Today is our last day in Tuscany. We will be leaving our charming Tuscan B&B and heading slowly towards Rome. This part of the trip will take us two days as we plan on visiting some coastal areas along the way. Today we decide to head to Cinque Terre.
Here is a quote from the Wikipedia that describes this region of Italy very well:
"The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Hills" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside. The Cinque Terre area is a very popular tourist destination." After leaving our B&B in the morning we first head towards Livorno. Steve manages to find a decent hotel there for us for one night. Livorno is a costal city which is located west of the Tuscany region and offers a great central located for our purposes. We plan to drive there leave our luggage at the hotel and then continue north towards Cinque Terre for the day. Of course, the trip takes longer than we planned (hoped) and we end up at the train station in La Spezia at around 5pm - Cinque Terre is only accessible by train from the south. We almost decide not to go. We feel that it might be too late in the day. But we go anyway and what a good decision it turns out to be! :))
Our train goes through many tunnels dug through the costal hills. We arrive at the first station and a beautiful view opens up in front of us. The sea, the rugged hills and the charming town. We get off the train and immediately start exploring the area.
The view when we first arrive.
The tunnels leading in and out of the first town.
We walk along the "Romantic Path" which goes from the fist town to the second.
The walk only takes about 30 minutes but we are hungry and there is this lovely little cafe/winebar along the way so we decide to stop for a bite to eat and drink.
The cafe has a lovely name of "Bar dell Amore".
Steve has a fear of hights so he was not the most comfortable sitting this close to the edge. Especially since the floor under our table was made of metal mesh and we could see all the way down the side of the cliff! But he made it all the way through lunch and was even able to smile for this picture! :)
We don't know what this plant is called or even what type of plant it is but we called it the "Mediterranean Weed" :)
After our meal we continued down the "Romantic Way".
We really like Vernazza (the second town). We wonder around buy some some gelato (of course!!) and head to the sea port.
The town has an amazing and very picturesque port with houses sitting right at the edge of the rugged cliffs and boats of local fisherman moored along the sides.
The locals use this rock (below) as a "diving board". People of all ages and sizes climb up there and jump into the water. Steve and I watch them for a while mesmerized. It is obvious that the jump is not easy and looking down from the top of the cliff must be intimidating. Some teenagers come along and encourage each other to jump but some are too frighten and let someone behing them jump first! We are even more amazed by the whole thing when we stick our feet in the water and realize that it's FREEZING on first contact!! It takes our feet a while to get used to it but after a while it feels refreshing. The water by the port is so clear that we see colorful fish swimming around us in the blue water.
Jump......
And SPLASH!
The cliffs at the edge of town.
Next, we hopped on the Cinque Terre train and took it to the last coastal town - The Monterosso.
Flowers at the train station
The Monterosso
The beach was full of interesting and pretty pebbles so we collected a few to take with us as souveniers :)
We wondered the beach till dusk then stopped by a local cafe for supper.
We were yet again thankful to the Italian way of life as everything was open late. Even the trains were running well past midnight. We caught one of the last trains going back and were not the only ones!! We then drove back to Livorno. We got to our hotel close to 1am and even then the city was not asleep. In fact, many people were out and about as if it were middle of the day!
Tomorrow we head south :)
Waiting at the station for our late train.
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