"The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. "The Five Lands" comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The Cinque Terre is noted for its beauty. Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible "modern" development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach it from the outside."
We missed the boat that takes you to the villages, so we decided to drive into the area, park and walk into Monterosso.
On the way we stopped...
and this is what we saw over our shoulders.
It was harder to find a parking space than we thought it would be (It ended up being an Italian holiday). So Kent dropped us off at the opening of the village (nice guy)and we waited while he parked.
Then we started walking and it was so, so pretty.
I loved seeing the flowers and lemon trees.
The lemons smell soooo good! Check out Kim's lemon!
Italians seem to wear a lot of beautiful scarves and light "flow-ey" clothes that I find really simple and pretty. So, I really enjoyed looking through their little shops. They had a lot of unique jewelry, bags, and clothes. Most of the prices were pretty high. Though, I did end up finding a "flow-ey," gauze-like, purple shirt and a cute beaded ring, which was kind of fun (and I felt a little lucky)! :)
Cinque Terre is also known for their seafood (especially anchovies on Monterosso), grapes, olives, and pesto. We ate in a beautiful spot and we ate some really yummy food. I had pasta with pesto. It was really, really so good! I wish I could have brought some home! I've never tasted pesto quite like this - so good, really!
While we ate, we watched what seemed to be some local boys jumping the cliffs. Some of them were brave right off the bat, others worked up to it! :)
What a beautiful day!
