One of our first and favorite trips since we have been here was our visit to Cinque Terre in Italy. Cinque Terre means "five lands" and is named for 5 little villages along the coast that are connected by train and a hiking trail. We went with Mark's sister Kristi and her huz Cade. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was the secret rendezvous with the Bucks. I say secret rendezvous because they had been off backpacking and taking trains around Europe for the last week. No cell phones. No facebook. No means of verifying our meet-up location. They had gone dark. Hopefully you can picture the intensity and excitement as we chose a location and time to meet up: the train station in Levanto at 5:00 PM, a location we had never seen and only suspected it existed based on our best research on Google Earth. Once we set the details, Kristi and Cade went off the grid. We were trusting they could get there traveling through Belgium, Switzerland, Rome, and who knows where. And we were equally anxious that we would be able to make the 11 hour drive with just some baguettes and cheese sticks for the girls and our GPS to arrrive at the right date and time in the correct village. No room for error. Anyway, to make a long story short, we both met up there, and how great was our joy.
We camped in Levanto and took a train to the first of the "five lands". Our awesome plan was to hike from city to city as we explored the beaches, ice cream, and pizzas. Turns out that most people start from the other end and walk toward where we started. Turns out that most people don't hike with two huge babies on their backs (thanks for the help, Cade). Turns out hiking up and down cliffy vineyards was beautiful, but a little harder than we had anticipated. By the time we arrived at the beautiful second village (see below), our legs were about to collapse and we were a stinky, sweaty, mess. Luckily it was well worth it. That being said, we still decided to take the train from that point on.
Our view as we descended from our hike.
We love any form of sea life!
Oh... and then there was Sadie. If you see this picture and are thinking, "man, she sure looks like an Avatar," you are right. While we were camping, Sadie fell and got a little bump. It got progressively worse throughout the week as it drained, constantly altering her appearance. We were sure some sort or unicorn horn or something would pop through. Didn't :( .
Waiting patiently for the train.
This Avatar likes ice cream.
Sleepy, heavy hikers.
Awesome hike.
We never know what our girls are thinking... If you run out of raisins, just ask for more. Don't attempt to start some type of revolution or uprising.
Mark takes the plunge. Much to his dismay, he was the only one there not wearing a speedo. A mistake he vows never to repeat...
It was a real blast, and a very unique place to visit. Recommend. We spent the first two days of our labor day holiday there, and then off to Venice for a day. To be continued...
