Our last excursion from Lucca merited separation from the others, due to its impressiveness. The final trip we made out from Lucca was to Cinque Terre. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, it translates from the Italian into "five earths" or "five lands". This area of Italy consists of 5 towns that are all along the Mediterranean, over to the north of La Spezia (in northwest Italy, for those of you with maps). In order from south to north Cinque Terre is composed of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. These gorgeous coastal towns are connected by hiking paths, as well as train tracks. We began at Riomaggiore and ended with Monterosso. I must confess, I joined my parents taking the train from Vernazza to Monterosso...but the younger generation (I am old now) continued and finished the last leg on foot as well.
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| Riomaggiore |
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| The steps on on the first leg of the hike (from Riomaggiore to Manarola). This part was literally steps up a mountain and then down the other side of the mountain |
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| View from the top of the mountain, Manarola down ahead |
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| A parting view of Manarola |
It is worth mentioning that there are usually, or at least supposedly, at least two separate routes for hiking the Cinque Terre. One is a seaside road that is relatively flat and very similar to a boardwalk. However, due to rockslides this route has been closed for renovations, and I overheard one tourist couple talking about how it had been closed for years. So, if you do plan on visiting the Cinque anytime soon and are not feeling up to the step-ridden mountain routes, don't let that stop you! Take the trains. And when you get off in Manarola make sure to buy some of the Calamari cones that are sold as street food all over the town!
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| On the hike from Manarola to Corniglia. This was easily the most beautiful of the hikes and passed through vineyards on the mountainside and stretched along the cliff |
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| We were guessing these were nets that were stretched out during harvest time and used to catch olives. |
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| Entering the town of Vernazza |
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| A view of Vernazza from the harbor area where we went swimming |
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| Limoncino, or limoncello, is a traditional lemon liqueur that is normally served after dinner. It is a digestivo....you can imagine what it is meant to do |
On our last day in Lucca we toured the town a little bit more and attended a Jazz festival performance going on in the town square.
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| View from atop the tower of Lucca |
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Shamelessly attempting to make my blog cuter with a picture
of a cat that I found guarding a car in Lucca |
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| The festival |
From Lucca we left for the coast, the other coast. We shot off to Venice for a quick day within the sinking city. The town was originally created in the way it was in order to discourage barbarians from attacking the city. It worked. And Venice flourished and became one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Renaissance Italy. Nowadays, though, Venice is experiencing a slow and constant decrease in population, as people leave behind the economy completely centered on tourism.
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| This is a horse created by a glassblower in Murano. He created it in less than a minute. Murano is a small island off of Venice and is known for its glassblowers. |
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| The Doge palace at night |
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| The bus ride back to the train station was pretty packed, but the Pavliks prevailed |
Venice was our last Italian destination before continuing northward into Austria...
