(154) Days of England: Hello beautiful little Italian village. Hello.

Alrightey, I really liked Cinque Terre. It was a breath of fresh air (literally) from the urban centers of Rome and Florence. Cinque Terre is a relatively touristy place in and of itself (although on a much smaller scale in comparison to say Rome), but we came sort of during the off season and it was perfect. I didn't want to leave.

For those who aren't familiar with this gem, Cinque Terre is the region, and it is comprised of 5 picturesque towns: Riomaggiore (where we stayed), Manarola, Corniglia, Veranazza and Monterosso. You don't come to Cinque Terre for the nightlife, that's for sure. You come to hike along the coast and clear your mind and to remind yourself of all that is good in the world.

The hike from Riomaggiore to Monterosso is about 9 km and we spent the better part of the day embracing our nature-y side. (Clearly we failed though at documenting the successful completion of each leg of our journey (see pictures below); somehow we forgot to capture our arrival to Town 2! But take my word for it, we made it!) If we had been boring - girls - on - a - mission and didn't pull over for pictures after every bend of the path, or stop for a snack break at nearly every town, we could have completed the hike in a more reasonable time frame. But it was fun marveling at the sea side and taking our time browsing in the cute shops and let us not forget consuming the most heavenly dairy concoction known to man: geeeeelatooo!

As you can tell by my attire (2 fleece jackets and a pair of jeans) the weather was a bit chilly. It rained when we first set out on the trail. But after about a half hour it had cleared up just fine. I was disappointed though that I wasn't able to actually go swimming. I guess it was rather naive of me to assume that in April the water would be warm enough to splash around in. But considering that I gave up leg shaving for Lent I guess in all honesty I wasn't even ready to bear my swim suit apparel. Laaaaame.