Cinque Terre
I have been doing so much traveling lately that spending three days relaxing by the beach sounded perfect. This was my second trip to Cinque Terre, my first was during the summertime a few years back, so it was a totally different vibe being there in the winter. Although I would have loved to tan and swim in the ocean, it was so empty and free of tourists that it was very peaceful and gave me time to actually explore the towns more instead of spending all my time at the beach. We stayed in this super cute two-story apartment in Vernazza that had the most amazing balcony. Our view definitely paid off for all the stairs we had to climb to get to it. My first time in Cinque Terre I stayed in Manarola, which is equally as beautiful but, it was nice to try out a new spot.
We arrived later in the afternoon and after getting unpacked and doing a quick outfit change we walked down to get some gelato at Gelateria Vernazza. They have probably the best gelato in all of Cinque Terre so I would highly recommend it. We sat and ate on the rocks along the water to watch the sun go down then we decided to stop by Il Gambero Rosso for dinner. Obviously, I had pasta, I am addicted to pesto and it’s incredible here so I couldn’t resist. After our amazing dinner, we had some wine on our balcony and then went to bed.
The rest of our trip we spent exploring each of the cities. There is a train that’s connected to all five towns so it makes getting around really easy. Our first stop was Monterosso, this is the place to be if you are looking to sit on the sand and lay by the beach. We grabbed a quick lunch at this cute little cafe that had sandwiches and pizzas and ate on the boardwalk overlooking the ocean. We spent the rest of the day in Manarola getting drinks, eating gelato, and we even went to go see the apartment we stayed in the last time we were here. There is a little outside bar area that has a great view of the town, I am not sure of the name but it is not hard to find because there aren’t too many bars or restaurants to pick from. That night we ate at La Scogliera and I had pesto pasta, again. Cinque Terre is known for a certain pasta dish, trofie al pesto, which is little hand-rolled noodles and pesto and it is amazing and I am making it a tradition to get it every time I’m there on vacation. I seriously recommend planning a trip here or checking it out if you are in Italy, it’s not a huge tourist destination yet but, I feel like it will be soon.
