Day Trey

On the third day, we went on an excursion to the Cinque Terre ("Five lands" or something similar) region of the northwestern coast, which is essentially the national "park" that encompasses the five villages from which the name is derived. We (that is to say, our tour) took two vans; this is a much better approach to excursions than double-decker buses. Our first stop was Riomaggiore:





From here, we walked through the "Tunnel of Love" (double entendre much?) to Manarolo. Here is a view from the walkway, which was right on the cliffs:



The walk is only about a mile or so. From Manarolo we took a ferry to Vernazza, where we spent about two hours walking around and eating lunch. First we climbed up the tower:



After that, we got some simple pizzas at a cafe and finished off with some more gelato. Once our two hours were up, we were picked up by the vans and driven to Corniglia, the last of our stops (we didn't go to the fifth Terre). On the way back, we stopped to take in a view of the terraced hillside:



It was really quite amazing that almost all the available land was terraced and worked (mostly grapes, some olive trees and probably some other crops). What was even more amazing is that we made it home alive after having been on those roads, which were barely wide enough for two vehicles on the straight parts, let alone the curves. At almost every bend, there was a mirror so that you could see if there was a car coming the other way, waiting to shove you off the cliff. Our tour guide also honked before each turn as an additional precaution. When we finally did make it back around 5 or 6pm, we were quite exhausted, so we took a nap, which turned into going to sleep for the night (well, I stayed up longer and watched snooker on tv; very engrossing).

Next: Day 4!