Cinque Terr-iffic

In our first trip out of the country this year, Molly and I set our sights south for the small five-town coastal enclave of Cinque Terre  (the five lands). The region is known for its pesto and wine, specifically the super sweet “Sciachetra.” Each town has its own personality and our favorite changed each day we were there.

We stayed in Riomaggiore (we affectionately referred to it as rigmarole), which is considered to be more bustling and gritty than the other four.

For as difficult as it seemed to find solid information on the area (most guidebooks had between a single paragraph to less than a full page dedicated to it), we were super surprised how many ‘mericans were there – and not necessarily the cool, let’s hang out with fellow travelers kind – the bulk of English-speaking folks we noticed were college kids on spring break (sweet.)

We did our best to blend in and practice our “grazies and pregos.” Although Molly definitely doesn’t have traditions, we very much enjoyed our daily routine of a bacon-and-fried-egg breakfast, long, leisurely hikes between the “lands,” and bottle of wine, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, local cheese and fresh bread for lunch.

Halfway through our trip we stumbled into some awesome live music in the “quietest” town, Manarola. The co-owner (and son) trades his apron for a guitar and 4-5 other locals fill in the circle with bass, bongo and a harmonica. They rocked everything from blues to traditional Italian to, well, American folk songs like “Country Roads.” Now if we could only find something like this in Weiden …

I would definitely recommend a trip there, but would book early and avoid the summer season because it was already starting to get packed as we were leaving.

Oh, we also made a quick stop through Milan on either side of the trip. “El Duomo,” which took some 500 years to complete was impressive. However, I think the rest of the countryside in the Liguria region outclasses the fashion capital.