Cinque Terre

Oh Rick Steves and former Physical Therapist. Y'all made Cinque Terre sound like the promised land. Filled with wonderful trails, sunny skies, and quiet little towns.

Oh how different it was!

• I hope you looooove being around tourists! CUZ THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!
• And with an unreasonably high concentration of bros!
• If you don't like being surrounded by mobs of tourists, you'd be better off at Disney Land.
• Silly quotes were abound! 
• Such as, "Italian leather is so Italian!"
• You want food? you better be happy with fish fry, gelato, and Pizzeria Ristorantes!
• Disclaimer: There's nothing wrong with copious gelato.
• And to be fair, we came across an excellent focaccia/pizza joint that didn't have Rick Steve's stamp of approval.
• As for hiking? Sorry, the city closed a good number of trails due to them being washed out.
• Actually, I had no beef with this. Safety first!
• GO4ZERO!

Anyways, if you ever intend to go... you only need to spend an afternoon and night at this place. Cinque Terre is basically five coastal towns connected by a system of short trails (or the TrenItalia).

^view of Manarola from Corniglia

We stayed in Riomaggiore.


Where there were few locals...


and where those locals all grew basil.


Each town has a little waterfront and the trails provide good views

^Vernazza



^Manarola

We skipped Monterosso due to it being one giant hot mess of tourists and visited La Spezia... where they had the Italian Naval Technology Museum


The town also had a castle, but it was closed due to a wedding. I presume this dude was the father of the bride..

^le sigh

I've come to realize, I don't like coastal/beach towns.