Pisa & Cinque Terre

So after our great time in Florence we headed over to Cinque Terre and since Pisa was on the way we decided to get off the train and check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I had been told in the past not to spend time in Pisa and I will be honest I'm glad we listened to that advice because there was nothing else to see other than the tower. The tower was pretty cool to see especially since it is one of those monuments you grow up hearing about along with the Eiffel Tower.  We refused to take the typical pictures in which you look like you are holding up the tower or pushing it over so we took the following instead:

Drew doing his best Ninja Turtle imitation and kicking down the tower!  Turtle Power!

A panoramic view of the tower.

Us together, it looks less "leany" from this side.

The trend of the handstands continues.

So after our two hours in Pisa (one hour too much) we headed to Cinque Terre which I had never been to before and I am glad I finally checked it out.  When I studied abroad it seemed like all of my friends headed to Cinque Terre and I just never got around to it.  Before I continue further though I must say that Drew cannot pronounce the word Cinque Terre but he was adamant we go there and I am so glad we did!  So Cinque Terre consists of five towns and we stayed in Riomaggiore which is the first of the five towns and in my opinion the best one.  Normally you hike between the towns and layout on the beaches but due to some heavy flooding the previous year most of the hikes are closed between the towns but you can access them via train and we were able to get in a two hour hike between towns three and four!  We stayed at Hotel Argentina which broke from our trend of staying at apartments.

This is at the start of our hike from town three Corniglia to Vernazza and although you cannot see it, Drew is standing in front of a small waterfall.

The hike was beautiful and views like this are common.  This is Corniglia from above!

The entire hike is along the coastline.

If you look closely you can see our town (Riomaggiore way in the background, then Manarola and the closest is Corniglia).

This is after two hours of hiking and the arrival into Vernazza.  You can hike in both directions and some people were just starting when we finished and needless to say I think I scared people with how sweaty I was so they were probably thinking it was pretty tough.  They hike however was not too bad and what they don't know is that I sweat just breathing.

We took the train back to town two (Manarola) which I think was the most picturesque.

Us in front of the buildings.

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So beaches in Europe are beautiful but this was the beach in Riomaggiore and I must say, I prefer a nice white sand beach to falling over rocks while getting in and out of the water.

Another close of up Cornigia (this is the only town not on the water and to get there you have to hike up 368 steps)

The other side of Vernazza where our hike ended.

The last city, Monterosso, is the most touristy and though this appears to be a white sand beach it is not!  This was the most touristy and busiest of all of the towns and our least favorite.  It just didn't have the charm of the other four.

On our last day before catching our train we went to Manarola where they had a harbor with docs and we swam and did back flips and jumped off cliffs.

Our next stop is Rome but for those of you that are in Italy, definitely make sure Cinque Terre is on your list of cities to check out!