Monterosso al Mare

10.27.2018 - 10.30.2018 60 °F

What a great colorful little town. Monterosso al Mare is the westernmost of the Cinque Terre region. The Cinque Terre is named after the five little towns of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare. Beautiful villages that are linked together by varied hiking paths and old steps all within a 5 hour walk/hike of each other. At least that’s what they tell me because the weather was so bad the government actually closed down the hiking trail. Italy in general was having awful weather and closed down most of the trains, the schools and government offices. In Monterosso they called it the storm of the decade and it hit the first night of our stay and didn’t let up until our last day. So our last day was spent walking around surveying the downed trees, the ruined decks and most importantly watching the community come together to clean up the mess the storm left behind. At least the day we left, the trains were running, albeit not on time. What should have taken 4 hours to Rome (via Pisa and Florence), took 8 hours of waiting and wondering if we would make our next train (the answers is no - but luckily they added more cars so they were able to accommodate the late passengers on the next train). Even though we didn’t get to see the other towns, we did enjoy our time here and will schedule another vacation so we can experience the hike and the breathtaking views these trails have to offer.