Cinque Terre

We basically spent more than half the day in the train. We went from Nice to La Spezia and had 2 stops and train changes in between. We got to La Spezia at about 1:15 and had to be on another train to Riomaggiore (which is the first town in Cinque Terre) by 2. So we crossed our fingers and hoped for a room to be open.

We were lucky because we found a pretty cheap room overlooking the city! It's a decent hike up though. Our legs are a bit stronger because of all the walking we do. So we dropped off our bags and headed out! The walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola is called Via dell' Amore. It's beautiful and follows right along the coastline. After the first two cities we skipped to the fifth which is called Monterosso and were going to walk backwards but it started pouring rain! We grabbed some drinks and watched the first 30 minutes of the Italy/Spain soccer match.

Afterwards, we walked through Vernazza and had dinner. The food is phenomenal! And might I add that we finished a liter of wine, Farva. Because of the rain, we couldn't go to the middle city Corniglia.
The trains run at random times in between the cities. We had an hour wait until the train would take us through to our stop. To pass he time we talked with a group of 4 from Australia. Apparently they're are not kangaroos running around and it's a lot like the US! Except our summer/winter are flip flopped. They were very nice people and we ended up passing the time quickly.

We both wish we had more time here (and sunnier skies). There are lots of hiking trails, beaches, and cities in the mountains. It's definitely worth the stop!