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.