Cinque Terre is a set of five small villages on the Italian coast a bit north of Pisa. They were built right into the side of the mountains, so everything is stacked very close together. Cars are not allowed inside the villages (except for special taxis) because the roads are less than 6 feet wide. The villages are linked only by train and by trails that follow the coast. Because of my pregnant condition, we only dared to do the hike between Riomaggio and Manarola, which is definitely the easiest of the hikes. We spent two days in Cinque Terre walking around the towns, seeing the sights, eating some great pesto and seafood (even anchovies!), and spending a bit of time on the beach. The first night we were there, we were just getting ready to go to bed and we heard some huge BOOMS. We quickly threw on some shoes and ran outside to see what was going on. Over the water, the town was having fireworks in honor of the Catholic holiday of Assumption. It was one of the most beautiful firework shows we have ever seen (doesn’t rival Belmond, IA ground show) and the sounds were amplified because of the water and the mountains. Another neat thing about being there during assumption is that, while we were taking our town tours on foot, we frequently heard singing in the local churches that drifted through the streets to greet us. In Cinque Terre we were also introduced to our first gelatos…yum! Gelato is surprisingly cheap in Italy and amazing delicious- we were averaging about 3 cones a day between the two of us! How many times do you get to eat real gelato though??
Our great cliff-side restaurant.
Ben in Vernazza.
Scenes from Vernazza & Monterosso
The sunset where we ate dinner.
Coastline in Monterosso.
Scenes from Monterosso.
We made it back from Italy! Amazingly, being 7 months pregnant didn’t slow us down too much, despite walking 3+miles a day in 90+ degree heat…haha…August in Italy has its pros and cons, that is for sure. We started our journey in Pisa, Italy. I’ll be honest, there really isn’t too much to see in Pisa besides the obvious: the leaning tower of Pisa. So, it turned out to be a good thing that we only spend half a day there. The leaning tower is located in what is called the Field of Miracles, which was basically a religious campus. There is the Duomo (Catherdral), Baptistery, cemetery, bell tower and various museums. It was a bit expensive to climb the tower, but we figured…how can we come to Pisa and NOT climb the tower?? So, up the spiral staircase we went and let me tell you, it was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced! The tower is definitely leaning, and not just slightly. So as you are climbing the stairs on one side, you feel like you are “falling up.” Maybe it was because I was pregnant, but this effect was double on me- ha! As I climbed the tower, I would literally be stuck to one side of the wall or the other depending on if the stairs were for or against the tilt. After climbing back down the tower, we visited the Duomo, which was beautiful. After our morning adventures, we set out for Cinque Terre, which I’ll write about tomorrow. Until then!
View of Pisa from the top of the tower.
