Cinque Terre

The first destination on my tour of Italy was the Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre literally means “Five Lands” and it is a national park in Italy. There are five small villages along an isolated section of the coast in the region of Liguria, also known as the Italian riviera.

The towns are connected by hiking trails and it’s popular for tourists to come and hike them. The towns have lots of restaurants so you can eat as you go. The region also is agricultural and you can see the lemon trees and vinyards as you hike. I spent two full days (3 nights) hiking the trails and enjoying the scenery.

The first day I hiked the most popular trail and it was very crowded.

I ended up making new friends! I met a couple from Florida and we hit it off. It was also their first time in Europe. It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with Americans being in Italy for so long so it was nice to spend time with them. We hiked two of the towns together and got lunch and gelato. Now they are following my blog. Hi Donna and David! I hope you don’t mind me putting your picture on here!

For dinner I stopped and picked up some fried fish at a little restaurant on the street. The guy who owns the places catches the fish in the morning and sells it in the evening.

I stayed at a hostel that actually wasn’t in Cinque Terre, it was in a village nearby. They had a small shuttle and would take us to the first village in the morning and bring us back in the night. They also had a restaurant in the hostel and the chef made me seafood with potatoes the third night. It was very good. I also used a delicious local lemon on my fish and in my water.

Oranges also grow in abundance in the area. Here is an orange tree along the street in La Spezia, Italy (the main train station near the Cinque Terre). They were all up and down the street.