Cinque Terre

Apologies in advance if when I come back home I've added the word y'all to my vocabulary. For the 3 days I was in the Cinque Terre I hung out with a group of Americans and there was a lot of the Y-word being bandied about.

The Cinque Terre is a group of 5 villages along the Italian Riveria. The coastal hike spanning the villages is 9km long and has some breathtaking viewpoints. It was originally built by the farmers of the towns - I want to say because they needed to stratify the surrounding lands for agriculture but I could be very very wrong. The towns themselves are vibrant and really worthwhile to spend some time in as well - built directly into the cliffside, it seems as if the houses are built on top of each other (hopefully some of the pictures can capture this).

This stop was meant to get away from the cities and get a good amount of R&R in. I was also really interested in giving some of my time back to the area. Apparently the massive influx of tourists over the past 10 years or so has started to cause a lot of erosion on the trails and in my guidebook it mentions that travellers can volunteer with the local park service to help maintain the trails. I was pretty stoked by this, thinking I could help shore up the integrity of the trail with some locals... unfortunately as it turns out you're nothing more than a glorified garbage-picker. Ah but I had good intentions!

And while my tastes for Italian art may still need some acquiring I think I'm starting to take a liking to Italian wine. I may be getting the hang of this 'culture' thing afterall!

Still no pictures - hopefully tomorrow I'll get them up.

Hope y'all are doooing wellll.