Beautiful Cinque Terre

As I was on the last train to Venice, I met a cute older couple from Oregon.  We were talking about religion (they were Catholic) and guidance of the Spirit.  The man told me this story:
"We were getting in the car to go to church, and I decided to ride my bike, which is the only time I've ever done so.  As I pedaled up the ramp to park it at the church, there were two elderly women, and one started falling backwards.   I pedaled twice and caught her head…then she continued on her way.  I went to tell my wife what had happened, and she said, "Shh, we're in church."

I've had more than one person tell me I need to go to Cinque Terra, and the nice thing about traveling alone without a set itinerary, is that I can randomly go to a place I've never heard of!  I arrived Tuesday night, but I had such a hard time finding the right bus (which only runs every hour), and then I missed it!  So by the time I actually found my way up to my hostel, I was exhausted, and decided not to go into the city the first night, but write my Florence blog post.  I woke up early on Friday, ready for a full day exploring the 5 villages, hiking, maybe swimming.

It was drizzling when I woke up, but I was positive it would clear up.  It didn't.  It just got worse.  This is my sad face when I arrived in the first village, Riomaggiore.

It rained some more.

I ran into Jess and Erin from my hostel, and I asked to tag along.  We thought we'd at least check out the villages (although I had every intention of catching a train to Venice that afternoon if it didn't clear up).  

Luckily it did start clearing up by lunchtime, and we got some good pictures.  We got to hike from the fourth village to the third.  Everyone said I should skip the third village, Corniglia, but it ended up being my favorite, and I saw all but one.

I thought this little apartment was so cute and cool!

Ciao!