One of the places I have wanted to travel in Italy is a place called Cinque Terre (5 lands) on the west coast of Italy. It is 5 villages on these ravines between cliffs. In feudal times, there was no contact between each village even though they were very close together. Now the train runs between the villages and there are paths connecting villages. each one is perched on a hillside. The buildings and houses are painted bright colors and they are vibrant places. They have also been discovered by tourists (like us) who flock to each of the villages. We have been using Rick Steves Italy guide in each of the towns we have been in, and I want to give a shout out (compliment) to him for the information about Cinque Terre. for those who don't ow Rick Steves, he is a travel writer who believes in getting to know the essence of a place. He usually gives walking tours of each place he describes. I have played tour guide in Sienna and Lucca using his book. the Cinque Terre section of his book was really great. We got off the main tourist section and saw a little more of each town. SO the five towns are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazzo and Monterosso. each town is different and unique. We have eaten our way through Italy and this was no different. We ate something unique in each town. Each town is perched on a hill, so you are either walking up or down. We did 27,000 steps on my Fitbit, 169sets of stairs (each set of stairs is up 10 stairs-it doesn't count going down and11.51 miles. We were footsore, but had a great day,
Riomaggiore: the first town. we ate a chickpea type of faccoccia
the next town is Manarola. We ate the best calamari ever!!