught the train to Monterosso. We had lunch and then set out for the beach. We sunned and tanned and swam in the mediterranean all afternoon before grabbing some gelato and some souveniers and heading back to the hostel.

For dinner we ate at the hostel with some canadian girls we met last night. Turns out they will be in Florence in a few days when we will. So hopefully we will cross paths again!

Tomorrow is Rome with a pit stop in Pisa. Arrivaderci!

Nicole, Christie, Tricia