Cinque Terre

Milan flew by since we were only in the area for a quick stopover before our train to Florence. We saw the Duomo from the outside and indulged in our first helping of true, Italian gelati. Amazing. This place happened to be a tad on the "upper scale" of gelato places but boy do you get what you pay for. We had two scoops—one of chocolate and one of coconut and it was truly a moment to remember. :)

We trekked back to the Milan station quickly from our afternoon jaunt to see the Duomo—a magnificent piece of art that we were sure must have been beautiful on the inside as well. Making our way to our hostel "Siggiorno Primavera" was quite simple since it was only about a ¼ mile from the train station. We checked in and made our selves at home in this cozy little nook. This is definitely one of the most quiet hostels we have been in. We may even be the only ones here! After chowing down on some pizza last night, we decided to rely on good ole Rick Steves for advice on how to get (and hike) to Cinque Terre. And what a day we had.
Early this morning, we took a 2 hour train ride from Florence to La Spezia, then hopped easily onto a regional train that dropped us off 9 minutes later at Riomaggiore—the "first" of the five cities that define "Cinque Terre" or "Five Lands". As soon as we got off the train in Riomaggiore, it was like stepping into a dream. The water met the cliffs far far below us with a magnificent crash and swirl of water lapping up onto the rocks. We both declared that we would likely be using up our memory cards during this trip to Cinque Terre. We soon found ourselves along the (forgot the name) but it's called: The Path of Love, which, at first, was disappointing due to the shoulder to shoulder tourist ensemble. But, once we passed the Path of Love and made our way to the second town, Montero, the crowds seemed to thin out. Little pizzerias, homemade gelati bars, (and souvenir shops!) lined the main path until land and sea met and formed a lovely little cove with scattered bunches of rocks where several kids were making spectacular jumps as people watched from the cliffs above. The turquoise blue water and jagged, deep grey rock formations made this area seem like a hidden paradise. Although I have posted a couple pictures, they really cannot capture the beauty of this region. Between the second and third towns, Brent and I found our way to a pebbly beach where we enjoyed a nice dip to cool ourselves off from the middle of a 8 km hike. The water was warm and soothing and we enjoyed being lazy as we floated in and out with the waves.

City number 3, Corniglia, is famous for its 382 steps up from sea level to the city, however Brent and I were more challenged with the hike from Corniglia to the fourth city, Vernazza. This stretch of the hike brought us through rich green fields of grapevines and tomatoes. We finally got to Vernazza and found that we unfortunately would not have time to make it to Monterosso (the 5 city) since we had to catch a (free!) train back to Florence tonight. By this time, we were pretty drained from hiking in the sun all day, so we headed back and will catch some zzzz’s before a full day of checking out the city of Florence tomorrow.