I'm ready to go back

Here's my advice to you: Go to Cinque Terre. It was our next stop after Rome and one of my favourite parts of the trip. Cinque Terre is a series of five towns along the coast, connected by trails and rail service. We stayed in Vernazza, far and away the best of the five.

Vernazza has a little harbour (see below) with a strip of beach and tanning rocks, two gelaterias, one excellent sicilian restaurant and one tower you can climb for a postcard-worthy view along the coast.

We went to the Sicilian restaurant 'Il Pirate' a couple of times, mainly for the free entertainment provided by the brother owners Masimo and Luca who had a fine comedic patter memorized.
Masimo: We have three brothers. Him (Luca) not too smart. Fell on his head. I pushed him.
Luca: You, beautiful, are you married? I find you nice Italian boyfriends. What do you like? Handsome, rich? I find him for you.

There was also the man who served coffee at breakfast at our pensione. We never found out his name (we called him Cappucino Guy) but he looked like a pirate/gypsy/rock star and served us cappucinos beautifully decorated with flower petals. They were works of art. And utterly incongrous with his appearance.


The first day we were in Vernazza we walked the section of trail to the last town, Monterosso. We had heard it was the most difficult section and our later experiences bore that out. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a tough piece of hiking, with a lot of up and down hills and stairs but with enough mind-blowing views to make it all worthwhile. Plus there's always a feeling of satisfaction from working hard, getting hot and sweaty but making it to the finish line, where beaches and margaritas await. That at least, was what awaited us.

Lise as Monterosso hove into view:

The second day we went kayaking in the morning and then did nothing else for the rest of the day except soak up sun and nap. The third day we walked the other direction along the Cinque Terre trail all the way from Vernazza to Riomaggiore (through Corniglia and Manarola). The first section was quite nice, similar to the Vernazza-Monterosso section but slightly less rugged but as it progressed, the trail got less and less rugged and also less and less beautiful. It certainly was the case for us that the more work you had to do to walk the trail, the more rewarding it was. How can you argue with views like these?