Venice is nice, Verona is lovely, but I'll take Cinque Terre

After leaving Lake Country we dropped the car off in Verona and used our feet and the train for the rest of the week. Verona was a pleasant surprise with the Roman Coliseum and some beautiful bridges and castles. Venice was just as you expected it to be with the gondolas, crazy maze-like streets (with a tourist looking at a map at every corner) and the spectacular waterways. One night in each place was enough and we were pleased to travel back across the country to Cinque Terre.

We spent two nights in Monterosso (Cinque Terre), thanks to Fred and Marie's advice, and it was wonderful! Cinque Terre is a place on the west coast of Italy that's made up of five towns that are all connected by footpath over the mountains. The hiking was awesome! Sean and I started in Monterosso and then stopped in Vernazza and finished hiking in Corniglia (where we ate lunch and caught the train back to Monterosso). We got our two hour hike in, drank wine, ate pasta, and even got back to the hotel in time for a true siesta (which was almost totally destroyed by taking "a couple minutes" to change our rental car details - but that's another post...). Then it started raining.

The rain was fine but, sadly, it rained out the lemon festival that was scheduled the next day. Overall, we were incredibly lucky to get our hiking in before the rain started - the hiking was the best reason to visit Cinque Terre.