View from the top of a mountain

                                
                                                      

Cinque Terre - Cliff-side Camping 

We followed our GPS and arrived in a place called La Spezia in the early evening, and we were recommended to find a camp site in Lerici, a nearby small town that we could take the ferry from to explore the islands the next day. We set off towards Lerici, and were directed up the side of a mountain on narrow dirt roads.

After driving on the treacherous mountain roads, we finally came to our destination, basically near the top of a mountain. The closest town was a fairly grueling 15 minute walk away, directly uphill, which was where we went to eat each night and spend most of our time. Our campsite was absolutely breathtaking. It was on the edge of a cliff, overlooking an absolutely gorgeous bay. We went swimming immediately when we arrived. Although the view from our campsite was so lovely, we were forced out of our tent around 7am each morning because of the stifling heat that had reached somewhere around 36 degrees C at that point. The last morning in Lerici, we took a ferry to Cinque Terra, and spent a day on the water and exploring the islands of Vernazza and Riomaggiore. Cinque Terra was a lovely place, and pretty close to what I had dreamed Italy would be like. There were lovely houses painted in bright colours, cobblestone alleyways, open air markets and shops, olive trees growing in grassy patches in parts of the mountains, and gorgeous coastline views with turquoise waters. As with most parts of Italy that we traveled to, the locals seemed as though they would never want to, or even think about traveling or going anywhere else other than the paradise they called home.