The Cinque Terre

Well it's been about a month now since we got back, so I thought I would get a few pictures up of our trip. We went with our good friends Steve and Laura. We had so much fun with them. They definitely made the trip one of the best vacations we've ever had. Thanks guys!
When we flew into Venice it was raining. And it rained the entire drive down to the Cinque Terre. Not just drizzling or light rain, no, it was pouring! We were thinking this wasn't going to turn out to be such a fun trip. When we got to our hotel it was clearing up a bit and by the time we were ready to go to dinner it was just lightly raining. We had a great time and enjoyed the old city of Monterosso. The next day we woke up to, you guessed it, more pouring rain. We decided to give it a go anyways and grabbed our umbrellas and headed for the train. By the time we got off the train in Riomaggiore the rain had stopped. We were blessed with fairly clear skies the rest of the day. How lucky we were!
We had planned to hike between the cities, notice the shorts, but there had been so much rain that all of the trails had been closed for fear of landslides. The Cinque Terre is made up of five little towns along the coast of Italy. There are trains and hiking trails that connect each town to the next. Each town is built right into the hill and usually runs right down to the water. They are these tiny little towns that look like they haven't been touched in centuries. It's so beautiful! We had a great time exploring the towns and eating some yummy food. Here is Mike having his afternoon treat or should I say treats. I think we had gelato about two to three times a day. It's a wonder that we all didn't have to be rolled off the plane when we got home. Maybe all the walking helped burn off all those calories. Here are the steps we had to climb to get to the city of Corniglia. It is perched on top of these cliffs.
Unfortunately we were only able to stay here for a day and a half. We would love to spend a week here. The last time we were here it was early fall and the water was very calm. Being November the area is a lot more stormy and the sea was pretty rough and choppy.

One night we were there a huge storm rolled in. When the thunder boomed it was so loud! It sounded like a cannon was going off. The town we were in sits in a canyon so the thunder was echoing like crazy. It was actually pretty cool but it scared our friend Laura to death!
If you ever take a trip to Italy make sure you put the Cinque Terre on your list.