What a Rush! What Beauty!

Cinque Terre was our next destination, with a stop on the way in Florence planned. However, there was a train to Pisa before there was one to Florence, so with a complete change of plans, we headed to Pisa. We had our first fine on this journey because we didn't reserve a ticket (we're using Eurail passes but didn't think we had to reserve seats for this train). The conductor was very nice though and only fined one of us (€5 for the reservation we didn't pay for, and €8 for not paying for it earlier).

What a rush! When we arrived at Pisa, we checked when the train to Cinque Terre was and found we had just over an hour, so we dumped our suitcases at the left luggage desk and after a quick lunch, rushed off towards the information desk. Here we grabbed a map and swiftly walked to the other side of town where the tower stands. We literally only had time to take a few photos before we had to head off again, and with a quick stop for gelati, rush back to the station, collect our suitcases and hurry as quickly as we could to the frustratingly slow lifts to get to our platform with only half a minute to spare! Once on the train, we were able to examine the photos we had taken to see what the tower looked like, not having had time to study it whilst in front of it. It was quite different from what we both expected. Somehow, I thought it was some sort of dark browny or brick red colour but its actually made of white stone. It's in a really nice square with a rather striking cathedral next to it which we would have like to look at properly had we had more time.

As we drew near to Cinque Terre, I caught the briefest glimpse through a tunnel window of amazingly deep blue water surrounding the cliff, so beautiful! We alighted at Riomaggiore, the southern-most village of the five, in a tiny train station squeezed between two towering cliff faces. Minnie went off to find some accomodation while I rested my tired limbs and guarded the suitcases (this was one place we hadn't got around to prebooking!). Thankfully Minnie found an apartment to stay in (they don't really have hostels here, just apartments of bedrooms with a shared kitchen (so nice to have a kitchen - none of the hostels seem to have one!) and bathroom which they let out at a per person per night basis about the same price as a typical hostel), which was thankfully fairly stair-free.

I have to say I fell in love with Cinque Terre instantly - its such beautiful scenery and such lovely little villages - highly recommended if you happen to be considering an overseas trip... The main street of the village runs steeply uphill, lined with multicoloured blocks of houses all of different heights with different windows, balconies and shutters - very picturesque. It would be a great place to explore as a child, because there are little streets everywhere and winding stairways joining them up under houses, down alleyways - you could almost get lost if it weren't such a small place! We ate some takeaway pasta in the town square overlooking the tiny harbour which looks lovely all lit up.

We had four nights here and enjoyed our time immensely. Much of our time was spent walking between and looking around the five villages (there's a coastal walk that joins all the villages) - we did the first two on the first day and were planning to attempt all five on our third day but the weather was bad and parts of it were closed. Its all part of a national park and overlooks a marine reserve and is just stunning scenery. I know I've mentioned it before, but the water is just such an brilliant turquoisy blue, incredibly clear and so vast :-) The villages are all built into the cliffs, with jagged houses in lovely Mediterranean colours. I wish I could post all my photos up but time and money permits me only this one :-) There are lots of little crafty shops in each of the villages (and a fair number of horribly touristy ones) which are lovely to look around in.

We also spent a couple of hours at the beach at Riomaggiore which is a pebble beach, large pebbles. I went for a dip, and the water was lovely but its somewhat unstable and difficult to find one's footing on the large boulders covered in algae!

A thunderstorm starting off our second morning caused a change of plans and after a morning looking around the village and visiting the one-room museum (very informative for its size however), we headed into the hills to the Montenero Sanctuary. The scenery is quite different - all the hills are terraced and covered in vineyards and orchads. The peasant farmers of the region spent hours of backbreaking work building dry stone walls to terrace the hills so they could plant olive groves, vineyards and orchards. Lovely to look at and beautiful views but a bit too steep for our liking! I could say so much more about how amazing the place is but time is running on (and no doubt your attention span is waning!) - a very enjoyable stay.