Toto, I don't think we're in Florence anymore..
Trip Start
May 14, 2009
1
18
25
Trip End
Jun 12, 2009
Riomaggiore,
Italian Riviera,
Italy
Monday, June 1, 2009
June 1st-
Far from the hilltop towns of Tuscany is the dramatic scenery found in Cinque Terre. A sequence of five towns positioned along the Medeterrrenean Sea, connected by train or for the more adventurous a hiking trail that links the towns together in about five hours. The towns are filled rainbow colored houses perched on rocky cliffs that seemingly plummet straight down to the Sea below. These towns are old fishing towns, not usually on someones Italian literary. The vehicle free streets are filled with adventure savvy backpackers and tourists looking to find some release from the mean streets of Rome and Venice. Riomaggiore, is the town we chose to stay in for our time in Cinque Terre it has a population of 1700 and is a good place to launch your hike off from, making it a good place to trek the 7 kilometer trail
Riomaggiore
. The town has one main road that runs through it with a supermarket and some fruit vendors shacking up next to numerous restaraunts and shops selling tourist trinkets. Once we arrived, a light rain started falling so we took advantage of that a caught a nap in our hostel. Feeling rested we decided to explore Riomaggiore a bit more, we walked down to the harbor which actually didn't have any boats in it just some kayaks and rowboats to be rented by tourists. The view, however was stunning looking up at a rainbow of houses perched one on top of the other. The water was crystal clear, and a windy stone path led us to Riomaggiore's beach. Unfortunately the beach was composed of large rocks. There were some local children diving off the cliffs into the water as there parents said on the rocks above. Cinque Terre was more of a pace to sit back and observe, there are no museums to rush to, it is a place to just relax and take it in. We hiked through the down up the winding streets, where we found more children playing soccer next to the towns church and reach the remains of a 16th century castle that overlooked the harbor. We walked past lemon groves and grape vines to reach a lookout view of the town to the east and the sea below. The hostel we stayed in was practically a modified apartment with a Kitchen and bathroom, it allowed us to shop at the grocery store and make pasta, with some bread and cheese. It was a nice meal, much cheaper than anything we could have bought at a restaurant. We wanted to be rested for the next days hike so a little after 9:00 we called it a night. 
