A little place I like to call Cinque Terre

After the debacle in Avignon we made it to Nice, basically just because it had what turned out to be an awesome Hostel. We didn’t really have any time to spend there because we wanted to stop in Monaco on the way to Cinque Terre so we got up and got out the next morning.

We got to Monaco around 10:30 and had about 3 hours to walk around. Graham had someone he knew from Dallas that had relatives that lived in Monaco and owned a cool restaurant called Stars and Bars (American Flag), right there on the port so that was our first stop. From there we walked around the port some more then up to the famous casino and it was pretty ridiculous, as expected. Overall, Monaco was impressive but just a little too much for four guys in their early 20’s on a travel budget so it was fine with me that we be on our way. On top of this I was getting real excited about our next stop.



We got into Cinque Terre about 9 on Thursday night just in time to check in to our hotel and grab a bite to eat before everything shut down. If you aren’t familiar with this place it is a group of 5 villages (cinque-5 / terre-villages) on the coast of Northwest Italy looking out over the Ligurian Sea. I had never heard of it before I started working in Paris but one of the perks of all those everyday conversations that I had with people was hearing about cool little places like this. The villages from West to East went Monterosso, Vernazza,Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore. We were staying in the 2nd vllage from the West called Vernazza. We found a great little spot with great pasta and wine and started out Italy in typical fashion. We tried to find somewhere to hangout afterwards but like I said, everything shuts down real early there. So we went into a restaurant that was barely still open and bought two bottles of local Cinque Terre wine to take with us and then went and sat out on the pier for the rest of the night and relaxed a little bit before our next big day of hiking.

This place is famous for its hiking. Each little town lies in a little valley/inlet from the ocean and you hike over the hills and into each town. In all its about a 5 hour hike through all 5 towns. I will admit I have never been much of a hiker. It was the one part of boy scouts I tried to sketch out of as much as possible. But I suppose it goes along with those French History classes that I hated listening to back in the day. Once you are doing it on your own you can appreciate it that much more. Unless I get into some serious hiking in the near future, this will probably be one of the most amazing hikes I take. 95% of the hike is on the coastline and every time you turn the corner and peek out of the brush you have another awesome postcard shot of the coast. Not only are the sights unforgettable but the sounds are just as cool. For 5 hours you listen to the crashing of the waves against the rocky coastline below you and hear the commotion of the wildlife and local farmers all through the hillside. I cant really describe it anymore than that but you can definitely check out some of the pictures. I’m pretty sure it would have been hard to take a bad one. I think collectively, 3 of us took about 300+/- pictures throughout the hike. Dylan came to Europe with a camera and just plans on stealing all of ours. What an ass









After stopping in the last village to get a bite to eat and take a nap on the beach we got back to our place at about 4. We actually had quite a hike to get back up to our room because it was at the top of our village, but we had discovered that around the corner it had an awesome little balcony looking out over the ocean and great view of a sunset so it was worth it.




Overall, this place is right up there with Interlaken, Switzerland as far as the landscape goes. Every time you turn around you could literally just sit and stare at the view. If you’re ever in Italy I suggest this be high on your priority list. We are headed to Rome right now, which I am pumped about, but I can say that if these are the only two places in Italy I see I would be satisfied.