after some discussion, we decided that Cinque Terre was definitely our favorite place we've been in Europe and for each of us, in the top 5 places we've ever been. the hiking is amazing, there is so much to explore that we really only saw a bit of it in 2 days, and the views are unreal.
if you haven't heard of Cinque Terre (we hadn't before we met some people from italy), it is italian for "five earths". it's a series of 5 villages on the Mediterranean, with almost no cars (it's a national park), no chain restaurants of any kind.. just local stores, tons of hiking trails, and each of the towns is reachable by train, electric bus, or steep hiking trails that go up along the mountainside next to the sea and back down into town.
the morning of our second day, we stumbled on a little wooden walkway attached to the cliff. it
kind of looked closed, but we weren't sure, so we kept going. plus it was nice to be on a trail with no one else on it. as it went on, it seemed more and more questionable, with railings that were really loose, totally washed out areas, and occasionally a spot where a huge boulder had rolled down and taken out a whole section of the walkway.. at which point we had to lean against the cliff and shimmy across. of course, whenever we got to a part like that, we thought we had come too far to go back.
as usual on this trip, we got to a fence telling us there is no access, but after we already walked through the dangerous part. so we had to jump this spiky fence and after we got over, everyone was asking us how to get into the area we were just in. "no, no, you can't go in there."
all along these walks, there are huge stalks from dead century plants.
all in all, this place was totally amazing. whether you like to hike, bike, sunbathe nude, eat, or get drunk on fizzy wines (both red and white), i'd recommend it.
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