Italy - The Villages of Cinque Terre

How did we pass our time in Cinque Terre?  By visiting all five villages of course.  While the villages all closely resemble each other at first glance, they each have their own flavor we soon discovered. 

The first village we visited was Vernazza.   

I know I shouldn't play favorites, but Vernazza stole my heart the very first time I walked her cobblestone street (and yes, there is only one street).   

We stayed in the hills above this lovely little town and often started and ended our day here.  It came to feel like our hometown in Cinque Terre, and maybe that's why I developed such a strong affection for it.   

Or maybe it's because this adorable little village that only takes five minutes to walk from end to end seems to spill out of the valley into the Mediterranean Sea...

Or maybe it's the sea urchins lurking in the pools of crystal clear water that collect along the rocky shore that the girls begged to explore every chance they got...

Or maybe it's the colorful buildings all snuggled together on the shore of the Sea with laundry hanging from the windows that reminds you there are people lucky enough to actually call this fairytale place home... 

Or maybe it's because this is a profession here - water taxi operator...

And this is your office - the Mediterranean Sea.  Are you starting to see why I liked this little village?

We did visit the rest of the villages during our stay as well.  Our first morning in Cinque Terre we strapped on our hiking shoes and we were off.  

Our guide was these signs marked with red and white.  Follow the correct sign and hopefully you will end up in the right place.

Keep your eyes open when hiking these trails because you never know where the red and white markings might pop up to point the way. 

Our destination that morning - the village of Monterroso.  

We didn't see much for beaches along the rugged coast of the Mediterranean until we visited Monterroso.   After our long hike, we grabbed a couple of pizzas and some cold drinks and sat on a bench overlooking the beach as we ate.  Not a bad way to spend a day.

We hiked back to Vernazza after lunch taking a different path that runs right along the Sea.  It's quite a precarious trail at times, but the view was amazing!  We caught glimpses of our little village of Vernazza as we made our way back. 

Day two we decided to try a different mode of transportation, a ferry.   We boarded the ferry right at the end of the pier in Vernazza and out onto the beautiful blue Mediterranean water we went.

 

We passed the village of Corniglia sitting high on a rocky outcrop...

And then Manarola...

But our destination that day was the village of Riomaggiore, the last of the five villages, and that is where the ferry deposited us... 

And where we were greeted by the village pussycat.  

The ferry ride was amazing, but getting on and off the boat was a bit dicey as it bobbed up and down with the waves of the Sea.  

We walked the street (again there is no plural at the end of the word "street" because these really are tiny villages) of Riomaggiore for a bit before heading up into the hills on foot towards one of the villages we had passed early on the boat, Manarola.  

After a rugged climb and descent, we found a place to enjoy some food and refreshments...

While watching the colors of the village change in the light of the setting sun. 

And about that setting sun...

We decided to take the easy route back to our little village of Vernazza - the train.  Yes there are trains that actually run between the five villages, although at first glance it's hard to image because of the rugged coastline.  But the trains have a secret - they cut through tunnels in the hills and pop out only when arriving at each village.  And do you know what that means for those who choose to use the train in Cinque Terre?  

You get a view like this while you wait for your train.  

We still had one more village to explore - Corniglia.  We headed there via train on the morning of our last full day in Cinque Terre.  

Upon arriving in Corniglia via train there are stairs to climb, and climb, and climb to actually get up to the village.  

After wandering the village a bit, we set off on our last hike in Cinque Terre.  We were hiking to the village of Manarola.  As with the other hikes, we had to go up, up, up and then down, down, down...

but this hike also took us right through a terraced vineyard....

 

And through someones yard.  We passed right by their front door, or maybe it was the back door (it's hard to tell when your house is sitting on a terrace) and we could see a man inside doing his laundry.  We felt like we were invading his privacy, but that's just where this trail took us.  There was no other route.  I'm guessing he's used to strangers passing right by his house.  He probably didn't even notice us.  

The house and the vineyard seems to just hang in the air over the Mediterranean.  

That people can take a rugged rocky steep hillside (and this is no small hill mind you) where one wrong move earns you a quick trip straight down to the Sea and turn it into this beautiful home and vineyard - it's simply amazing, or maybe crazy.  

But with a view like this and a perfect climate, can you really blame them?  

The last part of our hike would take us down 1200 stairs (there is a reason we decided to start at the other end of this hike)...

And into the village of Manarola from where we had watched the sun sink into the Mediterranean Sea the night before.  

