Cinque Terre

We have just finished our week in the Cinque Terre. If you are not familiar with the Cinque Terre, it is on the Ligurian coast, between Pisa and Genoa. It is an area with a very rugged coastline, highlighted by five towns in ravines. If you spread out your left hand, the sea is away from you. Riomaggiore is the web between your pinkie and ring fingers (pretend your hands are webbed), Manarola is between the ring and middle fingers, Corniglia is on your middle finger, Vernazza is between your index and ring fingers and Monterosso is between your thumb and index finger. There are two other towns, San Berdardino, above Corniglia and Volastra is above Manarola. We stayed in Manarola.
The big attraction in the Cinque Terre (a world heritage site) is hiking along the coastal path, which connects all five towns. Unfortunately, most of the coastal pathway was closed when we were there due to landslides...landslides caused by more rain in a month than they have ever had before! Being the intrepid individuals that we are, we found the high pathway system and followed that (actually we stalked a bunch of Germans who looked liked serious hikers and figured out what they were doing, then followed them). The high pathways give a completely different view of the Cinque Terre. It was not crowded, it was not paved and we walked through vineyards and olive groves, and scaled little rock ledges next to rabid waterfalls. The difference is the "high" part. We had to walk up mountains, rather than on a nice path system, and we had to find our way on our own a bit more than we would have on the coastal path. It is also much longer to take a high path, usually twice as long. From these high paths you can see the coastal paths down below.
We went to each town at least once, as well as a day trip to Pisa.
We are now finally in Nice and will update with more Cinque Terre and Pisa stories (and photos) over the next few days!