Postcard from the Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre, or 5 cities in English, is a popular visiting place in Italy along the beautiful Italian Riveria.  Honestly, this coastal spot reminded me a lot of the coast of California, specifically Big Sur. Tourists are known to hike between each of these 5 cities along the cliffside.  Limited on time, my mom and I hiked and took a train between two of the "Cinque Terre" cities and stayed in a city right outside called Vernazza, and this one was my favorite.  

The one evening my mom and I stayed here, we lodged in a hostel and hiked quite a few miles up the mountain behind us to eat dinner at the top.  Despite the exhausting hike, this was one of my favorite memories from our whole trip as we got to experience an authentic Italian meal along with two other tourists from other parts of the world.  We enjoyed getting to know the two people and I was amazed that by simply traveling the world over the years had brought the four of us so many things in common, and topics to talk about.  The view from the top was pretty incredible too.  

My mom and I had planned on staying another couple days in Rome, but after seeing all we did, we took advantage of the freedom to hop on a train and spontaneously went to Vernazza and it ended up being one of my favorite stops.