Five lands

We started the day on the rooftop of our hotel in Florence, just to take in the beautiful view.  Then checked out and went back to the car.   We drove some through town, some cross country and some autostrada through Tuscany (very mountainous here - back to flat valley floors close and close-by snow covered peaks) (no wrong turns today - a new theme) to Cinque Terre - which translates to five lands. 

For Cinque I keep wanting to say sink, because of the Spanish Cinco de mayo.  But it's Chink - weh Terr - eh.

As different as Milan, Venice and Florence are from each other, Cinque Terre is a big change in pace and setting.  It is five unbelievably picturesque villages on the Italian Riviera - the Mediterranean coastline on the west side of Italy.  Our hotel is outside the southernmost, Riomaggiore.  We checked in and ate lunch at the hotel - with a fantastic view from about 1000 ft above the Mediterranean.  It was a clear, calm, blue day. 

After lunch we drove down to the top of Riomaggiore, parked and walked down in.  The street is narrow and steep, with buildings about five stories tall on both sides.  The bottom floor of each has shops, hotels, and restaurants or bars.  As you get closer to the water the theme changes to water activities - e.g. boat tour, boat rental. 

There are 4 ways to get around in Cinque Terre - trail, boat, train and car.  We found a boat leaving for the other villages in 10 minutes, so we took the trip.  Without getting the blog confused in the village names, we travelled among the villages by boat and train, and explored four of the five, missing the middle one because it is way up on a cliff - a big hike even from the train.  We enjoyed dinner, wine and gelato along the way.  In each place people were swimming, diving from the cliffs, shopping, eating, laughing and taking pictures. 

The pictures never capture the beauty of the cliffs, the steepness of the walks, the friendliness of the people.  It was a magical day in a beautiful land.