Cinque Terre

Allison and I woke up at 6:15 and got a train to Monterosso one of the Villages in Cinque Terre. It was only a 3 and a half hour train ride... I forgot my headphones, and we sat next to a German family, that had a child, a VERY loud child. We walked out of the train station and walked like 20 feet and there was our hotel. Hotel Baia, so much nicer than what we have stayed in! We had an ocean front room with a balcony! We immediately put our bathing suits on and head for the beach, shocking. The beach was like another 20 feet away...rough life. After 5 hours of laying out, with no sunscreen, we were lobsters. The hotel was owned by a really nice Italian family, and had their own restaurant. We ate there that night because everyone we had talked to said it was THE BEST. Of course we got the gnocchi (I'm obsessed) and it was literally melt in your mouth good. It was a very relaxing night, just what we needed for our last week in Italy! After dinner we decided to walk around the village and take pictures, we came across a couple churches, a castle, a grave site, and several vineyards. While walking around we came across a catholic church, the pastor was speaking and there were speakers outside of the church so everyone on the street could hear his sermon. I thought that was pretty cool. Sunday we woke up, had an amazing breakfast at the hotel and hiked to Vernazza. The hike is about an hour and a half one way, not too bad. The whole first half was STAIRS and STAIRS and more STAIRS. We definitely got a work out. Vernazza is so small and quant. I loved it. We walked around the town and bought pizza and gelato :) we had to taste test it of course. We attempted to climb to this castle but got half way up and discovered that it was 7 euro to walk like 10 more feet. No thanks! It was only 1.60 euro to get back to Monterosso, and only 2 minutes to get there. We laid out for the rest of the day and got lunch. We boarded a train that we were told to get on. Guess we were wrong, because it was high speed! Way more expensive. We figured it out because there were assigned seats, and a cart boy selling things. GOOD. After 4 stops we got kicked out of our seats and crossed our fingers that the conductor wouldn't catch us. Good news, HE DIDN'T! We spent 12.40 euro to get home an hour and a half faster. Boom.

Monterosso

 Vernazza

The church we came across