Monarola and Riogiamore

Monday we chose to hike to the first two cities that we passed, Manarola (pictured behind us) and Riogiamore.

The hike was really easy and beautiful along the coast. We didn’t stay long as we were really sweaty and wanted to go to the beach. So we took the train back to Carniglia, got our bags, and went to Monterroso, the fifth city.

We were really glad that we decided to stay in Monterroso for our last two nights because it was the biggest of the five and had the best beaches. Our hotel was not too close to the ocean (which we ended up liking because it was quieter) and was back into the mountain. Our room was on the very top floor and again we had our own terrace overlooking the town and a view of the ocean.


The beaches weren’t anything too amazing as it was really small and crowded and pretty rocky, but we didn’t care. It felt so good to get in the cold water and relax on the beach. That night we found a restaurant right on the beach that was great.

I got fish ravioli and Em got regular ravioli. The food wasn’t anything amazing but the ambiance was – we sat and visited at our table as the sun went down and the beach got quiet.



Because our hotel room was on the top floor, it also got really hot (no air conditioning – in fact only one place on our trip so far had air conditioning and that was Florence) so we moved all our mattresses onto the terrace and slept outside both nights! It was fun (we ended up playing a long game of truth or dare) and we slept much better because for the first time we even got a little cold at night.