Cinque Terre, June 27th

                                                               Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore is the southernmost of the five Cinque Terre towns.

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Maree, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside.

                                       
                                                                 Manarola

                                 ........ a graveyard

                                     .....the girls went swimming at Manarola harbourfront

                             Corniglia is the middle of the five villages.

                                           Vernazza harbour......

              We were rewarded with this view looking back to Vernazza. Onward and more uphill climbing from this point, though, our two and half hour hike to the last Cinque Terre village of Monterosso.

          .......from this vineyard we could see our target of Monterosso below.

                          ......two hours into our hike, with Monterosso in view we were all exhausted.
We bought freshly squeezed lemonade from a farmer (strategically placed) along the trail. And a bottle of his wine, which he told us was his own limited production 500 bottles. 10 euros total for our lemonade and a bottle of red wine. He said that his rosso was meant to be drank young, ideally within six months.

            .....back to our villa.... and I could've sworn the farmer said to drink the rosso within six hours.