Ok, perhaps fools is a little harsh.  Of course, the people I’m about to describe are not necessarily fools. They just looked a bit foolish for a moment.  And I captured that moment on camera.

Our route of travel from Levanto to Florence took us by Pisa, so how could we not stop and see the famous tower?  The tower was pretty cool, but we spent most of our time watching the other tourists attempting to photograph one another holding up the tower, knocking it over, kicking it down, stabbing it, etc.  Here are a few examples:

So there you have it - humans at their finest.  But of course, we too are just simple humans so how could we not join in on the fun?

We decided to pay a visit to Cinque Terre, the beautiful region along the north western Italian coast.  Cinque Terre, which translates to 5 lands, is a collection of five small villages along a stretch of rugged coastline connected only by a train and hiking paths.  

Home Base: Levanto
I had visited the area about 12 years ago with a couple of friends and hiked two segments of the trail, but Chris had never been.  Twelve years ago, my friends and I were backpacking so we took the train to Monterosso (the northern most of the 5 towns) and used it as our home base.  This time, Chris and I did things differently since we had a car and I suspected the  5 towns would be really crowded. Therefore, we based ourselves in a town called Levanto at the northern end of Cinque Terre, where we could easily catch the train to one of the 5 towns to begin our hike.  We stayed in a small B&B called Rosa dei Venti, located right near the beach & downtown area.  The B&B is run by a man named Marco and his sweet mother, Mamma Rosa, who greeted us each morning with a big smile and a hug, and then cooked us an awesome breakfast! She didn't speak any English but still talked to us a lot in Italian and somehow we managed to communicate with each other. 

Levanto has a large beach that is half public and half private. They also have many little restaurants, shops and gelato stands. We had a really nice dinner at L'Articiocca.

Cinque Terre Day Pass
Early the next morning we walked about 15 minutes to the Levanto train station and bought two passes for Cinque Terre - for 10 Euros, you get access to all the hiking trails and unlimited rides on the train between the towns.  

Crowded Terre
When we arrived, my suspicions were confirmed -  tourism in Cinque Terra has exploded in recent years.  When I was here 12 years ago, the trails were free to hike and we saw very few other people.  This time, the place was packed.  I think this is in part due to the fact that I was here in April instead of July, and in part because Rick Steves found out about it and put it in a guide book.  I suppose this is great for the local economy, but certainly creates a different dynamic for a visitor. The thing that was different this time around was that the trails were wider and had guardrails. When I was here 12 years ago I remember hiking trails just wide enough for one person with steep drop-offs and no guardrails.  Now that there is a lot of two way traffic and families with children hiking the trail, the national park had to take some safety precautions. 

Corniglia
Unfortunately, upon buying our tickets, we found out that for some reason only one segment of the trail was open for hiking.  The good news was, this meant we didn't have to decide which sections we wanted to hike.  We took the train to the third town of Corniglia, and then hiked back toward the second town of Vernazza.  Corniglia is located on top of the cliffs, while Vernaza is by the water, so the hike was mostly downhill!

The Things We Do for a Beach...
We decided to hike down to a beach that was at the base of the hills outside of Corniglia called Guvano Beach.  The beach was clearly marked on our Cinque Terre map, but on the path we only saw one way to access the beach:

We debated it, but then decided to go down the path a little to see what it was like.  It turned out to be an incredibly steep, windy path down the side of the mountain through some pretty dense vegetation.  It was a little scary but we decided to stick it out, as we knew there was only one section of the main path open to us that day.  Plus it was HOT.  It took us about 30 minutes to negotiate the steep path down, and we eventually found our way to the beach.  The good news is that the difficult descent meant the beach was almost empty, which was a nice break from the crowds above.

Naked People
Upon approaching the beach we discovered the other reason why this beach was not that crowded: it was a nudists' beach.  We did not mind sharing the beach with the nudists, but decided it would be polite to give them a wide berth, and plopped down at the other end of the beach.  This worked out well as this was the first time we felt like we had a beach to ourselves in Europe.  We took a dip, had some lunch and stuck around for another hour or so before continuing on.  

