In the afternoon, we continued south to Santa Margherita Ligure, located on the Portofino Peninsula on
the Italian Riviera. We stayed at the Hotel Continental and that evening were taken to a great Italian restaurant.
This featured a multi-course dinner, including excellent home made pasta dishes, seafood and other delicacies.
Santa Margherita Ligure is a small town which is wonderful to stroll through. It has a beautiful waterfront
with plenty of fishing boats and yachts.
The next day was a day of leisure, where we could go on our own to Portofino or Cinque Terre. We chose the latter.
Cinque Terra can be translated to "five lands". The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all encapsulated in a national park by the same name. The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We took the train to the south-eastern most village called Riomaggiore and hiked back (for the most part) to
Vernazza. The trail, for the most part is not difficult to walk and is incredibly beautiful.
We climbed to the top of Riomaggiore and had this view looking back over the rooftops toward the mountains.
Our next stop was Manarola, definitely one of the prettiest villages we have ever seen. We stopped to lunch
on some pizza sold from a small stand on the main street. Fishing boats were stored everywhere, including
on that same main street.
We continued on our hike to Corniglia, but quickly found that the trail was closed due to some storm damage.
We were forced to take the train in the end. Corniglia is the only one of the 5 villages not located on the water,
and we actually had to climb 370 steps from the train station to its main street.
Our last hike was to Vernazza. Here, there was a lot of climbing and descending, and was the most strenous part
of our hike. The weather also had changed quite a bit. In Riomaggiore, it was cold and lightly raining. We
were dressed in warm rain gear. By the time we got to this area, it was warm and sunny, and we stripped down to
our lightest clothes.
Santa Margherita Ligure is a small town which is wonderful to stroll through. It has a beautiful waterfront
with plenty of fishing boats and yachts.
The next day was a day of leisure, where we could go on our own to Portofino or Cinque Terre. We chose the latter.
Cinque Terra can be translated to "five lands". The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all encapsulated in a national park by the same name. The Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our next stop was Manarola, definitely one of the prettiest villages we have ever seen. We stopped to lunch
on some pizza sold from a small stand on the main street. Fishing boats were stored everywhere, including
on that same main street.
We continued on our hike to Corniglia, but quickly found that the trail was closed due to some storm damage.
We were forced to take the train in the end. Corniglia is the only one of the 5 villages not located on the water,
and we actually had to climb 370 steps from the train station to its main street.
