Cinque Terre

Our first day in Italy!!
Today's excursion was to the Cinque Terre. (five Lands). These 5 small villages were totally isolated until the 1960s. Tiny villages by the sea, with homes painted in bright colours of nature.  In the past the people were fishermen and farmers, primarily growing grapes for wine on extremely steep slopes.
Now tourism is their primary income.  These small villages were packed with tourists like us!!
We visited 3 of the villages.  First in this set of photos is Manarola which is the only one you can access by car or bus in this instance.  We walked down the steep path to reach it.
The sea was the brightest clearest turquoise and that contrasted with the reds and oranges of the houses.  So picturesque.

From Manarola we caught a packed ferry which passed Corniglia and dropped us at Vernazza.
This tiny village has a population of 400 but it seethed with people.  There must have been thousands there with us.
The temperature exceeded 33 Celsius by the time we got there.  It was interesting how each village had a different feel to it. This one had a little harbour with boats tied up which made for some nice photos.
There was a delightful church that combined Gothic with Romanesque architecture.

Back on the ferry, we made the short trip to Monterosso, probably the largest of the villages. Here we ate lunch in a small but busy restaurant (mixed seafood for me and seafood spaghetti for Steve)
Monterosso is split in two by a hill and you can access each side via a tunnel.  the two sides are quite different. One being more modern and with a larger beach and a train station for access out if Cinque Terre.
This was the hottest day so far but arguably the best sightseeing day.
Our tour guide Andrea was excellent and made the trip entertaining and informative but left us plenty of time to explore.
Onwards tomorrow to Rome.