And that was our trip to Cinque Terre.  

A perfect place to visit.  

I've got nothing left to say about it... 

Except that you should go.

If these pictures can't convince you... 

Then there's really nothing left to say.

May and June in England

Springtime in England.  The lush rolling hillsides are covered in every shade of green you can imagine and colorful wildflowers are everywhere.  This is how I've always pictured England to be and now I can verify that it's true - that is exactly what it looks like here in Spring.

Ellie and Leah are still in school which is strange.  They won't be done until July 10.  

I've been missing their company at home the past few weeks.  I think it's because they are usually by my side for all of June.  We go berry picking in June, and we head to the park now and then to pass away a lazy afternoon.   We sit out on the front porch eating lunch together everyday and watching the bees and butterflies flitting around the flowers we've planted together.  We'll watch the cherry tomato that's planted out front closely as the plump little circles get larger and larger and then one day, one of them will come running into the house to show the first ripe fruit to me before they plop it into their mouth.  

But not this year.  This year is different because they are still in school and we are living in England.  We are still doing homework and getting up early each day.  We are still packing lunches and making sure the swimming suit and towel are clean and packed every Thursday for PE.  I'm enjoying it here in England, but at the same time, I'm missing our usual lazy days of June back in Indiana.  

I can't complain too much though because it's places like this (see photo above) where we get to spend our weekends.  The pictures I’m sharing today are from a place in the Peak District in Derbyshire called Chatsworth.  Chatsworth is a beautiful estate home surrounded by acres upon acres of beautiful gardens and land.  Saturday was a gorgeous day here in England so we packed a picnic and headed to Chatsworth to spend a wonderful day wandering the gardens.   

 

Do you see a new face in the crowd?  That's Taylor, my niece from Minnesota.  Isn't she cute?

She's staying with us for awhile and we LOVE having her here.  It's like the girls suddenly have a big sister and they are eating it up.  I enjoy having her company around the house during the day as well.  And of course we are all having fun showing her life here in merry old England, an amazing experience for an 18 soon to be 19 year old to have. 

Taylor arrived here with my sister Jodi a couple weeks back.  They visited Paris for a week and then flew here to England to stay with us.  Jodi has returned to her normal life back in Minnesota now while Taylor stayed on with us.  One of the very best things about this experience is that is also offers the chance for my family to come and visit Europe.  Would they have done this on their own otherwise - maybe.  But it certainly helps to have someone you know already there to nudge you along.  The week Jodi was here flew by quickly, but we all so enjoyed her company and getting the chance to show her some of England.  

 

We had our first visitors from the US back in May - my sister Sheryl and her husband Bob.  That's why I missed the May in England post, but that’s okay because May and June here in England have been very similar.  The weather is nice – not too cool (most days anyway) and not to hot.  We’ve been enjoying the lack of spring storms here, well the severe ones anyway.  I wouldn’t mind to hear some good old roof shaking claps of thunder now and again, but looks like we’ll have to wait another year until we get back to Indiana for that. 

We had a wonderful visit with Sheryl and Bob.  It was so good to have familiar faces here with us after 8 months and we enjoyed showing them around where we live.  They stayed with us for several days, and then ventured off to London on their own for a couple of days.  We all joined up again at the airport in London and flew off to Norway for a week.  I’ll be sharing the Norway pictures soon.

And that is about it - May and June in England.  Flowers, green, family, and trips.  That about sums it up.  I leave you today with a few more pictures from Chatsworth because it is B E A U T I F U L there.

A champagne bar truck that was parked by the lawn awaiting the crowd that would be attending an outdoor concert at Chatsworth that evening.  Is this adorable or what!!!  I want to take it home and park it in my driveway.

There was a maze.  From the outside, it didn't look that big, or that hard.  

Then we entered it... and got lost.  

Seriously, we walked around and around and around for a long time (it was probably about 10 minutes, but it sure felt longer than that).  

Triumphant at last!  And a good thing too because we weren't leaving that darn maze until we solved it.

There's Ellie.  A benefit of having your older cousin staying with you - really cute hair braiding!  

And there she is again, on her bum.  She and Leah have been going cartwheel crazy lately and the humongous lawn at Chatsworth beckoned them.  

And there is Leah.  She wants to do her own hair - little miss independent!

She's also an aspiring rock climber.  Let's step back from the edge now Leah.

And the rest of the photos are just Chatsworth. Hope you enjoy!