We spent two nights in Cinque Terra, which literally means five towns, on the Italian Riviera. We stayed in Monterosso, which is the largest of the five, but by no means a big village. It is quite possibly the most beautiful place we've been. I actually got to practice my Italian, since some of the people hear don't speak any english, probably the first place we've been like that. The five villages are nestled on the coast surrounded by craggy cliffs an beaches are in the middle of the coves. The hills above the villages are surrounded by terraced stepped vinyards and groves of olive trees. They still use terraces that were built over 100 years ago for natural irrigation. I wish we could post pictures, but we're having trouble finding a place that allows us to download. The picture above is of one of the towns. You spend 20 minutes going through a tunnel on the train when you pop out all of the sudden the mediteranean is 100 feet below. Every time you go through another short tunnel, there's another village. There are hiking trails that lead along the cliffs and up into the mountains between the old fishing villages and through the middle of the vineyards on stone stairs, so I hiked for half of one day while Lindsay layed out on the beach. The weather was amazing, warm during the day, and cool at night. Some of the best seafood and pastas that I have ever eaten!! The only complaint is that the beaches didn't have much sand, but mostly smoothed pebbles and there were alot of jellyfish in the water. Definitely have to make it back someday!!!!