Cinque Terre, Italy - Day 6

Our first stop on our cruise was Livorno which is fairly close to Pisa and Florence. Because we already did the Florence and Pisa day we decided to check out Cinque Terre which is Northwest about an hour to La Spezia and then over to the coast. Cinque Terre consists of five beautiful villages Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso nestled between terraced mountain ranges. The drive was quite interesting as we winded our way through the mountains on a single lane road at times up into the clouds where you couldn't see anything. Our first stop was in Riomaggiore for a couple of hours. We got out of our coach at the top and made our way to the bottom of the port for some spectacular views. Walking around this village we didn't feel it was overly touristy which was nice. There were shops and cafès, but we didn't feel we were dodging people the whole time. 

Next we make our way to Vernazza which had a more touristy feel, but some very impressive views. Once we got there we wanted to take a moment and eat something. So, we stopped at the Blue Marlin Bar and ate lunch. Afterward we made our way down to the port an to get a look out at the Mediterranean and relax a bit.

One thing I wanted to note here is the last picture above that is a cogwheel cart and how the locals get up and down the terraced mountain side. Looks pretty interesting huh?