I am again way behind in my travel writing and have neglected to write about my fabulous trip to the Italian Riviera. Joel’s parents came for a visit and we met them in Milan for a long weekend on the coast. Joel and I arrived to Milan on Thursday night and Friday morning we took a train to Santa Margherita. Friday we spent the day exploring Santa Margherita and had a delicious lunch in a restaurant with a view of the water, it was wonderful. On Saturday we began our exploration of the Cinque Terre with a train ride to Monterosso. From there we began the long, hot, and tough hike to Vernazza. While it was a difficult walk at times, it was really fun and the view was incredible. The hike took you pretty high up on the coastal cliffs and through beautiful vineyards. About halfway through our hike there was a beautiful lookout spot and an old man selling huge lemons. I never thought a lemon would be so refreshing, but it was delicious! After about 3 hours we finished the first hike and arrived tired and hungry in Vernazza.
It was an incredible little town and we had a wonderful lunch on the water. After a long lunch we walked through the town a bit and then began our next hike. Joel and I did this one alone, and it was tough at times (lots of uphill climbs), but not as bad as the first one. After a little over an hour and more beautiful views we arrived in Corniglia. Joel and I explored and had some much needed gelato before meeting up with his parents and enjoying some drinks at a cute little café. It was a nice town but for me, not as beautiful as Vernazza. After drinks we headed down to the train station and made our way back to Santa Margherita where we had dinner and called it a night. I was exhausted from all the walking!
On Sunday we headed back to the Cinque Terre to see the last two villages. After we arrived in Monterosso we took a boat cruise to the last village, Rio Maggiore. The boat ride was wonderful and it was so cool to see the villages from a different side. Rio Maggiore was a wonderful village. It was absolutely beautiful and so much fun to explore. After our exploring we began the next walk to Manarola. This was a much shorter and much easier walk, but also very fun. This walk took us on the Via dell’Amore, Pathway of Lovers. It had a really cool graffiti tunnel that was on the edge of the cliff above the water and we stopped at a wonderful little café for drinks on the edge of the cliff.
Manarola was a wonderful village and we had so much fun there. The walk from Manarola back to Corniglia was definitely my favorite walk. We took a bit of a different walk that Rick Steves recommended and it was wonderful. It took us up through people’s terraced gardens and there were a ton of lemon trees. It gave us a beautiful view of the village and of the coast. It was an easy walk and by far the most beautiful. When we arrived in Corniglia we took a train back to Santa Margherita and searched for a place to eat for a while before finding somewhere. We had a wonderful dinner and then headed for bed.
On Monday I was so sore from all of our walking, it was a good reminder of just how out of shape I am! We took another long walk, this time from Santa Margherita to Portofino. It was a long, but beautiful walk along the coast. We stopped in an adorable café on the beach for coffees and had a wonderful little rest. We continued our walk to Portofino and I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The town wasn’t very big, but was a very picturesque Riviera town. And the harbor was filled with huge beautiful yachts. I couldn’t believe the boats we saw. We actually had a small celebrity sighting here as well. I recognized one of the boats from a TV show I saw once and knew it belonged to designer Roberto Cavalli and he was having a lunch with a bunch of people, one of whom was an editor for Italian Vogue, Franca Sozzani. My sister has already told me that this is a ridiculous celebrity sighting, but it was quite exciting for me. After a delicious lunch and some time spent walking through the town and admiring the yachts we began our walk back to Santa Margherita. Here we split up and Joel’s mom and I did some window shopping through the town which was a lot of fun. We saw some beautiful things, shoes especially, but unfortunately came home empty handed.
I had a fabulous time in Italy and couldn’t have asked for a better holiday. The weather was beautiful and we ate a ton of delicious food and drank some great wine. I cannot thank Joel’s parents enough for such a wonderful time.
On Tuesday morning we all began our long travel day back to the Czech Republic. We took a cab to the train station, a train to Milan, a bus to the airport, a plane to Prague, a taxi to the train station, a train to Pardubice, and a cab to our house. It was a long, long day of traveling, but we all survived ready to begin our Czech adventures. Stay tuned!
I'm having techinical difficulities so there will be more pictures up soon!!