the cinque terre

today we made our way to the cinque terre...thank you lois for the tip!  we got on the train at santa margherita and made our way to levanto...we got off a little early and so we had a bit of a wait for the next train...we went to the southern town first...rigomaggiore

the towns are connected by walking paths...the beginning of the path between rigomaggiore and manarola started here...this leg of the path also called the "via del amore"...

my eyes can not possibly be my own...i could not believe the views in the first 50 yards...

via del amore begins...couples have left behind locks...no keys of course...for the next 2 km there are locks...hundreds of locks...

thousands upon thousands leave there mark...we leave our own

a quick look back and forward we walk...

this tunnel is full of murals and the declarations of thousands of people...

i can not help it...i need to leave my mark again...

a quick stop...

off we go again...

we stop at the via del amore bar for lattes...

via del amore comes to an end....

we arrive in manarola...

we walk through manarola...make a few quick stops in the shops an then we are off to corniglia...a look back at manarola as we leave the village...

we walk...

rick steves describes this leg of the path as "easy walking"...i beg to differ mr. steves...

our destination corniglia...

almost there...

we arrive in corniglia...mr. steve's describes the next part of the trip by foot as "hard"...so we ride...not that we are not willing to sweat...but it is vacation afterall...

we wait for our train...i really like this woman...

one more look back before boarding the train to vernazza...    

vernazza....

we stopped for something to eat...

fabulous....the best meal since muscles in nice...

once again we say goodnight to the sun...

we miss the train to monterosso...spend extra time in vernazza and decide to skip monterosso for today...we decide to take the train to santa margherita...we will come back this way tomorrow....we will see...

i loved today...even more than the other days...my eyes are exhausted...truly, i have not seen sights (in my life) that spoke to me like the sights of today...thank you cinque terre...