Cinque Terre: as beautiful as it’s hyped up to be.

Cinque Terre truly is a magical place. The amount of people that recommended it to me was immense, which scared me a bit. I was worried that it’d be a European tourist-flooded spot like Venice or London. In a sense, it was. But not how we saw it.

The 5 towns are all connected by trains, making it a great vacation spot for those who aren’t able to hike up and down steep mountain trails but still want to experience the beauty of this place. However, it’s also easy to take advantage of this by choosing not to hike despite being capable, and settling for only visiting the towns instead. When doing this, you miss out on the incredible landscape in between.

Our 2 days here were nature-crazy: just how we like them. Our first hike was with 2 hostel friends from Riomaggiore to Manarola and then on to Corniglia. Our path consisted of the 2 hardest hikes between the towns, but our sweat was not left unrewarded.

We saw the 3 towns from above and below, walked through rainforest-like terrain, and ended the day with a swim in the ocean. It was perfection.

The following day, we tried to hike the portion that we had not yet hiked: from Monterosso to Vernazza. The clear oceanside path was accompanied by a fee of 7 euros, and since we couldn’t find it in ourselves to pay to walk with our own two legs, we tried to find the more mountainous path. Of course, we got completely lost and somehow ended up on top of a mountain in a private vineyard.

There wasn’t another soul in sight. We sat there for quite awhile, while the thought of tourists disappeared from our minds. Getting lost never felt so good, and life never looked quite so beautiful.

The rest of our days consisted of pizza, gelato, meeting some incredible people at our even more incredible hostel, and swimming on the rocks. The most beautiful rocks in the world, in my opinion.

It was a pleasure getting lost in Italy and eating our way through these 5 towns, as well as spontaneously exploring local Venice earlier today en route to Slovenia. Italy will always hold a special place in my heart. One day, I hope to learn Italian so I can return to Cinque Terre and see things like this every day. The key to happiness, perhaps. Ciao, Italia!

Sidenote: I wish I could upload more of my pictures, but my lack of a laptop prohibits me from doing so. I swear this place is beautiful regardless of how it’s photographed and please do put it on your to-do list 🙂

Current location: Ljubljana/Bled, Slovenia
Next stop: Zagreb, Croatia