Cinque Terre: Favorite Place On The Planet. Hands Down.

The start of our hike. BEAUTIFUL Vernazza, the second village

(of the five in Cinque Terre). This is were we stayed.

Cinque Terre is the region of five (cinque) villages on the beautiful, most amazing, Northwest Italian coast. I cannot say this enough, Cinque Terre is my favorite place on the planet. As soon as we arrived, I knew it would be. I had heard about it from my sister Kim and her husband Josh, who had been there 2 years prior and totally fell in love. You can hike between all of the villages, through the hills, along the ocean, beautiful. So, we started in Vernazza, where we were staying, and went to the next three villages. It was the most amazingly beautiful hike I have ever done. Above is a view of Vernazza at the start of our hike. I apologize for the multiple pics, but I have soooo many more I wish I could post, but I will spare you.

Locks along "Lover's Lane" (Via dell'Amore) between the villages of Manarola and Riomaggiore.
My lock is the newest looking gold lock on the top middle.

The hike became more and more beautiful the further we went and the closer we hiked down to the ocean. There was a section of the trail that was sheer up from the ocean, we were walking in half tunnels carved out in the cliffs, it was called the "Lover's Lane" (come to find out later). There were graffitied like a mofo, but it worked. I would never really say that graffiti was beautiful, but I think that this walk would not be the same without it. I was mesmerized. We kept noticing that there were random locks (as above) all over fences lining the trail. A little confusing. Then, we can upon all the graffiti and, what I can only assume was called, the "Lover's Chair" with locks on the railings surrounding it. I had to put my lock on there, obviously. I had to leave my mark on Italy. I have never been so excited in my life. It was sooo great!!

Me and my new Italian best friends from the Blue Marlin Bar in Vernazza.
Mossimo, Jeffrey, and Perfection (as Kim and I liked to call him)

We finished the magnificent hike and had an amazing dinner in Vernazza. Where Kim and David proceeded to chat up a couple of older ladies. Next thing you know, they are offering to do David's laundry if he will haul their bags down the stairs from their hotel in the morning. Done and done. Random!!! We had read in the Rick Steves book (we called him our fourth traveling companion, he made our Italy trip that much better) that the best local bar was the Blue Marlin. So, obviously, we headed down there. Oooooooh man, we had no idea what we were in for. BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE! Yep, I just said that. We proceeded to drink a ton, I was watching all the locals guys with their dreads (I looooooove dread locks, fyi). Hotties with naughty bodies indeed. Just saying. There was a local pommeranian that was hilarious. He/she pranced in the bar, and noone even noticed, like it happened all the time. Soo awesome! So, I was taking my usually ridiculous self pics and pictures of the hot bartenders and awesome bar owner, Mossimo, bustin a move with drum sticks on liquor bottles behind the bar.

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Next thing you know, Mossimo is talking to me. He is asking me about taking pictures, yada yada. He asked if I would take more and email them to him. HELLLLLL YEAH!!!! It's on bitches! At this point I was so freaking excited/buzzed that I could hardly contain myself. After bartender Jeffrey (born in CA, but Italian - awesome!) made us awesome drinks and shots all night, I took a shitton of pics, and probably said "this is my favorite bar on the planet" about 100 times, the bar was closing and it was time to head out. I went over to Mossimo and told him we were leaving, but I wanted a pic of the three of them. He made Jeffrey and Perfection stop making drinks and get together for a pic for me. Precious, obviously. Then, I was like, I want to be in one with you all, too. Mossimo, "yessss!!! get back here" (behind the bar). That is the picture above. Then I said goodbye to Mossimo and we made sure that I would email him the pics. He hugged me and kissed me on each cheek (I almost died). I was in love... Said goodbye to Jeffrey, he was the best, and we made our way down to the water front, then back to our room!!! TOP NIGHT!!!

The next day, we packed up and headed to the first village, Monterosso to lay on the beach. (They have the only beach in Cinque Terre). It was a glorious, relaxing day. From where we sat on the beach, we could see the other 4 villages along the coast (above pic). Absolutely amazing!!!! If you ever go to Italy, you HAVE to go to Cinque Terre. Next time I go to Italy, I want to spend the majority of my time there, it is totally worth it!