21-Aug-2008: Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, situated in the Ligura region of Italy, just west of Florence is truely a lovely place to visit. There are five villages that make up the Cinque Terre: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore - all are made up of colourful buildings, perched on rugged cliffs and each have limited car access. Each village is linked up by a spectacular 14km coast track.

We stayed in Monterosso, the largest and most eastern village of the Cinque Terre. We started our walk early one morning on a 30+ degree day. The first part of the walk between Monterosso and Vernazza was probably the most challenging, so it was good to get that done and out of the way at the start of the day.




The walk took us all day to do as we stopped in each of the five villages for a swim, something to eat and something to eat before moving on to the next.



In Monterosso, we stayed at a hotel at the top of the hill overlooking the village with a spectular view of the Cinque Terre coastline from our balcony. It was a steep 1km walk to the top of the hill and we had a pretty good knack for missing the hourly shuttle bus service, so we got to know this walk pretty well by the end of our stay.


We also spent some time in Florence and Pisa during this trip. For me, visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a highlight as I remember learning about in one of the first projects I ever did in primary school, when I was in grade 3.