Day 16: Le Cinque Terre

Day 16: nearing the end!  Just a few more posts to go, and we can bid farewell to this blogfest.  I find myself trying to catch up at the craziest moments.  Right now I'm on a plane to Pittsburgh for my cousin Alex's wedding.  I paid the extra $9 for wifi, mostly so I could catch up on schoolwork, but I'm tossing in a bit of blogging in as well.  It's funny--since I paid for internet I feel obligated to make every minute count.  Perhaps the same could be said for our grueling European itinerary.  

In planning our trip to Europe, hiking the Cinque Terre may have been the adventure I anticipated most.  During our honeymoon, Jason and I had such a lovely experience in the Cinque Terre, eating fresh lemons bought from a vendor as we made our way between these picturesque villages on the seashore.  Our kids were equally excited since the movie Luca is inspired by the location as well.

The Cinque Terre were beautiful.  The weather was perfect and we were all so glad we went.  I'm not sure the day made the very top of our European adventure list, but we'd already had a bunch of experiences that were tough to compete with.  Also, it was challenging getting there and rather crowded.

To get there, our family chose to drive the hour and a half from Montespertoli to La Spezia.  From our research online, we knew that parking within any of the Cinque Terre themselves would be a bad idea.  However, I didn't expect parking in La Spezia itself to be so challenging as well.  Jason eventually dropped us off at the train station and went to hunt a parking spot by himself.  In retrospect, we should have either taken the free bus from the outskirts of La Spezia, or else began our journey from La Spezia Migliarina train station instead of La Spezia Centrale.  We drove all the way in because I was so anxious to get to the Cinque Terre.  Ironically, this ended up taking way longer...

...especially when I had us all get on the train headed the wrong direction!  So yes, we got to see La Spezia Migliarina, and yes, there was plenty of parking.  Fortunately the kids were all good sports.  By this point we were kind of laughing about our minor misfortune.  

I had purchased Cinque Terre Train Cards which allowed our family to both hike and hop on and off  trains between villages as often as we wanted.  Oh, plus it gives you free access to the public restrooms at the train stations.  You have no idea how hard it can be to find a place to pee!  We appreciated this flexibility and used our cards' value. 

We began our adventure in the northernmost village, Monterosso al Mare.  

If you're looking for a place to relax on the beach, they probably have an umbrella for you.

We opted for gelato instead.  Challenging as the morning had been, we even splurged on two scoops.

Touristy as it may be, you can see the magnetic pull towards the Cinque Terre.  They are magnificent!  I'm just glad we came on a weekday, albeit in August.

The rest of the day was spent wandering between villages, enjoying all of the bright colors and picturesque crannies.

That and the pigeons.  Poor Giuseppe.  During our trip we realized that Mr. Garibaldi has a lot of roads named after him.

We also passed this sculpture of St. Francis de Assisi, patron saint of animals.  He's Annika's kind of people.

To get these magnificent views, we climbed a LOT of stairs on our hike between Monterosso and Vernazza.  In retrospect, I probably should have prepped the kids so they knew what to expect.  There may have been some whining and dragging of feet.  Thank heavens the route was peppered with lizards or we might not have gotten Annika to follow along.

But the scenery along the way is so enchanting!  Even as I was hiking, I found myself mentally planning all the paths I would take next time.

A stair for each of us.

At last, Vernazza is in view.  

We ended up swimming along the rocky outcroppings visible to the left in the photo.

But first, we took a train to Corniglia and determined that it didn't have much of a beach.

Oh, and we ate lunch.  The kids were a bit surprised to discover that the freshly-squeezed lemonade didn't have any added sugar.  Once you got past the tartness, it was deliciously refreshing.

Back to the beach at Vernazza.  By the end of the trip, we were quite skilled at changing into swimsuits on the sly.

Annika enjoyed the crabs.  I poked my finger on a sea anemone.  We all slipped on the moss.  A great time was had by all.

Jason joins in the ocean fun.

I had originally planned for us to hike between all of the towns.  Um, yeah, that was probably pretty unrealistic, especially since we didn't get started until after 1:00.  Instead we took the train back to Corniglia with plans of walking over to Manarola since the route was supposed to be shorter.  Little did we know that the most direct azure trail is closed and likely won't reopen until 2025!  So instead, we chose explore lovely Corniglia instead.

I'm sure it's beautiful any time of day, but it was stunning during the golden hour.

The kidsdidn't mind our hanging around, especially after we bought everyone lemon granitas.  The basil was my favorite.

In the end, we only made it to three of the five Cinque Terre, skipping the two most popular, Riomaggiore and Manarola.  There's nothing else to be done--we'll have to come back and hike some more.  

We can't wait.