The Cinque Terre

 Cinque Terre translates to "The Five Lands," and is located in the Liguria region of Italy.  It is composed of five coastal towns: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  The rugged shorelines and interesting construction of the houses on the steep hills creates a view that is dramatically different from anything I've ever seen.  While there isn't much in the way of art or sculpture to see in Cinque Terre, the five towns each have a different feel to them and provide different but equally breathtaking sights.

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso is the only one of the five towns that has what can be referred to as a "beach".  While the day was very beautiful and warm, the water of the Ligurian Sea was still much too cold to swim in!! Talking to a local Italian man, he said locals don't begin swimming here until mid-June at the earliest.  The beach was very clean and filled with sun bathers and odd little blue sea creatures.  They were both on the beach and floating in the water close to the shore.  The rocks along the beach were all so different and colorful, making a really beautiful contrast to the gorgeous blue of the sea water.

Statue close to the beach

Vernazza

Vernazza has a beautiful harbor area.  It is a true fishing village; boats can be seen parked along the sidewalk like cars in a city.  Although in Vernazza, no car traffic is allowed.  The best way to get from town to town in Cinque Terre is by hiking the trails connecting the towns, by ferry, or by train.  From the harbor, you could see the terrain on the hilly countryside of the small coastal town, most of which is covered with lush green vegetation and many vineyards. 

View of harbor and town

 Corniglia

Corniglia is the middle town of the Cinque Terre.  This is where Katie and I stayed in the best hostel we have stayed in this entire trip.  We met two really fun and outgoing girls from Canada and one girl from Brazil.  All of them were doing trips throughout Europe just by themselves.  They were my age, but I was just so impressed with their bravery.  I will always remember Corniglia as the town that my pride was bruised.... I was pick pocketed here getting off the train.  I learned a very important lesson from this experience: don't trust 13-14 year old girls on a crowded train.  They created a distraction by standing in front of me when I was trying to get off the train, making me physically move one of them while another one must've swiped my wallet.  Luckily, my actual passport wasn't in there and I only lost some money and my cards, which were cancelled.  This taught me not to grow attached to materialistic things; they can be replaced.  Corniglia was still pretty and once I got over my wallet being stolen, I did like the quaint little town.

Shoreline in Corniglia

Lardarina

 To get to the center of Corniglia from the train station, you have to climb the "Lardarina".  It is a flight of steps with 33 flights and 382 steps.  Definitely a leg workout!! My calves still felt it three days later!

Sign in coffee shop

Manarola

Manarola was my favorite of the five towns.  I fell in love with the colorful houses along the beautiful rugged coastline.  It is said to be the oldest of the five towns.  Manarola and Riomaggiore are connected by the famous Via dell'Amore, but it was unfortunately closed when we were there. 

Little Poser.....

 

 Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore was the last of the five towns that we saw.  Each town has a very similar look to it, but every one has its own beauty.  In Riomaggiore, I couldn't take my eyes off of the bright red house right on the edge of the shoreline.  The highly contrasting colors are a wonderful sight and make for really great pictures!

Making it to all five towns of the Cinque Terre felt like an accomplishment in itself; but if I learned anything from this trip, it is that there may be bad people in this world who really are out to steal things, that shouldn't make you lose your faith in humanity.  There are still way more good people in the world and it's not the material things in life that matter; it's all about the experiences you have and how you deal with challenges when they are presented to you.  Life is about learning to deal with adversity, learning to expect the unexpected, roll with the punches, and become a stronger person because of it.