I know it has been a while since we have posted anything we have been a bit busy.
Over Veteran's Day Weekend Jay and I went down to Cinque Terre, Italy. Tyler & Nikki took the train over from Aviano and stayed the weekend with us as well! Cinque Terre is translated to "the Five Lands" and is made up of 5 towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We stayed in an apartment in Manarola, probably our favorite town! This region of Italy is known for their wine & pesto. This was our view from our Apartment! Not too shabby!
This is looking toward the south towards Riomaggiore in the morning as we were setting out for the day.
The bay in Manarola, the water was just beautiful! So blue and clear. We walked down there and there were tons of jelly fish floating in the water. Good thing we weren't swimming!
This is Manarola. You can see our apartment in the top left of the picture, to the right of the tall skinny building.
Tyler and Nikki on our hike.
Jay and I starting out. We didn't go much further on this trail because it was closed due to a Land slide. We actually weren't able to go to Corniglia because of it and the day we were going to go the trains were on strike.
This is on the Beach in Monterosso. It was a great beach just very different, very rocky. We sat there for a while and hung out.
A sweet moment between Tyler and Nikki.
Jay and I on the beach. I put my feet in the water and it actually wasn't too bad. Definitely would now have wanted to swim but it wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be.
All of the trails were through the vineyards in Cinque Terre. It was absolutely fabulous! About half way through we came across this man who was selling his own wine, limoncello, & water. Of course we had to partake! It was definitely my kinds of hiking!!
During the hike we had to cross over this bridge, we all thought it was the neatest thing. Something right out of a book or something!
Tyler, Nikki, & Jay along the hike.
This is looking towards the south at the other four towns. We were hiking towards Vernazza.
Taking a break from the hike to throw some rocks. The boys were trying to get the rocks in the water. Nikki and I were trying to watch but it was hard to see. You can see still how amazing the view is!
Vernazza, we were getting there right at sunset and the light was just amazing!
Watching the sunset along the coast.
This is in Manarola, all the boats were lined up on the road and when they needed to be lowered in the water via the crane. It was really cool to watch!
We went hiking around Manarola on Monday, this is another shot of the town!
Jay and I taking in the view.
Another view of the town and the vineyards! We went in the church that was really cool.
Jay and Tyler playing cards in our apartment. The last night there we got some food from the local grocery store and cooked dinner and played cards. It was a lot of fun!
Jay and I flew in and out of Pisa. On Tuesday we had a while before our flight so we walked around Pisa for a while. Of course we had to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I had never seen it before. There was an Italian Film crew filming a movie while we were there. It was pretty cool.
You can really see how much it is leaning compared to the other building.
It was a great trip. Cinque Terre is probably our favorite place that we have visited! The hiking and scenery were absolutely breathtaking!!
More posts to come soon!
Some of the other Santa's gathering...along with the ducks!
A "reindeer" that was brought out as well to run!
Jay lining up to start the race.
The Santa's running up the hill!
Jay and I at the end of the race with our medals.
The finish line.
It was a lot of fun. We wish more of our friends had been able to join in the fun but with it being a 4 day weekend everyone went out of town. It was fun none the less though!
