Cinque Terre, Italy

We spent a day in the Cinque Terre. The drive there was pretty crazy. You wind down a mountain that is only 1 lane and big cliffs to one side. Needless to say I was a little scared. Poor Dave was driving and was pretty sick of me by the time we got to Monterosso. The Cinque Terre is 5 cities built along the coast. You can only get to them by hiking, taking a train, or taking a boat. We started in the city of Monterosso al Mare and hiked to Vernazza. Come to find out that is the steepest and hardest hike of all the cities and that is the one we did first.... It was a 2 hours hike to get to Vernazza. While it was SOO beautiful to hike between vineyards, olive groves, and see amazing views of the ocean and cities; I thought I was going to die! I am not very big on exercise or anything healthy (which I need to start being more careful of since our trip) so this was very hard for me. There are such steep parts and my lungs would burn and my legs burned. The last half hour of the hike my legs were shaking so bad just walking. Just so you know, I was sore for 4 days after the hike. I was in so much pain! I looked like an old lady when we walked anywhere. So for all of you out there that exercise and I made fun of, the joke is on me! Johnny, Kim, and Dave were all fine...

At the beginning of the hike before I thought my life was over! The water was so clear and beautiful. That is the city of Monterosso in the background. (side note... I have my swim suit on under my cloths so that is why my shirt looks funny sometimes.)

This is one set of stair we had to climb on the hike. It doesn't look tough but there were many before and many after this. A vineyard is in the top right corner of this picture. Everything was narrow and not many railings so when passing people on the stairs or along the mountain was sometimes interesting. We were all thinking how crazy it is that they don't have many safety precautions on the trail. Maybe people in Italy aren't sue happy like they are here, wouldn't that be nice!
On the trail somewhere. Yes that is a cliff to the right. And yes, I am in flip flops....


You can kind of see Monterosso in the background.

Kim and I.

Dave scared me to death by letting Johnny talk him into climbing over the trail onto this rock. What is on all sides of the rock is cliffs and yes they all went down as far as you can see the ocean. He thinks I am am so lame to worry about these things...

Johnny and Dave enjoying themselves.


The end was in sight!!


We all look so happy!


This is us right as we climbed the last few stairs of the hike into the city. I have never been so happy in my life! (I think Dave can say the same thing)


So we enjoyed the city. We walked around the streets and loved it! Johnny, Kim, and Dave swam, I enjoyed my book. Dave and I decided to take the train to the next city Corniglia while Kim and Johnny hiked. When we got off the train we had to walk about a 1/2 mile and then came to this.... Stairs! So much for taking the train. This picture doesn't do it justice!!!!!

When we got to the top there was this sign. I had to take a picture of proof! Now, the sad thing is by this time in the day I had probably climbed more than 1500 stairs and by the end of the trip I will have climbed 5,000 + or so stairs. Before my trip one of my students did a research and powerpoint presentation on the Empire State building. When he gave his presentation he was talking about how tall it is and how many stairs were in it. He then looks at me and says, Mrs. Neumann could never walk that much or climb that many stairs!! How could he know these things. :) So I had to take a picture to prove to him I can climb stairs!!!
I messed things up for Dave and I and so we didn't get to see much of Corniglia but it wasn't the coolest of the cities that day so all is well.

This is one of the common areas in Vernazza ( I think).

I want a balcony like this!


Manarola to Riomaggiore is just a nice smooth 30 minute walk so I thought I could handle that. The sun was setting so it was so beautiful. The walk between these 2 cities is called the "walk of love". There are locks and other symbols of love hung on rocks, fences, really anything they can use. Well, Dave was feeling left out and so he had to hang something. Not sure what he hung was a symbol of love or really appropriate but oh well, that is Dave for you!

On the walk. It was beautiful!

Despite my lack of being in shape and healthy, this was one of the funnest days and one of our favorite areas!