Vernazza and The Cinque Terre

We couldn't have planned the last part of our trip any better. We spent our last two nights in The Cinque Terre, which translates to the five lands or villages. These small villages are built on top of the rocky cliffs on the Mediterranean and are within walking distance of each other. We had never even heard of The Cinque Terre before reading about it in our guidebook, but the author raves about it, so we decided to make it a part of our itinerary. We stayed in the town of Vernazza and it was absolutely picturesque. After settling in our little hotel (which we had to climb over 100 steps to get to!) we climbed more stairs to see of view of the town.

Our hotel had a little terrace with stunning views. We came here to relax every chance we could!

After having a good seafood dinner, we sat on the beach to watch the sunset. This might possibly be the best sunset we've ever seen. It was really this beautiful... I didn't edit it at all!
The next morning, we woke up to great weather for our Cinque Terre hike. Nate just loves to fit in hikes on any vacation we take :)
But before hiking, I got to sit on the terrace for a little bit...
The never-ending stairs at the beginning of the hike...

But just about instant gratification with this view of Vernazza:Looking back... you can see how far we've come
We can see the next town!
The water was really beautiful... but a little too cold to swim in!
Once we reached the next town, it was the last of the 5 towns, so we took a boat to the other end to hike back from there. The boat ride was so much fun because we could see the towns from a different angle.Hiking along more dramatic cliffs... these hikes weren't near as difficult as the first one
This is the last village we saw before going back to ours. Absolutely beautiful...

Now, THIS is a vacation:

Vernazza at night

Our last sunset in Italy... we hope you enjoyed sharing in our Italy experience!