Hikes and trains and beaches. Oh my! Cinque Terre was amazing! It’s all of my favorite things rolled up and dished alongside a regional pesto sauce. Mmmmm!!!

We arrived on Wednesday late afternoon and checked into our apartment, without wifi but with a washing machine, hooray! We immediately did laundry and walked around town to decompress from the crazy train rides. We had 2 connections and one we almost missed due to a delayed train arrival. In the station in Florence, we both saw our train, checked our watches and started running. I immediately lost a Birkenstock and Nick lost his flip flop… Oops! We made the train, only to find that it and the subsequent train were PACKED with people. It was hard with our luggage, hot and kind of annoying. It was nice to arrive to natural beauty and a comfy place to relax.

For those unfamiliar with Cinque Terre, it means 5 lands in Italian. It is five small villages, one with a population of only 100 locals, and until less than a decade ago there were only a few trains running in and out daily. It is incredibly beautiful and there are fairly easy hiking trails one town to the next. They have now realized the potential of tourism and upped the train schedules but the towns are not really equipped to handle the crowds. So imagine our surprise, deboarding with hoards of tour groups from a nearby cruise ship. We learned to manage… This view helped.

Thursday we slept in a bit, oops, and then got up to hike. We took the train from our village to the farthest town North, Montorrosso. From Montorrosso we hike to Vernazza and then Cornigilia. Unfortunately, due to terrible storms in 2012, the path to our village, Manarola and the furthest south, Riomaggiore, is closed indefinitely. :(. We hiked as far as could and trained home. The best part was looking forward to a sunset cruise Thursday evening.

For those who spoke to me in the months leading up to the trip know that I was worried about having some big, blowout fight with Nick and then being stuck with him for who knows how long. Good news (and simultaneously bad news) is, we got into a fight. It wasn’t a big blowout and the funny thing is, we were bickering about the same things we do back home in Chicago. Oh life, how you surprise me. This all happened right before the sunset cruise. We worked it out, re: I eventually apologized. 😉

Friday was relaxing, mostly. We hiked around the town, I turned a wrong turn up a mountain. Yes, our calves are so sore!! We are currently still climbing, just now towers in Florence, gimme a break VACATION!! Ha! Jk. After the hike, we swam in the sea and then had a beautiful dinner overlooking the town and the Mediterranean.

The end for now. It’s lovely!