My favorite place in the world...for now.

I know...right?!  Pretty picturesque, I must say.  This is a town in the Cinque Terre, Italy called Riomaggiore.  And no, I did not steal this picture from the internet.  This was taken with my Sony camera.  That is how beautiful this place is.  Actually, in truth, the camera does not do a place like this justice, but I think this picture does a pretty swell job, don't you think?

The Cinque Terre translates to five lands, or five towns and is a collection of, you guessed it, five towns off the northwestern coast of Italy in a region called Liguria.  It is a newly discovered piece of Italian beauty and is filled with mostly American tourists and German hikers (who bring copious amounts of hiking gear including hiking sticks).  We purchased this book, Rick Steves' Italy:  2010, and I must say it was a wealth of handy information. Usually we stick to the classics, Frommer's and Fodor's, but the Cinque Terre doesn't have much written about it, and we needed some help.  So, we opted for "ole' Ricky boy" as he was affectionately referred to throughout the trip through Italy.

The main thing to do in the Cinque Terre is to hike the National Park that stretches across all five towns.   It takes between four and six hours to complete the entire hike that twists and turns up and down the mountains and throughout the towns.  I am not a hiker, so we opted to split up the hike into two trips.  The first hike was on day one and was between Monterosso and Vernazza and is considered the hardest.  It was most definitely difficult, but not impossible.  I am scared of heights and had a few scary visions of tumbling down the mountain into the rocky sea, but alas, I made it.  It was incredibly beautiful though and gave us amazing views of both towns and the beautiful sea.

After a hot and sweaty morning hiking we lounged on the beach in Monterosso in the afternoon.  There are two beaches in Monterosso, and we chose the one closest to our hotel.  We opted to pay the twenty euros for two chairs and an umbrella, which I thought was well worth it.  It was also very close to a bar, which made Travis very happy.

We did not stay in Riomaggiore, but rather in the biggest town called Monterosso.  Monterosso is more or less the "resort" town of the Cinque Terre as it has two beaches and is must closer to the water than Manarola or even Riomaggiore.  In Monterosso we stayed at Albergo Marina, a sweet little hotel owned by a husband and wife team.  It has a marina theme, hence the name, with nets and shells and little ocean touches all over.  The rooms were surprisingly big for European standards and had a nice bathroom and an excellent breakfast in the lemon garden on top of the hotel.  

Albergo Marina is smack dab in the middle of Old Town Monterosso, so it is within walking distance to everything, most importantly gelato shops and our favorite restaurant of the whole trip, Ciak.  Ohhhhh, Ciak.  It was so good.  Below is a fantastic picture of the chef.  We sampled the huge appetizer not really knowing what we were getting and in turn received over fifteen tiny plates of local goodies.  We discovered anchovies soaked in olive oil, stuffed mussels, deep fried anchovies, and other unidentified local specialties.  I felt very Bourdain-ish, sampling all that local fare.

We stayed in Monterosso for four nights and it was was the perfect amount of time.  It gave us time to go hiking and enjoy the beach and we were able to experience all the different restaurants in town.  Of course, Travis was contemplating buying a B&B and setting up shop by the end of the trip.  He reluctantly got on the plane back to Oklahoma and was in mourning for the next few weeks over his missed opportunity.  I highly suggest visiting this beautiful place in the world, because for now, it is my favorite.