Cinque Terre II: Corniglia, Vernazza, e Monterrosso

Ciao ognuno! Sono muto, perché... I seem to have completely forgotten to talk about the rest of our Cinque Terre trip! For some reason I thought I'd mentioned everything else in that other post, mi dispiace!! Andiamo!

After our first night in Cinque Terre, we visited the other three villages: Monterrosso al Mare, Vernazza, and Corniglia. On our train ride over, there had been a mother and a little girl sitting opposite me. They were headed for Cinque Terre as well and the girl was so excited she could hardly contain it! Every few moments she would throw her hands in the air and say, "La mare!!" which, plain and simple is, "The sea!!" It's a word we learned in class but I hadn't paid much attention to it. After seeing this little girl so excited for it (as well as "le barche!": "the boats!") I don't think I'll be forgetting the word!

We took the boat from Riomaggiore to Monterrosso first. The flattest of the villages, it is most well known for having been built practically on the beach. (Although, I believe mom had read somewhere that they import the sand every year for the tourists!) The train ran right through the town center making it a bit noisy, though as you got deeper into the buildings you would find the same quaint colors and style of architecture as the other villages. I remember it as the most modern of all five; although they all cater to tourists, this one kept up the vibe of being newer.

Dad smoochin' mom. Uploading just for fun ;)

When you take the boat from one place to the next, you can see all of the vineyards and olive plantations that were made all along the hills between the towns. We got fairly close to some of them when we hiked from Vernazza to Corniglia.

There was something about Vernazza that I really loved! We didn't stay long so my adoration for it is a bit out of place. I think it felt the most homey out of them all. It wasn't overrun with tourism nor was it a lifeless town, the buildings looked the most used, well preserved though not brand new. There was still laundry hung up, the cafes were busy, it was friendly and warm! It simply had a livable quality to it. There was also a cafe that was coated in yellow from the umbrellas to the chairs which of course I loved :)

This was also the city where I pointed to a house far up on a hill (a white one next to an orange one) and said, that's where I want my animation studio to be!

Corniglia was our las stop that day. It was built way up on a cliff, so it is inaccessible by boat. The only two ways to get there are by train to to hike. We hiked from Vernazza to there, probably an hour and a half or two hour trek. It was gorgeous to see from far away! I don't have many pictures of Corniglia, unfortunately. It was a bit secluded and the night we were there it was very quiet.

I do need to tell you about the pesto in Cinque Terre. Best pesto in the world!!! Virginia, my Florence-Minnesota contact who lives in Fiesole had told me when I go to Cinque Terre I had to try the pesto pasta dishes. Almost every pasta dish in Cinque Terre came with pesto! We tried loads of different kinds of pasta with it. Our store-bought pasta we have in the fridge of our apartment simply doesn't measure up anymore...