Cinque Terre

We took at 4 hour train ride from Rome to the Cinque Terre. We were staying in an apartment booked through booking.com. However, when we arrived in our small town, Riomaggio, no one-not even the locals knew of the location. Finally, an elderly Italian women of about 85 said she would show us the way. If I didn't already know that Cinque Terre translates to five towns I would think it means a lot of stairs. We followed the elderly lady up endless amounts of stairs and she was like an alpaca-fast! While we were huffing and puffing way behind her. We arrive at this apartment with a HUGE balcony and the view was worth the stairs. 

This is what you can see from our balcony. 

We quickly dropped off our bags and hopped on a train to Monterosso-the town that is farthest north. They have the most accessible beach and you can eat/drink right over the ocean. 

The view while enjoying a tasty drink in Monterosso. 

Then we caught the local train again and went south to Vernazza. Miss Delia and her group were staying at this town. 

Miss Delia is more than a friend. If I were to have a sister this would be her. We met while working at the Rec Center a decade ago. Since the day we met we just clicked. We're very different but we recognize something special in one another and it's something that has cemented our friendship. Years ago a coworker at the rec center told us about her trip to the Cinque Terre and we both talked about wanting to come here. The fact that we are both here together is extra special. I always like to tell Miss Delia "if we live to be a 125 we'll remember this." This is true about our time at the Cinque Terre. 

We found a yummy dinner place in Vernazza that supplied us all with wine and food. Also, they have wifi. In Cinque Terre this is a rarity. You have to use it when you can get it. Which explains why I'm doing multiple posts in one day. 

We found this cave that leads to the ocean! 

The last time we were in a tunnel/cave we were scared out of our minds. This one was much nicer. 

Our group minus Pedro (he was out exploring) 

Our little superheroes enjoy the waves. 

After dinner we went back to our town. Most of the towns shut down around 8pm so we bought a few bottles of red wine and went back to Pedro, Shane and Josef's place. 

We all slept well that night. Read about our early morning hike in the next blog post.