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  • Day 138

    Day 4: HelpX and Cinque Terre

    May 18, 2015 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today is our day off. So Daiva and I are headed to the cinque Terre coastline for the day. I had no intention of visiting here originally, but as the opportunity has presented itself and I recall several people at work speaking about it, I've decided to join Diva today. The images online do look amazing!

    Cinque Terre, which means five lands, is combined of five small coastal villages, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We begin at Monterosso and make our way down the coast line. It is very beautiful.

    Monterosso
    Was the biggest and had the best beaches to swim at, main because it had a beach. It was refreshingly cold to swim in and really weird to stand in stones instead of sand. The water was a beautiful blue colour and the sand on the beach a grey-ish colour. There was lots of little markets and restaurants here. I loved the lemon trees the best. Walkers would also start the trek along the coastline here.

    Vernazza
    Was small and squished. We didn't really like it here, but they may have been because we were looking for a place to lay on the beach and have lunch. There were two small swimming areas, all very rocky and it was crowded with people. We did walk up a section where the walkers would enter the town and take in a birds eye view, then we left.

    Corniglia
    We didn't really visit Island Corniglia. It's the only Island that doesn't meet the waters edge, but sits high above it. After heading towards the town from the train station we stopped after 5 mins realising it would take 15 mins to walk in. We were hot and hungry and not that interested. We walked back to the train station, down some steps and found a little alcove where we set and had lunch.

    After lunch we headed back to Island a for some swim time.

    With time marching on we boarded the train once more and headed to our final two islands.

    Manarola
    Manarola was the wine island, known for its white wine, the hills all around the small village are filled grape vines. After exploring the small town and watching the youths jump off the rocks in the middle into the sea we wandered up to a restaurant that overlooked it all. We sat here and enjoyed some white wine, rosa and nibbles. This is also where you can take some beautiful photos of the classic Cinque Terre look.

    Riomaggiore
    Our final destination is Riomaggiore. This is probably one of the biggest villages. We walk around for a bit trying to find the ocean and evenutal after back tracking and taking a different path we do. I enjoy an ice-cream as we watch the sunset and enjoy the afternoon.
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