THE ITALIAN RIVERIA

We’ve spent the past two days at La Cinque Terra or 5 Terre.  This is an area on the west coast of northern Italy.  It is made up of 5 small towns on the water.  We stayed in Monterosso, the largest of the 5 towns.  It is primarily a beach town where hundreds of people escaped the heat by playing in the water.  We wanted many times to jump in the water to cool down, but packing light, we left the swim suits at home instead opting to partake of the popular Italian gelato, or to continue our afternoon siestas to stay cool.

The 5 towns are all connected either by walking trails, train or ferry.  Due to the heat, we chose to ride the train between them, except for the shortest walk between Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  It is called Via Dell'Amore, or “Lover’s Walk”.  It was a nice walk with a beautiful view of the sea.  Similar to the Lover’s Bridge in Paris, it is common practice for people in love to connect a lock to the railing of the path and then throw the key into the sea.  This is said to seal their love forever.

We leave Montorosso tomorrow (July 12) and travel next to Parma, Italy.  Hopefully the temperatures cool down a bit as we get away from the coast.