Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is absolutely beautiful. It is five traffic free villages on the Italian Riviera. There is lots of sun, sand (rocks), wine and pure unadulterated Italy! Ahhhhh... I am staying in the second town named Manarola but I headed to the fifth town; Monterossa for my first full day here. The "bar" above is what I thought Italy would look like - I have not been disappointed!



After checking out the village of Monterossa I spent the afternoon at the beach. It was really relaxing minus the Italian kids whining at their mother and then an old Italian lady yelling at the kid for whining and then yelling at the mother for letting her child yell at her! Of course, this was all in Italian but let me tell you, it was pretty obvious what was happening!

Manarola is really pretty! I am staying at Ostello 5-Terre in a room with three sets of bunkbeds! It is super clean and the staff are wonderful. You get locked out from 10-5 so it gives lots of opportunity to check out the villages and go swimming:

I hung out to the right of the yellow umbrella. Under that umbrella is a little kid sleeping - yes, on the rocks! Ever since I saw Mama Mia and they were jumping off the rocks into the ocean I have wanted to do it. Well, I did it in fine style and it was so refreshing! To make it purely authentic I guess I have to go to Greece :)

I ended my day with a gorgeous meal at Dal Billy. A speciality there is black pasta so I decided to give it a go and it was sooooooo good. Incredible meal and Billy is just delightful. He has run the restaurant for 25 years and last year he sold it to his son and another dude who told me it was a shame I was staying in a hostel where the curfew was 1am....

Tomorrow I am doing a 11mile hike between the five towns!