Decision: Cold Dark Hole or Hot Cliff Climb?
Before making our way back up the mountain side, we tried to find out if there was another way to get back up to the main path.  A local kid directed us to an abandoned railroad tunnel, which he said led back to Corniglia.  The tunnel was pitch black, and about a kilometer long.  We had a flashlight and headlamp in our bag, so decided to try it out.

About five minutes into the tunnel, however, we thought better of this plan.  As the light from the tunnel entrance dwindled behind us, it became clear that our two puny flashlights were not cutting it in the complete darkness.  We had no idea exactly how far the hike through the tunnel was going to be, and what sort of creatures - animal or human - could be waiting for us within.  We decided to turn around and brave the ascent back up the steamy cliffside.

Fortunately, the hike back up the cliffside was much easier than the hike down.  We continued on toward Vernazza and found a place where we could climb out onto someone's roof to survey the view:

Vernazza
From here, the hike to Vernazza took another hour or so.  I remembered thinking that Vernazza was the prettiest town last time I was here, and I was not disappointed this time around either!  

While the view of Vernazza from Corniglia is beautiful, I still think the view coming to Vernazza from the other side (Monterosso) was the best.  Unfortunately that trail was closed this time around.

Vernazza was overwhelmingly crowded. After spending about 5 minutes in the main piazza, we hiked up to the top of the town and found a nice quiet nook with a view where we took a break.  At this point it was getting a bit late, so we decided to head back to Levanto for dinner, hopped back on the train, and we were back at our B&B in just 15 minutes!  We had a nice night strolling through Levanto before continuing on to Florence the next day. 

Lake Como - home to charming mountain-climbing villages, sweeping views, jasmine-scented gardens and George Clooney.  While we didn't get to see the latter, we enjoyed the other beauties from this very special place in the world.

Bellagio is centrally situated at the center of the Y, so you have lake views all around.  Across the lake from Bellagio to the east is the town of Menaggio, and across the lake to the west is the town of Varenna.  These three villages are the most popular vacation destinations, so there are regular ferries running between the three towns.  At the southern tip of the lake is the city of Como, which we drove through on our way to Bellagio.  Don't stay here because it's a more of an industrial city, and the southern part of the lake is polluted, so you can't swim in it.  The northern part is fed by runoff from the Alps, so it features crystal clear waters and beautiful vistas.

We rented a 1-bedroom apartment at Casa la Rosa, about a ten minute walk outside of town.  We were up a slight hill, which gave us a beautiful view!

While it took us 10 minutes to walk down to town, it took us 15 minutes to walk back up to the apartment. A trade off for the nice view was a steep climb up the hill.  In order to distract ourselves during the ascent, we played a movie-themed 20 questions. It helped a lot! 

The apartment was huge by Italy standards - big living/dining/kitchen area and an equally large bedroom. We also had our own washer which was key! Our only complaint was one all too common in Italy: the beds were uncomfortable - lumpy to be specific. This would be the first of many tough mattress experiences as we are in Italy for 3 weeks!  

Another added bonus to renting an apartment at Casa la Rosa is that the owner, Marco's, family runs a take-out place in Bellagio. They are super nice people and never charged us full price when we stopped by to purchase paninis, gelato, pizza or wine. 

We spent our first day in town walking around and checking out Bellagio and some of the lake shore.  Bellagio is a very nice little town, consisting of two main streets featuring lots of restaurants, bars and shops.  It gets very crowded during the day - especially on the weekends - when people come to visit on the ferry from either Menaggio or Varenna, but quiets down nicely in the evenings.  

The next morning, we rented kayaks to see more of the lake and villages, while getting a workout.  In the afternoon, we took the ferry over to the town of Varenna, which is similar to Bellagio.  It was Sunday, and many of the shops were closed, but it was a really pretty little town to walk around.  

The food in Lake Como is nothing original, but we found a couple of good spots. La Fontana is a nice place on a side street in Bellagio with standard Italian fare.  We also found a neighborhood restaurant down the street from our apartment called La Bellagina, which had decent food and a really nice view of the lake.

We loved Lake Como - it's one of the most picturesque places we've seen thus far and that is saying something after coming from Switzerland! I'll leave you with this sunset view over the mountains...