Riomaggiore - an Eternity would be too short

Cinque Terre was another site, like Santorini or Athens, that I dreamed about visiting everyday since first spotting a photo online. Bright buildings in hues of pink, orange, red, and yellow lined up against steep cliffs and the crashing Mediterranean Sea combine to create five of the most picturesque villages in the world. 

We caught the train from Milan to Riomaggiore with a quick stop over in Genoa. Unfortunately we ended up waiting at the Riomaggiore train station for a bit due to a miscommunication with Lorenza, the owner of our B&B, however all was quickly forgotten upon entering our beautiful room at Casa Lorenza - complete with en-suite bathroom, a couple bottles of beer as a welcome gift, and a private balcony overlooking the entire town. 

Sunset from our balcony

Brilliant colours of Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore's centre

Laundry drying in the sun

The room was so beautiful it became difficult to leave but after a leisurely morning and breakfast on the balcony we headed out to explore the town, with just a bit of separation anxiety. Riomaggiore is quite small, as are all the towns in Cinque Terre, and we were able to thoroughly explore it in just a few hours. 

The town has a rocky beach area as well as the ruins of an old castle perched at the highest point on the cliff. We also found two lovely churches, the grey and white stripes we later found out are common in many churches in the region. 

Flowers still in bloom

Colourful buildings line the small harbour

Path taking you towards the beach area

Church interior stripped in gray and white

Besides the sights, we found some amazing food in Riomaggiore. The best focaccia I've ever eaten (good plain for breakfast as well as covered in pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella for lunch), as well as homemade pasta to-go (made as you wait gnocchi with pomodoro sauce in an adorable fold-up Chinese food box) and fresh local prosciutto and tallegio cheese from the deli. In addition to being delicious and amazingly fresh, everything was really afforable.

After two wonderful days exploring the area the rain found us again, shutting down the ferry service and effectively forcing us indoors for most of the day. Although we'd planned to visit Porto Venere - a small town outside of the Cinque Terre area yet just as pretty - we were unable to get there without the ferry (no train service to the town). We were a bit upset but also embraced a day of relaxing in our room and storm watching from the balcony (have I mentioned we had our own private balcony?). Alas, missing out on Porto Venere gives us a great reason to visit again!

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