Cinque Terra, Italy

We spent four days in Cinque Terra.  Cinque terra in English translates to the "five cities", and these are the five most beautiful cities in the Italian Riviera. The five cities are connected to each other along mountain pathways and dirt tracks, and we are proud to say we hiked and swam to all five cities. 

We arrived to our home-base, Manarola by train from Forte dei Marme.  Our hostel, Hostel Cinque Terra, was at the top of a windy hill next to the historic San Lorenzo church (est 1338) .  This was our first hostel experience together, and we were lucky to be able to get a private room with two twin beds, and a warm shower. It was like sleeping in a college dorm.  The hostel had a little dining restaurant that we ate dinner at...and we think they had a pretty good pesto pasta.

Up the many steps we walked to our little green hostel

We may be biased but we think that Manarola had the prettiest view of all the cities.  Around 8:45 in the evening photographers are lined up to get the perfect picture of the homes on the cliffs as the sun sets. Interestingly enough, there is a tale that says that the houses are painted all different colors so that long ago fishermen could distinguish which house is theirs, and check up on their wives while they were out to sea. The beach in Manrola is very small, but there is a great cliff that you can jump off, about 25 feet in the air, and Jordan wasn't shy to take a jump, I nearly had a heart attack watching him.

Our first hike was on the low trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore.  The hike took us about an hour and a half and we climbed up steep pathways and down dirt trails.

Views from our Manarola to Riomaggiore

In Riomaggiore you will see every hungry hiker walking around with a large cone full of fried fresh seafood.  It was a good thing we hiked across the mountain so that we could enjoy some.

We headed to the beach, which was not like a beach we had ever seen.  We suggest bringing your water shoes because the beaches are full of large river rocks that can be very difficult to walk on.  The water was quite cold, and could certainly take your break away when jumping in, but it was so warm out and the clear water was so inviting that we dove in for a swim. We left Riomaggiore sunburnt and salty but happy as could be.

        

Because there was construction on the remaining low trails we took the high trails to visit the rest of the cities.  From Manarola we hiked the high trial through beautiful wine vineyards to Cornelia.  We found a great little hole in the wall restaurant to eat at called Pan e Vin. They served great focaccia sandwiches, and we recommend ordering the salami, pesto and cheese, as well as the vegetarian sandwich with marinated zucchini.

The vineyards were so beautiful to walk through, but be mindful of the electric fences

It was a good thing we continued on the more treacherous trail over to Vernazza because we sure did indulge in some delicious gelato from "Gelateria Vernazza".  The gelatteria was very popular, and hard to miss with all of the people waiting outside to grab a scoop or two-we recommend ordering the sweet milk flavor, or anything with chocolate! In Vernazza there is a very popular beach to relax at, and you enter the beach area through a very large rock.  Jumping in the water was very refreshing after a hot sweaty hike.

  

Overlooking Vernazza

Monterosso is the largest of the five towns.  It is where most of the tourist shopping is, and the beach clubs.  Lots of different colored umbrellas line the beach and tourists are in full swing at the local cafes.  Because Monterosso is so much larger than the other cities, we didn't think it had as much charm.

Monterosso

Cinque Terra was great location to hike and sight see.  If you aren't ready to break a sweat, you can always take the local trains from town to town, although you must be careful that you do purchase a ticket because even though they do not always check tickets, the Italian Train police do come on the trains and do random checks...and if you didn't but a ticket, you can hand them over 200 euro.  We loved our experience in Cinque Terra and it was definitely a highlight of our trip.

Forte dei Marme, Italy

We arrived in the sea town of Forte dei Marmi an hour and a half outside of Florence in northern Tuscany.  In the beginning of the 19th century many wealthy families from Tuscany chose to vacation here for their summer holidays, and today, I would consider it the St. Tropez of Italy.  Although we didn't see Andrea Bocelli (he is a resident of the town) at any local beaches, we still thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast called the Forte Inn, located about three blocks from the ocean.

The beautiful rooftop terrace at the Forte Inn

                 

Francisco, our host, had free beach cruisers for us to use, which came in handy since it is easiest to get around by bicycle.

Out for an early morning bicycle ride before going to the beach

The coastline along Forte dei Marmi is miles of beach clubs (over 100!) as far as the eye can see. During our two day staywe did what the locals do during the summer...enjoy the beach and work on our golden tans.  Each club provides private changing rooms, showers, lockers, umbrellas, sun beds, and food.  Most Italians stay loyal to their favorite beach club, coming back year after year, and we decided to support Franciscos favorite beach club called "Marco".  They provided us with great service, and all the amenities we needed for only 15 euro a day.  We strolled up and down the ocean front looking at all the different beach clubs...we probably walked at least 4 miles.

Beach clubs stretching out to the next town

We stopped for lunch at the famous Augustus Lido Beach club, which was only about a tenth of a mile down the beach. The Bambaissa restaurant had delicious spaghetti with clams, and ravioli that we enjoyed.  Next time we go, we will have to check out their seafood buffet, it looked pretty sensational.

