Bella Italia!

Note: This is a mega-post. There are two ways to go about it. Either you can read the whole thing (totally worth it in my opinon) or you can scroll through it and enjoy it like a picture book stopping only to read about the parts that look most interesting. Here we go!
So we went on our first offical trip of the year! We drove down the coast of Italy to check out Cinque Terre (pronounced Chink-way Tare-ah). It was Am-A-Za-Zing! That is all I have to say about that... Not really. I have lots and lots to say about it.
We headed out on Thursday afternoon and drove 3.5 hours (really a bit longer since we missed an exit) and spent the night in a city called Alessandria. Here is James and Brian just after we went through the Mont Blanc tunnel that is like 7 kilometers long. It connects France and Italy and saves hours of driving at a steep 60 Euro price. Worth it! Yes, it was cold up in the Italian Alps but that was not our destination. The next morning we drove 2 hours and arrived in Monterosso al Mare at about 10:30 am and parked the car outside the town (tourists aren't allowed to drive into the tiny town).
We walked into town and found our hotel on the beach with an amazing view of the ocean. The view from our room on Day 1. The town and..The beach.We then settled into checking out our home base town. Cinque Terre is a remote part of the Italian Riviera that is made up of 5 separate tiny villages tucked into the coastal cliffs. It is in a protected National Park and so it is being very carefully preserved.
We chose Monterosso al Mare as a home base because it is the only town with a true sand beach for Bimmy to play on. Our first day was spent relaxing. We had lunch in town at a pizzaria and then wandered around the town and let James play at the little park there.We walked all along the ocean (from the old village to the new village) and took our time taking in the awesome weather and views. We had dinner (James enjoying his spaghetti which was really yummy)and we were in bed by 8:30 pm. (I know that sounds boring to most of you but we were loving it!) There are things to do at night but with a small child our options were a bit limited.
Day 2 (Saturday) was spent hopping from one Cinque Terre town to another. We started bright and early (James is a pretty stable alarm clock usually awaking between 7:10 and 7:30). With a view like this wouldn't you want to get up early? We had breakfast at the hotel (included) and then jumped on a train to Riomaggiore. Looking from the water back up into Riomaggiore.We spent the next while walking slowly around checking out the town. After that we walked to the next town, Manarola (our favorite town). The "hike" from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the "Via del Amore" and it is mostly just a nice 20 min. stroll that is stroller friendly although we used a borrowed backpack for Bimmy.It was beautiful. The walk was right on the ocean and James thought it was super fun to check out every little rock and plant along the way. Although it was right on the cliffs this trail was guarded with a nice little metal fence that kept Bimmy safe even though he was free to roam. The 20 min. walk ended up taking us closer to 45 min. with Bimmy walking part of the way all by himself (with Brian "chasing" him). Brian really wanted to be out there on a boat fishing. The view from our hike as we were arriving to Manarola.Upon arrival in Manarola we walked around and checked out the little shops that were along the main road. The weather was so good (even better than the forcast) and we were warm enough to be in short sleeves with no jackets. After checking out the town we walked a few minutes along the path to Corniglia and checked out a little playground on the hill with a fantastic view of the water. James played for a while and Brian and I played right along with him.All the while looking out at this, and this, and this.Brian also got to watch some fishermen on the huge rocks below who were fishing in the ocean. He was really itching to go fishing and hopes that my dad will come out and join him for a fishing trip down there. We saw lots of fish being pulled out of the ocean. After playing for a while at the park we decided we could walk to Corniglia and so we started down the path and got about 500 feet until we discovered that the path was closed for repairs. Too bad. Instead we walked back to Manarola and had lunch then caught a train back to Monterosso al Mare (the train rides are literally about 5 min. long) where we all had a nap. Even walking from the train station back to the hotel for our nap we had amazing views.And yes, we got about 11 hours of sleep the night before and then we took a nap then next day! And we did that every day of our trip! It was great and very relaxing. Isn't that what vacations are all about?
