Italy's Picturesque Cinque Terre

It was after very little deliberating that my husband and I decided up on Italy’s Ligurian coast (aka the “Italian Riviera”) for our Summer 2012 destination. I had heard from friends of its loveliness during my summers studying abroad in Le Marche, Italy a decade ago and news of the recent tragic floods and need for tourist funds to rebuild made us want to spend our vacation dollars there. We flew at the end of June from London to Genoa via a quick EasyJet flight, took a bus to the train station and then got on a very hot and un-airconditioned train down the Ligurian coast to the Cinque Terre. Disembarking in the largest of the five towns, Monterosso Al Mare, we hitched a ride on one of the complimentary B&B cabs up the mountainside to our home for the next week or so, Il Parco B&B.

I cannot say enough good things about our stay at Il Parco. While it does require a bit of a walk up and down the mountainside from the main part of town, we appreciated the daily 20 minutes of extra cardio after eating our weight in Ligurian Specialties day after day! I think I ate fresh pesto with just about every meal. Each day we would enjoy an outdoor breakfast looking out over the mountainside at the Mediterranean Sea below and plan out the activities (or lack of,) that we would explore that day. We did many hikes between the towns, multiple swims, and enjoyed excursions to each of the five towns and the neighboring villages.

Highlights of our trip include midnight swims off of Monterosso’s sandy beaches, hedonistic seafood feasts at Ristorante Miky, vigorous hikes between Monterosso and Vernazza, and discovering a stony beach filled with locals just beyond Manarola.