Cinque Terre

We woke up early the next morning to prepare a pre-hike breakfest: eggs, toast and marmalade, then walked to the train station for our 7:00 train. On the train, we met two girls from Massachusetts that took a semester off to travel Europe before graduation. We swapped bad hostel and creepy Italian stories and gave advice on traveling in other cities (they were headed to Rome next and had just been in Venice). The Cinque Terre is a path on cliffs and mountains between 5 small cities (each with populations less than 2,000 people) that goes along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We decided to do hike opposite of the norm, and start at the northern most city and work our way south. While normal people hike then end their day by swimming at the beach at the northern-most city. We decided to layout and play on the sand before beginning the trek. 

view from our wine tasting

We’re determined to soak up as much sun as we can before fall comes. In each city, we stopped for pizza, wine, gelato, and more wine before making our way back to the path to continue our trek. We made it to the last city just around sunset, and were able to enjoy an amazing seafood pasta dinner overlooking the sea. So beautiful!

On the train heading back to Florence, we had an hour layover in Pisa. Monica, Hannah and I flagged down a ticket-checker (I’m suure that’s the official title) and asked the logistics of visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa during that hour. He said it’d be a close call to walk there and back, so we decided to give up on the dream, as we had a 4:30 am train to catch to Venice the next morning, and wouldn’t be getting back to Florence until midnight. While chatting and stretching our sore legs, we began chatting with a man on the train. He had visited the cities of the Cinque Terre with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren and was headed back to Florence also. He gave us amazing advice on where to eat and shop in Venice, and the ins and outs of traveling through the city. We mentioned that we had considered making the jaunt over to the Leaning Tower, and he lit up with excitement. When we got off the train, he flagged down two taxis for his WONDERFUL family and us. It was like something out of a movie, piling into Italian taxis with complete strangers, laughing at the randomness the entire time. We had 10 or 20 minutes to snap photos before hustling back to the train station for the last leg of the journey. The last train was spent chatting with them, exchanging stories of adventures (the son and daughter met backpacking in Italy years ago), their life (a family of lawyers from Alabama) and our trip thus far. We are so lucky to have met so many amazing people on all of our adventures!