Ah it's tough being in paradise! We woke up this morning and wandered out to our private balcony that looks over the small colorful village of Riomaggiore and the other way a small ocean view. Is your mouth watering yet?

We wandered over to the train station to buy our tickets for the next day to Rome, only to find out that there was a train strike scheduled for 9-5 on that day. Um.. really? So we had no choice but to leave before the strike started, very early. Knowing we only had 24 hours in this beautiful place, we set out to enjoy it!

So we got geared up for a hike (as best we could, we did't bring much for hiking) and set out. On our way out, we ran into a girl I went to high school with (Emily Haskel) who was traveling with her mom and sister. What a small world!

The 5 cities of Cinque Terre are connected by 9km of trails right on the hills about the water and we conquered them all! We left Riomaggiore and started out on the first trail, which was nicely paved and flat and we thought, no problem!! We passed some nice swimming coves and got to the second city, Manarola which we breezed right through. The second trail was more of the same... that is until we got to the 3rd city. To get into the village we climbed about 400 stairs. Whew! We reached the top into a little village surrounded by ocean and vineyards. And on we went... next trail was a little different. The trail turned to dirt and began to climb, and climb, and climb. Up and down the hills we went dying in the blazing hot sun. (Ah now I see why we are the only ones wearing jeans on the trail! Right!) 4km of this, and we arrived in the 4th city, Vernazza. Here we stopped for a little lunch and a little shopping. While we were distracted looking a postcards, someone startles us by saying hello to us. It was our English friend from Florence again, the once nicknamed Chimney! Small world...

We continued on to the last bit of the hike, thinking it couldn't be worse than the last one... um... wrong again. This was more vertical distance, combined with a path that at times was about 2ft wide, and half of the path was stairs. It's like a 4 hour stairmaster!! But it was very beautiful, with ocean views the whole time and wildflowers everywhere. We ended extremely tired, dripping with sweat, but it was well worth it!

We got to the last city, Monterosso, rewarded ourselves with a gelato, and took the train back to Manorola where we found a nice spot to go swimming. Except... the water was so freezing neither one of us could get ourselves to go in. So instead we dipped our feet in and laid in the sun in our bathing suits, never ever wanting to go home. Sorry guys.

We wanted to shower after getting so disgusting on the trail except there was one small problem... the water in our shower was about as cold as the ocean. We had to be content with our version of showers (pouring water and a little soap on our arms, legs, and faces) then went out to eat. We ran into a guy from Seattle we met in the Hofbrauhaus and a girl from Ohio we met in Florence. This is getting ridiculous. I guess our itinerary is not as unique as we thought!

We had dinner outside and I had a very strange pizza filled with seafood and pickles on top. Can't say it was a favorite. But we did find a new favorite treat after, which is hot chocolate cream. Amazing! We went back to our room and played cards. Add this place to the come-back list.

-Tiff