Day 3 - Cinque Terre

When Bri decided a few months ago that she was going to come out here John and I started looking around for some different things to do with her and things that we had not done. The first thing that came to mind was to get away for a few days and go to Cinque Terre. Everyone we know that has been there had told us nothing but good things about it. So we looked it up and decided that if Johns schedule worked out we would go up there for a couple days.

A little bit closer to the time Bri was coming out John got his schedule and it was going to work out for us to go so we found a hotel and started researching what all to do. The main thing that stuck out to me was hiking. Cinque Terre is a National Park that is made up of 5 different coastal towns. Each town is unique in its own way and there is a path that connects all five towns together, or there is a bus system and a train that go between all five towns.

So on Thursday June 24 we packed up and headed North. The drive up there was so nice. It took us between 5 and 6 hours to get there but the scenery up there is just so much nicer that what it is down here where we live.

We got to drive through a few different Italian regions, the regions in Italy are like the states in the US. We didn't stop but we drive by a few different hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany, I would love to go visit some of these one day. Also, when you get up in those regions they are known for their wine and there were vineyards everywhere.

Hill Towns in Umbria and Tuscany

Towns were built on the tops of hills many many years ago to help protect them. The communities had a better chance of seeing the Romans coming since they had to climb up the hill to get to them.

A couple of the MANY vineyards

Once we finally made it to the area around Cinque Terre we drove right past our hotel. We saw signs for it but were not sure where to park so John got on the phone to figure it all out. While he was talking to the hotel Bri and I jumped out of the car so we could take a few pictures. The view was beautiful from where we stopped and little did we know it was only going to get better the next day. When John got off the phone he joined us for a quick little photo shoot.

Continuing along this road through the mountain will take you to the towns of Cinque Terre

Our first view of the area

These guys were crazy ~ they would go flying by us going at least over a hundred...

Then hit this sharp turn ~ right on the other side of this turn was the parking area and pick up area for our hotel. Good thing we could hear them coming so we knew to stay way away from the road.

Gotta keep a little Hawaii with us everywhere we go!!

After we got checked in and everything down to the room, there were approximately 200 steps from the road down to the room, we headed back up and caught the bus into the first town of Riomaggiore. We walked around the town for a little while then decided to go ahead and grab a bite to eat. The little restaurant we chose was really good and had the best dessert I have had in a long time, besides Chocolate Chimichangas from Ruby Tequilas.

Some of the pretty flowers at the hotel

A view from our hotel

Our first view of the first town (from our direction) Riomaggiore

All the boats lined up just up from the ramp

Some of the houses

The swimming area

A better view of the town

The "beach" area ~ most of the beaches around here are like this, rocks instead of sand

Time out for another short photo shoot

I LOVE HIM!

Gotta love her attitude

Boats lined up going down the ramp

Bri with her first glass of wine ~ lets just say I think she liked it

Cheers

Yumm

When we finished with dinner we still had a little over an hour before the bus was going to be back to pick us up so we walked around a little while longer, then they had some sort of Parade type thing for one of the churches. We were all a little confused on what was going on and we couldn't understand anything they were saying. But by the time that was over the bus was back so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep for the long day ahead of us.

Walking around Riomaggiore at night

Bri messing around with the camera