Cinque Terre! One of the most beautiful places I have ever traveled to. It has two of my favorite things in the world - the ocean & mountains. And boy were those mountains magnificent. It's a beautiful coastal region with five bright, colorful villages scattered along the ocean.
Driving to Cinque Terre led us through mountain tunnels and endless windy roads, criss-crossing up and down the mountains to get us where we were going.
This airbnb was my favorite one we stayed in. When you're booking a place to stay, you look at the map and everything looks relatively close. I thought we were staying in one of the five main villages, Riomaggiore. Turns out we were a few miles above it in an even smaller village called Volastra.
It was perfect!! Volastra is home to less than 200 residents. There's a chapel, bus stop, mini market, and bright colored apartments all connected by stone walkways.
Our nice host Stefano, met us and brought us to our new home for the next couple of days.
Mom and I kept looking at each other excitedly as he led us down the path to our apartment. It was like something out of a movie. So peaceful with the church bells ringing on the hour and half hour, catching glimpses of the ocean between apartments.
After settling in, we headed down to Riomaggiore to take in the views & see what the village had to offer.
We walked most of the streets and couldn't believe we were actually there! Everywhere we turned was a beautiful view. The clustered homes, flowers & greenery, ocean, church houses. We saw children playing soccer in the street, laundry hanging on balconies, & I couldn't even imagine growing up in that peaceful, magical place.
Driving back to Volastra, the sunset was incredible. I wish we would've pulled over to take a picture. The whole sky was purple and the clouds made a hazy sunset against the mountain vineyards and coast. It was the prettiest sunset I had ever seen.
We snapped these while walking back to our home.
Not a bad way to start this leg of the trip. <3
There are trails that lead from Volastra to two of the five cities of Cinque Terre. We took the trail right outside our door to Manarola. It was all downhill, leading to the city through farms of olive trees. We saw one farmer out in his yard/farm doing what you do to help olive trees grow!
I could've sat here all day!
We made it about halfway on our walk that turned into a hike and decided to turn around. All uphill & my legs were feeling it! Logan got the easy ride up.
We were staying on the south end of the villages and drove through the mountains to get to Monterosso, the furthest north village.
It was hot by this point in the day. We weren't supposed to have great weather in Cinque Terre but the stars aligned and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!
Got down to the water and collected some sea glass. :')
We figured once you've seen one town, you've seen them all. All beautiful, but we wanted to go back to Volastra. We decided to start walking the trail to Corniglia, the other village.
Logan - truly always smiling!! I love him.
Lime, lemon, and orange trees everywhere.
This spontaneous walk on the Corniglia trail was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. There was so much beauty and sunshine and ocean right in front of our faces! What I loved most about the whole experience was how unplanned it was. I had spent hours preparing and researching to find the perfect things to do and see.
Somehow, this unplanned walk turned out to be the highlight. I got to walk on a narrow dirt trail surrounded by vineyards (and a winery that we walked through) with my mom and Logan. It was the best day ever!!!!
We decided if the sunset was going to be anything like it was the night before, this was the spot to see it. We had about an hour and still needed to eat dinner. We headed to the mini market and got some homemade pasta, Coke, ragù, and fresh pesto.
Logan made lots of older lady Italian friends during the week who would say "bellissimo baby" over and over while touching his face and cheeks. During this particular trip to the store, a lady talked to Logan for two minutes straight. Mom and I looked at each other and the store clerk laughing because we had no idea what was being said, but she was loving Logan.
Glad the clerk talked us into getting this pesto. Cinque Terre is known for being the founder of pesto. It was INCREDIBLE. Doesn't look too appetizing in this picture haha but it was so good.
One of the best meals since that night in Florence. Mmmmmm.
7:00 PM rolled around and we headed back out the door down to our little vineyard path. Passing the church on the way while the bells rang.
Seeing glimpses of the ocean and sky looking like this before we reached our lookout spot.
My favorite picture!! Oh, I love them.
Then we just got to sit and watch everything change as the sun sunk lower and lower in the horizon.
The perfect evening and way to close our time there before heading out to our final destination. Love you, Cinque Terre!! I hope I get to bring Justin back here one day.
