Day 6: Le Cinque Terre

I think this was my favorite day of the whole trip. We went to the ocean and you know me! I have an affinity for water. I am an Acquarius, after all!


After a bus ride to Le Spezia, we hopped on a ferry to view the five villages that make up Le Cinque Terre. We sat on the top level and, even though it was hot, the breeze made it bearable and gave us the best views.

















The mountainsides are covered with these homes that still have no electricity or running water. Hard to believe but that's what our local tour director told us.



The buildings were built connected like this to help protect the villages from invasion. The apartments are very narrow with just one tiny room on each floor. I peeked into one and it wasn't much wider that a hallway.



Most of the homes we saw on our trip were some shade of earth tone. It was nice to see this pale blue one and an occasional pale pink.






Behind the buildings are narrow walkways with tiny shops. I loved the ones with local crafts but avoided the others with cheap souvenirs. At least it was nice and shady here.






You'll notice that my shirt sleeves and capris were rolled up. I was way overdressed. The temperature was in the high 90s and we did plenty of walking. At one point, Dottie and I took our shoes off and waded in the ocean. Felt so refreshing!



We took the train back to Le Spezia and had to walk by this beach area to get to the station. Beaches in Italy are not public and people have to pay to use these chairs and umbrellas otherwise, they can't go on the beach. They can, however, use the rocky areas and there were tons of people sunbathing on boulders. This is called the Italian Riviera.

In spite of the heat we had a wonderful day! Even our lunch was delicious. We both ordered seafood salad and it was all so fresh and delicious. Of course, I was too anxious to dig in and forgot to take a picture first!