We started out with anticipations of a great day in the five villages known as Cinque Terre and it turned out to be more like "GREAT DAY! Can you believe this crowd!" Seems like going there on a holiday weekend is NOT a good idea. The trains were absolutely jammed and that made for some international close encounters since there were tourists from all over the world along with the vacationing Italians! We barely got to see two of the five villages, so I guess this group's going to have to come back for more another year. The Cinque Terre has become quite popular over the past decade - actually we blame Rick Steves as it seems every other person is carrying around his iconic blue and yellow guidebook! This little pocket of Italy lies on the edge of the Ligurian Sea northwest of Florence. The village houses literally cling to the sides of the cliffs making for beautiful scenery along with the fishing boats and terraced grape vineyards. We gave up the pursuit of a visit to Manarola in favor of getting back to the central station and catching an earlier train back home. We were all glad to reach our beds and collapse tonight! By the way, Tom was on the absentee list today as he's nursing a cold (humm...maybe he had the best idea.) What an experience, but after all "It's Italy"!
Below is the iconic shot of Cinque Terre at Manarola
on a day last year but we didn't get to see it today.
