Hiking to Vernazza

For our last day in the Cinque Terre, we decided to do the hardest hike (of the four between-town hikes) from Monterroso to Vernazza. This ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. It took about 90 minutes and was actually pretty rigorous but the views were spectacular.

Most of the hike was right along the coast but parts of it brought us deeper into the trees passing some waterfalls and little homes. By the time we got to Vernazza we were exhausted so we stayed and swam.

Later that day we went back to Monterroso because the beaches were nicer and Mike and I got snorkeling gear and snorkeled around the rocks for a while - it was fun.
That night after dinner we splurged and got our biggest servings of gelato thus far – big waffle cones with three scoops each. We figured it was our last time in Italy (so we had too right?) and I am glad we did – coconut-mango-lemon was a favorite.
Overall I think Cinque Terre was the favorite place among all four of us. In Venice, Florence, and Rome, we were moving non-stop seeing all the major sites – and we are glad we did.


But that gets tiring after a bit so a place like Cinque Terre was perfect. There were no sites to see, no museums to walk through, just beaches, reading, hiking, good food, and gelato. Very relaxing.