Yesterday was another long travel day. I took the train from Nice to Ventimiglia, Ventimiglia to Genova, Genova to La Spezia, & finally La Spezia to Riomaggiore. I left the hostel in Nice around 8:00AM & finally made it there by around 4ish in the afternoon! But time flies surprisingly fast with all those train changes & the beautiful scenery to look at. If you're ever making a journey like this I highly suggest taking the train, even though it take longer than flying because it takes you all the way along the coast line, which is well worth seeing! Cinque Terre is a group of 5 small villages (***) along about 10km of the northern part of the west coast of Italy. It's breathtakingly beautiful, with lush green mountains rising right out clear, aqua blue waters, with lots of multicoloured cottages scattered up the hillside.

I found my way to the check in desk for our hostel & preceded to follow the owner up a series of very long, very steep sets of stairs, feeling really grateful that I'd decided to bring a backpack & not a suitcase! We are in a lovely apartment-type room with very Italian looking green shutters on the window. And if you stand on your tiptoes you can see the ocean! :) There's a balcony outside where you can look out over the street & watch the Italian nonnas hanging out their floral sheets over their balconies. I got myself unpacked & settled in, and Esther & her cousin Jess arrived an hour or so later.

We went for a wander around the streets, climbing right up high to a point that overlooks the whole town (they're not very big towns mind you, so it's not all that hard to find a vantage point from which to see the whole thing!). Then we found a café looking out over the water for a cheap & cheerful dinner. We enjoyed our first round of Italian past (creamy mushroom tagliatelle for me!) & it was delicious! We got some little icecreamy semifreddo treats on our way back to the hostel & slept soundly, excitedly anticipating the adventures to come… :)