Pisa and Cinque Terre

August 15-18, 2008 Courtney, Laura, Erin, and I went to Cinque Terre for Courtney's 25th birthday. We left Friday after work and Courtney drove us to Camp Darby where we camped for the first night. The next day we packed up our things and went to seek out the "American Beach." This proved to be a more difficult task than anticipated. After stopping to ask for directions several times we finally found it and enjoyed the golden sands and free beach chairs! (not free at most European beaches!). We enjoyed a relaxing morning of sun and sand. That afternoon we went to Pisa to get our famous Leaning Tower pictures taken. Then we made our way to Levonto, a town just north of Cinque Terre, where we would set up our tent for the next two nights! Since Cinque Terre is a national park there is no camping in the five towns. There is also limited access to the towns - you can access them via a train or hiking trail. Sunday was our day to hike between the five towns. About 7 miles all together. Luckily the weather wasn't too hot...but it was still pretty hot! We took the train from Levonto to Monterosso and then caught a boat to the last town, Riomaggiore, to see the towns from a different angle and start our hike with the shorter distances. The hike wasn't too bad - the last hike from Vernazza to Monterosso was the most difficult but we were glad we were going the direction we were because at the very end we went down a ton of stairs and we all agreed it would have been worse to have started our hike with the stairs. The rest of our weekend was spent relaxing on the beach in Monterosso and enjoying the clear, blue water! more pictures

Courtney about to get crushed by the leaning tower of Pisa :)

Typical home in Cinque Terre!

view of Manarola from the hiking trail

One of the many boats in Vernazza