Week Vacation- Cinque Terre

I suppose it’s my turn to write something, and I have a few minutes while my server is down. Hope you’re all enjoying your summer. Ours has been busy, but exciting. Most of you may know that Nate’s brother Jef is here spending some time travelling with us and on his own, while looking into job possibilities teaching Crossfit.

We spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy last week. Actually, it was a whole week of vacation, not something we usually get to enjoy. The weather was warmer than we were used to, upper 80s and humid. It seemed no matter where we walked we would sweat for about 10 minutes after stopping. We made sure to swim almost every day in the cool water to combat the heat. Time was also spent kayaking, hiking, and just relaxing on our patio.

Cinque Terre, meaning five towns, includes five small towns in the Italian Riviera. Each town has a unique ambiance and we quickly picked out our favorites. We stayed in Riomaggiore, known by locals as ‘Rio,’ and it quickly felt like home. Having an apartment to stay in was great for watching people from our balcony, and allowed us buy and cook our own food fresh from the gardens in the 5 cities. By the end of the 6 nights we were helping other tourists as if we lived there for years.

The other cities in order north were Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Manarola and Vernazza were my favorites, very peaceful places and fun short hikes to take to beautiful views. There were a few days Nate and I thought we’d ‘take it easy,’ and found ourselves hiking high up for great sunset photos.

The quick hike to Manarola was only 15 minutes and was called the “Lover’s Walk.” We took this many times, because the view was so pretty, and Manarola was good in all light. Many people left locks with their names on them and a tunnel of spray-painted with names and messages. We claimed one, as we didn’t think we really needed to spend 8euro on a lock with people drawn on it.

We discovered the town of Levanto late in the week, just a little farther north from Cinque Terre. The town was more local and less tourists. We took a nice stroll near the beach, took a few pictures, and Jef got a beer, warm of course. It was a little strange to see them selling it out of a booth ion the street, but why not?

We left Friday to head towards the mountains. We planned to camp in Garmisch, but the weather was rainy, so we stayed in the Italian Alps. We found a few towns to wander through and continue our relaxing vacation. We left Brennero and headed home Sunday. It was nice to get in a bit early and unpack and start the huge pile of laundry.

Cinque Terre was a beautiful place to stay, maybe next time in the late fall time period. We also know Italians go to bed after 1am and get up yelling again by 6 or 7am in the morning. Did you know that Italians think driving on the middle line on the freeway is safer because you drive straight? Yeah, that’s what I thought too…