Cinque Terre!

Day 4...

We woke up early today (although not as early as we were supposed to since I set our alarm for pm instead of am...oops!) and headed out to the Cinque Terre; five villages along the Italian Riviera. Once we got to the national park, we hopped on a train that took us to each village. Each village looked similar, but they had a few differences...we ate lunch along the water of one village, did a little shopping in another, hit the beach and ate gelato in the last one. We ended up skipping a couple because one is very hilly and has a ton of steps you have to walk up (not great for hot, tired kids) and one we passed up while we were on the train and we were too tired to backtrack. It was a pretty hot day, but we expected it to be on of our hottest outings.

 Everything was so colorful in Riomaggiore.

 Taking a break...lots of hills around here!

 It's great how quickly the girls got comfortable with Gavin and Ronan. We don't get to see them as much as we'd like, but the kids always seem to pick up right where they left off.

 Instead of taking the train between two of the towns, we decided to walk...well, Reed decided to walk, and we just followed.

The Via dell'Amore is the path connecting the towns of Manarola and Riomaggiore. It's one of the most popular site of Love Locks, where couples place locks along the path and then throw their key into the sea. It's a pretty cool sight.

 Ahhh, lunch! Hot dogs and pizza...and Coke! For some reason, the Coke in Italy tastes so much better than it does at home.

 Escaping the heat of the sun in the only bit of shade the kids could find.

 More gelato...and the smiles return!

Beach time!

It's amazing how clear the water is here...it's beautiful!

Never far from a packet of fruit snacks!

The Cinque Terre was really cool. I'm glad we did it even though we had to endure a long drive (where Sophie threw up...in a bag. Whew!), more winding roads, $100 worth of gas and the blazing sun. Sounds like a vacation to me. ;)