Cinque Terra.

After 2 nights in Venice, we were off via overnight train to Cinque Terra.. This was my first real train ride of the trip, and it was in an overnight carriage. I had heard horror stories about sharing the bunk room with shady train thieves, but we were quite lucky sharing the room with 2 guys from Chicago. The room was a tight squeeze and the bunk bed things were far from comfortable, but I think I managed to squeeze in an hour or 2 of sleep. We arrived early morning in our home base town of Vernazza. In my opinion, the best town in Cinque Terra. The first thing you will notice when you arrive is the multitude of cats, they are everywhere and they are sleeping.
We had possibly one of the best rooms in town. Sure we were on the top floor, and after climbing the at least 6 flights of super steep stairs the idea of a nice room seemed dismal, but the room was awesome with a terrace and the best view of Vernazza.



the best food: Achuga Frite (fried fresh anchovies)


Cinque Terra is a serene area and popular with the hikers, because there are hiking trails between each of the 5 towns. We did the first and easiest one.. which was pretty much a walkway along the mountain side they called 'lovers lane'



We only made it to 3 out of the 5 towns... it was super hot.


as lovely as Vernazza was during the day... it was even better at night, when all the day trippers left.