In the evenings we enjoyed biking into the glamorous town square that was filled with rodeo drive stores and packed into a quaint street.  If you enjoy people watching, Forte is definitely a place to visit, because all the women are dressed in high fashion, and all the men are driving fancy cars.

High end stores and high end cars...every womans and mans dream

We found our favorite traditional Italian trattoria in Forte dei Marmi.  It was called Al Bocconcino, and we ate there for dinner two nights in a row.  The restaurant is mostly locals, and you can come here to listen to Italian conversations and people watch. The food was very reasonably priced.  Their pizza oven was amazing, and we highly recommend their pizzas and calzones!

Amazing fresh seafood pizza

Jordan liked his calzone

We found a really great gelato shop to get our daily indulgence.  Cervino gelateria had some pretty dang good nutella and dark chocolate chunk ice cream.

After a few days of relaxing in this little slice of heaven it was time to head to our next adventure in Cinque Terra.

Ravello, Italy

Ravello is a perfect mix of culture and class-there are spectacular churches, villas,  delicious food and luxurious hotels with amazing views! Driving into Ravello was breathtaking and during the summer months (not sure about winter) there are lemon groves lining all of the streets.  The air smells so sweet from all of the lemons and flowers, it's wonderful.

Sweet smelling lemon groves

We stayed at the beautiful and famous Palazzo Avino hotel.  In the 1700's the hotel was the home of the Sasso family, only to be abandoned about 50 years after later until the beginning of the 19th century.  The hotel is so beautiful and the grounds are very tranquil.

                                             

Our breakfast at the hotel was amazing.  During our stay we spent two days at the Avino's Clubhouse by the Sea located in the small town of Marmortata (complimentary shuttle service provided by the hotel).  The beach club is terraced into a cliff, one level had changing area restaurant and pool, the next had a pool, and on the lowest level there are lounge chairs overlooking the water.

Beautiful views

The service was spectacular and we had everything provided for us-from sunscreen to goggles and floaties.  We jumped into the water and swim around to rock formations that Jordan enjoyed jumping off.  It was lots of fun, and we enjoyed a delicious pizza for lunch with no cheese only olives and anchovies (sound gross but it was good).

Enjoying the good life

The weather in the late afternoons by the water turns very quickly from warm to cold and windy so we headed back to the hotel to relax and check out the spa.  We used the Spas hot tub and beautiful mosaic steam room before visiting our room to get ready to feed our appetites.  Our hotel room was very beautiful, and we enjoyed the views.  We liked the added features of being able to pick out what scent we wanted our shower towels to be!

The view of the Mediterranean sea from our room was breathtaking! 

We strolled through the town when we were hungry for dinner.  We came across beautiful private  gardens.  We even found a dental office, and marveled how the doctors office hours were only from 4-8pm...Sounds like the life!

Jordan contemplated applying to be an associate, his hours were from 4-8PM

There are so many good restaurants in this area that we decided to try a little something from a few restaurants just so that we could say we had tried them all.  We had a prosciutto pizza from Mimis Bar Pizzeria.  We strolled into a very authentic family run Italian restaurant, called Cumpa' Cosimo, for our main course.  We walked into the busy dimly lit restaurant and were greeted by an Italian babushka that everyone calls "Mama".  She ran the restaurant in typical Italian fashion, she was extremely bossy, generous (free limoncello) and opinionated.  and she took care of us!  She makes wonderful homemade pasta, and we tried a dish of homemade arbiata and meat cannelloni.

Mama in all her beauty is very proud of her homemade meat cannelloni

Before ending our night in Ravello we played a few games chess. Can you guess who won?

Who got the checkmate

The hotel was very accommodating to us leaving bright and early, and upon our departure they sent a wonderful spread of breakfast to our room for us to enjoy.

Breakfast of champions 

We loved Ravello, and we hope to be back very soon.  What a special place!

Amalfi, Italy

We spend a day discovering the city of Amalfi as we drove from Positano to Ravello; luckily we had a driver take us around because the roads are VERY small!  If you drive a car any bigger than a mini cooper prepare to have it scraped and scratched by the oncoming traffic trying to get through the narrow streets.  

There are road-side lemon stands all over Amalfi and these lemons are HUGE.  We had to buy one to try and we can attest that they are very zesty.  Their ginormous size makes them great for producing lots of limoncello, which you can find in just about any store in this area.  

A very large lemon

We saw the Duomo di Sant'Andrea Apostolo.  Its beautiful exterior has lots of geometrical designs and although we didn't go inside (cost 3 euros) there is a crypt.

The very large Duomo di Sant' Andrea Apostle

We followed the main town road to the museo della carta (paper museum) and looked through their gift shop.  The rest of the day in Amafli we spent walking through the local streets and markets, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and eating pistachio gelato.

We found some interesting things in the local markets!

The gorgeous coastline beaches

We are loving the beautiful weather, and are having a blast.  Amalfi was a great stop along the way to our next destination...Ravello!

Positano, Italy

We took the bus along the Amalfi cost from Sorrento to Positano.  Although the bus was very crowded, if you have a window seat you are in luck because you can enjoy the beautiful views of the coast throughout the drive.

