Cinque Terre: June 25 - 27

After leaving Rome we headed 3 hours north on the train to the Cinque Terre. Our train was delayed, which left us with some time to hang out in the train station. 

After a very quick train connection in Massa and another train ride, we arrived in the Cinque Terre.  The Cinque Terre is five beautiful, quaint towns set into tiny valleys on staggering cliffs that drop off into the sparkling blue Mediterranean ocean. 

The first evening we settled into the hotel and hit the beach for a dip in the Mediterranean. The water was cool, but really refreshing!

These two little girls were so cute together at the beach. All Maddie wanted to do was eat the sand and attack Priya!!

The Cinque Terre is where foccaccia bread was invented, and for dinner we had foccaccia pesto pizza which was to die for.

Our hotel was in the last town of the five- Monterosso- and it had a beautiful view of the ocean! We spent the evening relaxing on the patio and enjoying watching night fall over this beautiful place.

Day 2:

Between the towns there is a hiking trail that winds up through the citrus orchards that are terraced into the mountains. It has spectacular views of the ocean and the towns.  Our second day we bundled the babies up in carriers and our entire group set off on the trail.

Unfortunately, some parts of the trail were damaged by flooding in 2011 and we weren't able to make it between all the towns. However, we still were able to cover at least 4 miles of the trail, had a lot of fun hiking, and found some great views. We also took the train to the towns we couldn't hike to so that we were able to check out each of the charming little villages!!

The streets in these towns are mostly pedestrian-only walkways and have multi-colored buildings with peoples' laundry hanging off the balconies. It definitely gives off a small Italian village feeling!

When we finally came back to Monterosso we hit the beach to relax after a lot of walking!

Our fitbit told us we had walked 10 miles and by the end of the day we had two tired and slightly cranky babies who really just wanted to head to bed! Kellen and I visited the Cinque Terre 6 years ago; it is one of our favorite places in the world and we thought we would never get to come back! We are lucky that we were able to come back and share it with Kellen's whole family and it was reaffirmed as one of my favorite places in the world! Until next time- Cinque Terre!