We arrived to Riomaggiore by train. It is the first town of cinque terre(translated five lands). The area lies south to Genova. If you ever visit Italy don't miss these 5 places. They are of enormous beauty and awesome for hiking.
The first thing we saw when we arrived with the train was the blue sky over crystal-clear water of the sea. The nice smell of salty water got into our noses and we knew instantly that it was a good decision to go there.
Then we turned around and saw this huge painting on the wall that illustrates the life of the people working with the sea. It was very impressive, sadly I could not get the whole picture on a photograph. But you can go there and see it for yourself.
After this stunning first impressions we needed to go through a tunnel to enter the town of Riomaggiore and to leave the station. The tunnel was decorated with lots of great mosaic artworks with maritime motives. I fell in love with the place before really arriving.
This is what expected us. Lots of beautiful little houses painted with different warm colours. We walked around town and enjoyed the lovely atmosphere of the place.
It is very touristy nowadays so things are quite expensive. Anyways if you have a higher budget than we had you will find lots of great handcrafts -clothing and jewellery as well as great food. We were hungry too so we decided to live like kings for the evening.
Pizza with pesto. The area is very famous for their basil pesto that is called pesto alla Genovese for Genua is not far. In combination with a cold beer it is just fantastic and one of the best things I ate in Italy.
We had some nice chats with the other people in the local and left after the football game was finished. I do not remember who played but it was some worldcup game or something like that. Then we started hiking out of town to look for a place to stay. It was kind of hard... The hotels there area not affordable for low budget travellers.
On our way we could not avoid stopping again and again to look down on the enchanted place we just had left. It was amazing to see the colours change with the sunset. The colours of the sea and the sky as well as those of the buildings that were hit by the last light of the day.
We decided to hide our tent in some olive plantation garden. It was not really a good place. It was really steep and uncomfortable because of huge stones and branches that where everywhere on the ground. We cleaned the floor a bit but still it was the worst camping ground I have ever been to. Also due to the paranoia to get caught on private land without asking before. In the end nothing bad happend of course.
This was the last shot of the night at a place where we smoked our first joint of the stuff we bought in Pisa. It was bad. Lots of seeds and no real effect. But who cares if you are in paradise.
The way to Ostia - 1
Ostia Antica -1.1
Bracciano -2
Viterbo -3
Tuscania -4
Lago di Bolsena -5
Pitigliano Part 1 -6
Pitigliano Part 2 -7
Sovana -8
Saturnia -9
Talamone & Siena -10
Volterra -11
Livorno & Dalai Lama
Pisa -13