Mom & Dad Poull Visit *Part 3* Cinque Terre

Our last trip during my parents vacation was to Italy - to Cinque Terre. This is a group of five small fishing villages on the coast of the Italian Riviera. We rented an apartment in Levanto (the "sixth terre" as Phil calls it) and used that as a jumping off point for going on hikes between the villages. There is a train that runs between them so it makes hiking between very easy. The map below gives you an idea of where the cities are located and the relative distances between them.


The days were glorious and we enjoyed some hiking and took tons of photos. The cities all have unique aspects but all have the same gelato, olive oil, olive wood products, wines, Limoncino (sweet lemon liquor), Sciacchetrà (sweet raisin wine), pottery, and local spices for tourists to buy. Thankfully these are all favorites of mine so it was fun to window shop while we were taking breaks from hiking.

The first day we started in Riomaggiore and took the leisurely walk to Manarola and then the more strenuous hike to Corniglia. We took a less traveled path and ended up a little lost but eventually found our way to the path we were looking for. We drank plenty of wine and had dinner in Corniglia before taking the train back to Levanto for the night.

The next day we started in Vernazza and hiked to Monterrosso. The trails between Corniglia and Vernazza were closed because of a fire that had moved through the area. The hike was challenging and really fun. The views were beautiful and we had great weather again. We talked about hiking all the way back to Levanto but we were all sort of tired and voted to just relax and head back to Levanto by train at the end of the day. In the end, we got a ton of great pictures and had a lot of fun drinking copious amounts of wine and relaxing by the sea.

Levanto
The Apartment








Riomaggiore







On the walk to Manarola




Manarola






On the hike to Corniglia.


Olives!

Where we hiked from:

Where we are hiking to:

Resting after climbing the longest flight of "stairs" ever.

Still hiking...


You can see where the fire scarred the hillside in this picture and closed down the hiking paths between the towns.


Corniglia

We made it!






This was the tiny outside patio area at a wine bar that we stayed until the sun had set. It was, by far, my favorite part of Corniglia.


Sunset in Corniglia


Day 2: Vernazza



Panoramic!




Eating Pizza for brunch - yum!



Hiking to Monterrosso



This is what the "path" looked like at some points. Others were even more narrow with a steep drop off on the side. This was made even more fun by the people passing going the other direction!

Almost there. We stopped to eat our lunch at this point. Not a bad view to enjoy while eating!

Gorgeous.


Monterrosso al Mare

Phil and I checking out the scenery


This building was really neat. If you look on the left side you can see a man carved out of stone holding the overhang.

Cheers to our last night in Cinque Terre on the balcony of the apartment!


And thus, my parents' visit came to an end. We took the long train ride back to Zurich, enjoyed a dinner at Zeughauskeller on their last night, and said goodbye the next day. I was so sad to see them go because I won't see them again until May, but I was happy too because they seemed to whole heartedly enjoy their first trip to Europe.

We took so many photos on this trip that it was very difficult to just pick the ones for the blog post. Thanks to my Dad for letting me use many of his photos for the blog!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that Mom and Dad flew over to Zurich on their 32nd wedding anniversary. My brother and I are very lucky that our parents are not only still together but genuinely love each other and enjoy spending time together. I can only aspire to have a relationship like that 32 years down the line with Phil.