Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Cinque Terre

During my last weekend in Genoa, my friends Eric and Evelyn (MIT 2010's) came and we visited Cinque Terre ("Five Lands") which was only a 1.5 - 2 hour train ride away from my apartment. It is one of the most scenic sections of the Italian Riviera.

Since it was high season for tourists, we just trained over there everyday and stayed at my apartment. It worked out well, the train tickets were only about 10 euro. 

I believe the section is a national park, and it encompasses small five towns with hiking trails in between them. You can hike along the coast from the northern most to the southern most town in  about five hours. At this point, I think their only reason for existing is tourism, and it's a popular destination for Americans. Regardless, it was beautiful right off the bat!



The towns were very quaint as well. This one was the second most southern, Manarola I believe. I had always wondered where pictures with colorful houses on a rocky coast were taken, so it was cool to be see a landscape like it.



It was also some of the most enjoyable hiking I've done since there was such a variety. The coastal trail between Manarola and Corniglia (the middle town) was closed so we had to take a longer, more inland route. It took you up from the town into the hills, through some vineyards, and back down the to the coast.




You can see Manarola in the distance in this following picture, and we passed some nice houses up in the hills on the way.





After getting to Corniglia we passed through the town to find a nice place to swim. The water was super clear.




The second day we went, we started at the northern most town (Monterosso) and hiked down one path. The beach at Monterosso was much more crowded, we much preferred our more secluded spot from the day before.





Eric and Evelyn are in the middle of the trail here, when I snapped the picture.

Afterwards we went back to Monterosso to rent kayaks and paddled around for two hours. At one point we were far out enough to see all five towns at once, which was one of the highlights of the trip. You got some good views that you couldn't get from trails. We grabbed some drinks afterward, ate dinner, and packed up. They were even nice enough to treat me for letting them stay at the apartment; very generous!

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