Despite going to bed a little later than intended, it was very nice to sleep in a hotel room rather than my typical hostel. Waking up feeling refreshed, my whole family (Karen, Kim, Uncle Vinny, and Aunt Michele) headed to the free breakfast at the hotel owner’s restaurant. Safe to say this was much classier than the free hostel breakfasts I was used to.
Kim and Karen at breakfast
After breakfast, Karen, Kim, Uncle Vinny and I planned to do two hikes. My Aunt Michele opted out in favor of reading and finishing her book. For those unaware, Le Cinque Terre means “the five earths” and is composed of five tiny towns on the Italian coast: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The plan was to see all of them today. We were planning to hike from Monterosso to Vernazza, then Vernazza to Corniglia. Each hike was supposed to be about 90 minutes.
Wearing our athletic clothes, we headed off for the path. This was a big group of older people in front of, who all were sporting big backpacks, floppy hats, and hiking poles. The path was narrow and steep at first, so we had to lag behind them for a while. When they stopped for their first water break, we took the opportunity to pass them.
Here’s the trail featuring my Uncle Vinny.
A picture of me on the trail
All of us sporting our Villanova gear with Vernazza in the background.
We got to Vernazza after about ninety minutes of hiking and spent some time walking around. All the towns in Cinque Terre are actually pretty small and you can see pretty much everything in fifteen minutes. This is why it’s beneficial that there are five of them. Most of the towns have cute tourist shops, a few restaurants, and a couple bars.
Here’s a picture from the beach in Vernazza
After a short break in Vernazza, we headed onto the next trail to Corniglia. The trail was less crowded than the last one and offered some great views. The trails pretty much winded along the side of the mountain on the coast, very steep and narrow at some parts.
A nice picture of Vernazza from the trail
Me and Some Chickens
Another ninety minutes later and a nice hike done, we arrived in Corniglia. It is only one of the five towns that isn’t right on the water.
A view of Corniglia from the trail
Similarly to before, we spent about half an hour walking around Corniglia. We started to get hungry, and decided to hop on the train back to Monterosso to meet up with my Aunt Michele and get lunch. It may have taken three hours to hike to Corniglia, but it was only. a five minute train ride. Technology is really a wonderful thing.
We met up with my Aunt and we headed to lunch at a restaurant known for its pizza, Pizzeria La Smorfia. We got a few different pizzas and a calzone to share with everyone. This was nice because I usually can only try one type of pizza when eating alone. The pizza and calzone were amazing, but honestly what else do you expect when you’re in Italy.
Our food (Half devoured)
We left no scraps of food and headed back to the hotel very satisfied. Everyone who hiked wanted to shower and change out of our dirty clothes. Not wanting to waste any part of the day, we aimed to catch the 4:00 PM ferry. The ferry obviously lets you get nice views of all five towns from the water.
We boarded the boat and began our voyage. Our plan was to head to the fifth town, Riomaggiore. After spending time there, we would take the train to Manarola to walk around there.
My Uncle Vinny using his pair of binoculars on the boat
Me using the binoculars
A bit later, we finally arrived in Riomaggiore and left the boat. Our first mission was to get Gelato. This was completed in approximately thirty seconds after we left the boat. I opted to get a mix of mango and strawberry. I remember the first time I went to Italy in middle school, I always got fragola (strawberry) flavored gelato. About eight years later, I am still going for the same flavor.
My gelato
We spent a lot of time in the shops and Riomaggiore and my cousins picked up a few things.
A picture of Riomaggiore.
Some model in a wedding gown was taking pictures in the street
Once we felt satisfied, we took the train to Manarola, our fifth and last town of the day. As usual, we browsed a lot of the tiny shops in town and explored the small area.
Here’s a picture of Manarola in town.
We walked closer to the beach and there was a nice vantage point to see the town. There were a ton of people with big tripods and fancy camera, so this must be the money shot.
The view
Me with my cousins
After taking in the view for a while, we headed to the train station to get back to Monterosso. To our disappointment, we just missed a train and now had to wait forty-five minutes. Not having any other options, we just waited at the station.
45 minutes later we boarded the train and made it to Monterosso. It was almost 9:00 and we were desperate to eat dinner. The first two places we tried were busy, but Karen asked a hotel manager for recommendations and we found a place.
For an appetizer, we had a cheese plate and mozzarella with sliced tomatoes. I’ve been in Italy so frequently the past few months that I’m starting to get sick of my usual favorites. That really just includes pasta carbonara, pesto gnocchi, and pasta Bolognese. With that in mind, I tried to get something different from what I usually order. I got spinach and cheese filled ravioli in a walnut based sauce.
My Pasta
This was seriously good and I enjoyed every bite of it. I thanked my Aunt and Uncle for the dinner and we headed back to the hotel. Despite being a bit late in the night, we wanted to crack open my wine bottle. There was just enough for everyone to have some. I might be biased, but I thought this was some of the best wine I’ve ever had. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well.
Shortly after we all went to bed.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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