Trip of A Lifetime Part 5

Day: 6  Cinque Terre

Day 6 our boat ported in Livorno.  We had a lot of great options as far as excursions went in this port city.  Our options were Florence and the Michelangelo's David, Pisa, a Tuscan wine tour, or The Cinque Terre.  When I saw that Cinque Terre was an option I was beyond excited!  I have seen so many fabulous pictures from this amazing place and have always wanted to experience it for myself.  It was a big decision to pick this trip because that meant we would miss out on the Leaning Tower of Pisa & the Michelangelo's David; 2 big spots in Italy.  However we are not one bit regretful of our decision!  It met every expectation I had and more!

Cinque Terre means "5 Villages" and that is just what they are.  5 villages built into the cliffs.  We were able to vist 4 of the 5 villages.  This was another excursion we did through Norwegian Cruise Line.  If we had been more confident and researched it we would have loved to do it on our own but the excursion ended up being a good option.  We took a tour bus from Livorno to one of the villages called Manarola.  

On the bus

 Grapes!

The hills are all terraced and covered with vineyards

 Manarola from the top

From here we walked down into the town until we came to the Via Dell'amore or Pathway of Love.  This pathway connects 2 of the villages and it is super cool.  It goes up and under the cliffs and has graffiti love  messages, bike locks that people have put to "lock in there love", and a lovers bench.  

 

The path connects village of Manarola to the village of Riomaggiore.  Once we reached Riomaggiore we had a few minutes to check out the village and grab a snack.   

Riomaggiore

This village had so many cool old little boats tied up

From this village we hopped on a boat to go to Vernazza.  Here we were again given time to explore and take it all in. Tyler and I were dying to swim in the Mediterranean Sea so we used our time to swim!  It was so much fun, the water was so warm and so clear!  We could see everything in the water around us.

 Loading into the boat.  There was no dock, the ramp was just thrown out onto the rocks for everyone to load in

  

So excited to be swimming!

 

Our last adventure was to the village called Monterosso.  We hopped back on the boat to get there.  

Here Tyler and I had an amazing  Italian lunch and wine, shopped and swam again.  

Hotel built on the cliff

Monterosso

Yummy bruschetta & wine 

 Rocks we climbed to to swim

The beach

When our excursion was over we took a quick 5 min train ride to Levanto (I think thats what it was) where our bus driver was waiting to take up back to Livorno. 

Train tracks built into the cliffs 

We would give anything to go back to Cinque Terre and stay for a week or so.  We loved the small, quaint and slow pace of the villages, not to mention everywhere you look is beautiful.  

If you don't have this destination on your "To do" or "To see" list I highly  recommend adding it!