Day Five: Hiking the Cinque Terre

Wednesday morning we woke up to an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day, a perfect day for hiking the trails through all the five villages. We took the train to Riomaggiore, Town #1, and explored the town for a little bit before starting on the Via dell'Amore, the "Walk of Love" between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

The story behind this trail is that after World War II when the original train track was blasted, a trail was left connecting the two villages and making it a rendezvous spot for young lovers to meet in secret when they were forbidden to marry outside their village. The walk was absolutely gorgeous and right along the cliff over the water. Here are a few pics...

Legend has it that if you attach a lock to the bridge you'll forever "seal your love." Of course we had to do it... :)
It was just so gorgeous. This whole area of Italy is gorgeous. The Via dell'Amore was the only cliff-side trail that was open, and knowing the rest of the trails up through the mountains would be way more rigorous than I was willing to handle, once we finished the first walk I took the train back from Manarola to Vernazza to let Derek enjoy the beauty of nature by himself. Here are a few pics from his hike. This doesn't even do it justice, but here's a taste nonetheless...

And just to show you that I clearly made the right decision by foregoing the hard hike and reading my book while sipping my wine in the sun instead, here's a video...

It was just a lovely day to be outside enjoying the incredible Italian Riviera, and at this point a few hours apart didn't hurt us, either. :)

Once Derek returned to our home base, we showered and headed back out to the harbor for dinner, followed by after-dinner drinks with our Utah friends (we learned their names were Amy and Joel) from Tuesday night at the Burgus Wine Bar right next to the 5,000 steps up to our room.

The owners and bartenders of these little Vernazza bars were so cool. When the bar was closing, we were sitting outside with our friends and two new friends from North Carolina, Ben ("the doctor") and Trey. The bartender came out and gave us a bottle of wine on the house and told us to enjoy ourselves and just set our glasses by the door when we were done. So nice!

It was yet another late night, but again so much fun to hang out with some people from the States and share travel adventures. This is the greatest place on Earth, I'm just convinced of it.

Only one more day in pure paradise...