Yesterday was our last full day in Riomaggiore :( I have absolutely loved this place & think we picked the perfect amount of time to spend here. Some people cautioned us against spending to long in Cinque Terre because of a lack of things to do, but 3 full days actually worked out really well because we had a day at the start to explore, get our bearings & explore a couple of the towns thoroughly, a day in the middle to do the whole walk, & a day for a legs to recover at the end, which we spent in Vernazza & Monterosso. We were hoping to take a boat along the coast on the third day but the ferries weren't running out of Riomaggiore or Monterosso that day because…well, actually the lady at the ticket booth couldn't tell us why! Sometimes things around here just seem to happen for no particular reason…trains run 25 minutes late, or ferries just don't run at all on some day of the week, & people just shrug their shoulders & go on with their day!

So instead we took the train to Vernazza in the morning, because when we hiked through there on the previous day it was one of our favourite towns. It's very pretty & small, not as big as Monterosso & has a bit of beachfront unlike Corniglia. We had lunch under big colourful umbrellas looking out over the seaside; I had a local kind of pasta (Triole…I think!) with fresh pesto - simple & delicious! Then we had obligatory post-meal gelato :D Pistachio & some other nutty kind of flavour…yum! We looked inside little gift stores at hand made glass jewelry, little bottles of limoncino, and various other bits & pieces. Then we took the train onto Monterosso to spend a bit of time by the beach in the afternoon.

In the evening we got packed up & ready to leave early the following morning, then we had a glass of wine on our balcony before heading out to one last dinner in Cinque Terre. We started with pina coladas at a bar that is right up on top off the cliffs overlooking the water. We'd seen it on the first day & decided it would be the perfect place to spend our final night in Riomaggiore. They didn't have much in the way of food, so we went back to a little restaurant near our hostel for pizza & pasta, where we were served by a very animated old Italian man with cute coke-bottle glasses.

If you like getting outdoors, walking around, exploring things, experiencing small town life, & seeing incredible natural beauty, do yourself a favour and go to Cinque Terre! Just try & go at a time when the coastal path between Manarola and Corniglia is open ;)