After Bimmy's nap, we hopped back on the train to Corniglia and then from the train station we took a shuttle bus up to the this town which is located at the top of a big cliff. We checked out the tiny town (population 240 not including tourists) and decided to walk to the next town of Vernazza. We started walking along only to discover that the trail there was also closed. So we walked the 5 minutes back and caught the bus back to the train station and took the train to Vernazza instead. Vernazza was probably our second favorite town of all. It has lots of little shops along its main street that leads downhill to a little harbor. In the harbor there is a little square with restaurants and on the hill a ruined castle which we climed up to and checked out. And got some great views of the area. Brian and James about to climb to the top of the tower.Me at the top of the tower looking up the coast toward Monterosso al Mare. Overview of Vernazza looking down from the castle tower. View looking down the coast back towards the rest of the towns. Can you get over this? I couldn't. What an amazing earth we live on!Same view with my two favorite people!In the harbor there are huge rock to sit on and sun yourself. It would have been nice to sit on the rocks since the weather was so beautiful but James really has no fear and no sense of self-preservation as he really wanted to get in that water. It was not shallow. So we took turns making sure James didn't kill himself all the while taking in the beautiful sights. This town was the busiest of all the towns but at the same time the visitors are mellow and so the whole experience is still very relaxing. There was also a little park in Vernazza by the train station that we let James play at while we waited for the train back to Monterosso al Mare. We didn't even attempt the hike from Vernazza back to Monterosso as it is supposedly the most rugged and dangerous and with the other two closed trails I just assumed that it would be closed as well. I think they were getting ready for the busy season that starts around Easter time and cleaning up all the trails. We took the train back to Monterosso and had pasta and seafood for dinner and Pana Cotta for dessert.
On Sunday, day 3, we started again nice and early and took a train to Pisa to check out the Leaning Tower. It was only a bit over an hour to get out there by train. We arrived and walked form the train station to the tower (about a mile or so). This is our first view of the tower. I love this picture because it is just so classic the way the old and the new mingle in these historic places. I love it! One second you are walking down a regular street then all of a sudden, BAM, and you get this amazing view of an 800 year old tower about to fall over. It was the most beautiful day of all! It was probably about 75 degrees and clear and sunny. James really enjoyed the nice green grass to play on.The tower is quite cool to see in person. Apparently it took 177 years to build. Hello! 177 years? Wow. Talk about dedication. And it was only meant to be a compliment to the Duomo in the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). The buildings are quite astonishing to see in person. Something that America just doesn't have.It is true that they just don't build 'em like they used to. Me and James in front of the tower. It leans 12 ft. 10 in. from where it would be if it was verticle. And that is only because they jacked it back up a bit to make it safe for people to tour it. It used to lean over 16 ft. to one side. We only spent about 2 hours in Pisa. Just enough time to check out the tower and have lunch and a gelatto cone on the way out. Then we hopped back on the train back to Monterosso and took our nap.
Sunday afternoon we just played on the beach and at the park with Bimmy. Here he is trying to throw a rock. He is still working on the letting go thing. Brian on the beach.James showing us the water. He was pretty much yelling and pointing at it like if he didn't tell us it was there then we were sure to miss it. I love how everything is such a big deal to him. Everything. Brian is carefully watching to be sure James is safely out of the water. James just checking things out. Every little rock held some sort of facination for him. He chased the water and Brian was always there to pull him out of the way when it chased him back.We decided not to venture out to a restaurant but to put Bimmy to bed early so Brian went and got some takeout pizza (the good Italian kind, not Domino's), salad and dessert while I worked on some homework that had to be submitted. This was our last sunset.We still went to bed really early and James woke up extra early on Monday (6:30) and we got up and got things packed up and out to the car. We had breakfast and started home by 8:45 am. It took us only 5 hours and 10 min. to get home and James was not happy the entire way but he did pretty good. A rare moment when James is actually sleeping in the car. Miracle! We had a lot of fun and we are already looking forward to our next trip hopefully in April!!
We missed y'all and wish you could have joined us. Maybe next time. There are plenty more places on our list to visit.