Prone to Wander: Cinque Terre

The spring weather has finally decided to grace Florence with its presence. You can now easily sight Americans because many of them will be wearing shorts. Be warned, though, when choosing to wear shorts in April in Florence, you are ensured to get at least two up-downs. Apparently Italians continue to wear jackets and scarves in 70-degree weather. The perfect weather came just in time for my weekend in Cinque Terre. It was a gorgeous Saturday and Sunday in para..para…paradise, and I am so glad I will experience it again with my parents when they visit in May. It was a great foretaste of what is to come.

Cinque Terre consists of five colorful fishing towns (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) on the coast of the Mediterranean. On Saturday we explored all five towns by way of the train that connects the “lands,” and it’s only about a four-minute ride to each town. Every town had its own feel and was different from each other. I would say Vernazza and Riomaggiorre were my favorite.

We had lunch in Vernazza at the incredible Belforte Restaurant. You walk up these stairs that lead you to the restaurant that looked like it was in a little stone tower. We ate on the top overlooking the gorgeous blue sea. A straw roof protected us from the sun and a cool breeze kept us refreshed. They serve incredible local seafood and homemade pasta. Cara and I split the Tagliatelle pasta with zucchini and shrimp. It was divine. Our waiter was quite nice and gave us several refills of bread as well as some complementary wine and a shot of something (I don’t even know what it was haha). Every meal is better when something free is included! We definitely felt like we were living the high life.

We watched the sun set in Riomaggiore. If you’ve ever seen pictures of the colorful houses on the coasts of Italy, it was more than likely taken in Riomaggiore. Definitely postcard worthy.

Sunday was spent taking a super cool hike with Laurel and Cara. We started walking a paved biking/running path that used to be a railroad. It had lots of tunnels. Dark cool tunnels. It was beautiful because it followed the coastline to another beachy town. There we did a short hike up along the rocky coast. It reminded me a lot of the Californian coast.

The rest of the day was spent on the beach in Monterosso. We weren’t about to spend 18 euro on a bottle of sunscreen so…. I am now the hue of a cherry tomato and I’m pretty sure I crunch when I walk. #worthit.

My editing system has been acting wacky, so none of these photos have been edited, but I wanted to share them with you so you can see the natural beauty of the Italian coast.