Cinque Terre

It was another beach day today! We went to the Cinque Terre today, which are five small towns on the eastern coast of Italy. The towns are connected to La Spezia with a train line, and each town is 5-10 minutes down the line. I had planned on going to all the towns, but after recognizing our current pace each day I realized that wasn’t going to happen. We started in town 4, Vernazza, because it is known for being pretty and quaint. We wanted to get a picture of the town from the hiking trail, so we walked a bit down the path to get some good pictures. I had originally planned on doing the hike, but because of the heat and our pace I thought there was no way we would do it. However, after we took the pictures the kids all asked if we could continue the hike. After asking them several times if they were sure they wanted to do it and that it would be difficult and hot, they all said they wanted to do the hike instead of taking the train. So we hiked along the coast from Vernazza to Monterosso, which is town 5. We went up, up, up for what seemed like forever and then finally got to go down to the town of Monterosso. For our group ranging from ages 4 to 67, I am proud of everyone for doing so well!

Once we got to Monteroso it was straight to the beach. Again, there wasn’t sand but small rocks, and of course we ended up with a pile to take home. I think our luggage will weigh an extra 10 pounds with all the rocks and junk the kids have collected! After the hike where we were dripping sweat so much it looked like we had all already been in the water, it was great to jump in the cold water!

Thanks to the advice of the earthtrekkers blog (where I got most of the itinerary ideas for our trip—seriously check them out!), we rented a paddleboat with a slide for an hour. This was the highlight of the day for the kids, and I loved watching them having so much fun. The only problem was JonPaul and I had to paddle the boat with everyone on board! Only five were allowed on, so my mom graciously stayed on land with our stuff. Unlike our last beach day, this time we bought a beach umbrella for 10 euro, so we were able to have shade for the person staying on land to watch the stuff. We always make sure never to leave our stuff unattended, and the beach umbrella was well worth the money. We will leave it at this apartment for the next guests to use.

After the beach we took the train back to town 1, Riomaggiore. We walked around for a bit and got gelato in this town; that way we got to see 3 of the 5 Cinque Terre towns. I wish we could stay in Cinque Terre for a few more days, but Venice awaits!