Cinque Terre

Yesterday we took a day trip to Cinque Terre. It is a region right along the coast north of Tuscany where 5 towns are connected by bridges and hiking trails. Our goal for the day was to hike from the first town all the way to the fifth town.
The day started out great. We were up bright and early, got to Cinque Terre by 10:30am, and were set to go. The hike started out very nice and easy. The first trail we walked down was called Lover's Lane. It had beautiful views and it was full of locks placed there by couples. In Italy a lock symbolized the strength and impermeability of a relationship. We see couples places them all over. This path was full!
We couldn't walk from the second town to the third town because a landslide had blocked it. For this one we took the train. It was a bit of a bummer because the train runs through tunnels so we couldn't even see the landscape we were missing. The beauty of the third town certainly made up for it. This town seemed to be located out on a part of the coast that jetted into the sea more than the rest. We were able to climb up to the top of a tower and look out over the ocean. It was one of the best views of the trip! After doing that we decided to head on to the next town. We had heard the hikes got harder as you went so we didn't want to waste too much time on the easy ones.
We started on out what we thought was the trail to the 4th town. After hiking straight up hill for about an hour we started to think we may not have been going the right way. The hike was only supposed to take an hour and at that point we were still walking up. Also, we had only seen people on their way down this path, never up like us. Eventually, we stopped to ask an Australian family what direction the path lead to. Of course, they told us we had just hiked an hour and a half in the wrong direction on the most difficult path in the region! At that point it was closer for us to continue on and head back to the second town. After about another hour of hiking and a lot of getting lost we made it back to our original starting point.
We were so exhausted we had to sit down and have lunch for a very long time. After we recovered a bit of our energy we hopped back on the train. This time we weren't taking any chances and we rode right to the fourth town. From here we hiking the final (correct) trial from the fourth to the fifth city. This was my absolute favorite part of the whole hike. The hike was quite hard, very steep and very narrow paths, but the views were amazing. The fourth town was probably the prettiest and the coastline was breath-taking. We also saw a lot of vineyards and waterfalls along our hike. Connor was also quite the gentleman and offered to carry our bags for us during this part of the hike. He looked so funny with my backpack, his backpack, and Lindsay's purse on. I really appreciated him helping me out like that.
We were so excited when we finally reached the fifth town and the beach. Even though it was almost 7pm and getting quite cold, we all put our feet in the water. We got to the beach just time for the sunset! It was a great end to the hike!
I can't decide which place I liked better. The Amalfi Coast or Cinque Terre. They are similar in that they are both beautiful coastal towns nestled in between the cliffs and the bright blue-green ocean. This is where the similarities stop. The ability to walk along the entire coast and see so many different views was one you could only get in Cinque Terre. Capri and Positano seemed to be much more about the shopping and attracting the wealthy for vacations. Here we hiked 15km up and down mountains in order to see the beautiful views. I loved the experience and we all decided that was one of our best days in Italy so far.

pictures