We checked into our AirBnB called Villa Palumbo.  The bed-and-breakfast was centrally located-both walking distance from the bus stop and the town.  The view from our balcony was phenomenal.  The terraces mountains were beautiful to look at, in both the daylight and the evening.

We had some great views in Positano

We were feeling up for workout in Positano and wanted to hike the 'Trail of the Gods'.  Finding the trail head was not very easy.  As you walk along the one way highway there is a key sign (click the word sign to see it on google maps) to look out for.

Look for this sign!

In order to get to the trail you climb up 1,700 stairs and gain 400 meters in elevation to reach the small town of Nocelle.  Plan on working up a sweat, and bring some water.  Don't worry though, you can stop to view the breathtaking panoramas along the trek.

A view of Positano as we climbed up the steps to Nocelle

Starting the hike from Nocelle is a little more difficult than starting at the other end, but our legs were well warmed up by the time we found the starting point.  The trail is approximately 6.8 miles, but well worth all the hiking effort as you can look down at the beautiful Amalfi coast below.

Jordan leading the way on the Trail of the Gods

There are cool Roman ruins to explore along the hike. Sitting on the cliffs we found a cool fortress/home with four bedrooms, and what looked a separate kitchen and outhouse.

A cool view from inside the house

When backtracking onto the trail, we saw a girl who had sprained her ankle surrounded by paramedics.  There weren't enough strong men to carry her back to the city so they asked Jordan and I if we could assist. We had to cut our hike short to help the girl in need, but we hope it gave us good juujuu! 

Jordan helped carry all 185 pounds of this girl back to Nocelle

We finished off our day with a wonderful dinner of muscles and clams in town at a restaurant called Saracendo D' Oro and took in the lit up city as the sun went down.

We had a great time in Positano, and we will be sleeping well after the hard workout we had here! 

Sorrento & Capri, Italy

We arrived in Sorrento from Rome by train.  We went through the Naples train station which was a little hectic.  Make sure you know where our train platform is, we had to ask a police officer to help us find our train because there were platforms on all different levels.  Also, be mindful of your belongings, there are plenty of pickpocketing happening all around the station.  

The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Savoia, was recommended to us and we would definitely recommend it to others.  It is a family run hotel located right up the hill from the main town square (less than five minutes).  The hotel was very comfortable and they didn't neglect the opportunity to make us feel right at home with pancakes for breakfast.

Dining was on the left and rooms were on the right

During the day in Sorrento we think the best thing to do is rent a boat and visit the island of Capri. We chartered a private boat to take us around the island all day.  Our captain, Fredericko, came supplied with Diet Cokes and snacks.

The sun was out as we boated to Capri

We started off on to the main land.  Capri is a four square mile island that has beautiful homes, high-end shopping and upscale beach resorts.  If Catalina Island and Aspen were to merge into one place this would be it...only nicer!

Once we arrived at Capri, we took a short ride up the funicular up to the center square.

We explored the town, window shopped at the Rodeo Drive boutiques, and hiked up to the highest point of the island where we could see views of the beautiful blue water below.

After seeing what the island had to offer, we boarded the boat and took a tour around its perimeter-anacapri.  It was so amazing, the scenery looked like Jurassic Park. Jordan kept on commenting on how cool this experience was-definitely mind-blowing.

Beautiful inlets along the islands perimeter 

We saw many the different grottos (small picturesque caves), and swam through the green grotto (not prohibited but we're rule breakers).  The water in the green grotto was clear, and it was a good thing we brought goggles because we could see all of the little fish swimming with us! We took the boat through the Faraglioni, and it is said that if you kiss under it, you are ensured eternal love. Of course we kissed!

Swimming in the green grotto

An eternal love kiss

One of the highlights of Capri is visiting the famous blue grotto.  I wasn't expecting our boat to not  fit into the cave, but once I saw the tiny entrance I knew we had to switch into a row boat.  We barely fit into the cave opening and had to lie down as we entered.  Once inside the lagoon water is an electric blue because of the suns reflection.  We befriended our boat rower and by promising him a nice tip and he let us jump in and swim; it was an awesome experience and we were the only ones in the water.

The boat driver was singing 'O Sole mio

We worked up quite an appetite in Capri and went to the Fontelina Beach Club for lunch.  The club is a private beach club on a secdluded side of the island.  We had our boat drive us right up to the entrance where guests were swimming in the water and tanning on the rocks.

Jordan and I split prosciutto with mellon, and for our main dishes he had an eggplant pasta and I had a pasta with bottarga (a tuna millet). We topped off our lovely lunch with a tiramisu.  Jordan thought this was the best pasta of our trip.

After 7 hours of being tourists we headed back to explore Sorrento by night, it is a great place for active night life with its cafe lined square. We asked the locals where they enjoy eating and found a very nice restaurant where we split a pizza topped with rocket salad, parmesan and carpaccio.  The meal was a success with our last course being a delicious cannoli.  

We had a wonderful time in Sorrento and Capri and love Italy.  In the future we will be coming back to these cities.  Onto the next leg, arrivederci (see ya later)!