Cinque Terre

On Monday, I headed off from Florence, intending to take a long train ride to Nice, France. I met some friends on the train who were planning a trip to Cinque Terre, Italy, and they asked me to join. Since I had no specific plans to do anything or meet anyone in Nice, I decided to go along! I am so glad I did. Cinque Terre was seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life - if not the most! I have relatively few pictures from my two days there because I was so busy soaking it all in!

The other cities I traveled to are all pretty well known. Cinque Terre isn't, though, so let me convince you to go there. If I didn't mention it already, IT IS BEAUTIFUL. There are five "lands" (cinque terre!) along the coast, and you can hike between them. I didn't get to do the hike, but I would love to go back to do it! I stayed in the southernmost town, La Spezia, and the northernmost town, Monterosso. In La Spezia, we went to a gorgeous church on a cliff on the ocean at sunset... just wow. 

We even got to climb down on the cliffs a bit.

I had never seen anything like it! The weather was perfect, as well. I was in awe the whole time! We only wished the sun wouldn't go down so we could keep looking at all the beautiful scenery. Instead, we went to eat some fresh seafood once it got late. Also, everyone we met in La Spezia was so generous - it was a nice change from the street hagglers in Florence! 

The next day we took the train to Monterosso, which is just a 25 minute train ride north along the coast. Monterosso is a beach town with a small shopping street and lots of relaxed tourists. We lay on the beach, swam out to the rocks, ate gelato, and explored the town by foot. At night there was live music and people playing bocce at their sports club. Overall, very adorable!

Here is the live music from across the water.

Here are a few more pictures of the town and beach on my way to a 6:00 am train.

After a wonderful, spontaneous trip through Italy, I was finally on my way to France!