Cinque Terre, Italy

ART OF LIFE BY BOB ACOSTA & LILLIAN MONTERREY The Timbers at Chama Elk Hunt BOB's GALLERY OF ART LILLIAN & BOB OUR WEDDING at the ELVIS CHAPEL TRIP TO HAWAII TRIP TO ITALY - Rome, Florence & Venice TRIP TO ITALY - Cinque Terre TRIP TO VAIL COLORADO TRIP TO LAKE TAHOE TRIP TO ST LUCIA TRIP TO ST LUCIA #2 Trip to ALASKA Photos of my 67 GT500 #258 FLORIDA ROOF-TECH CORP's GANG HUNTING PICS 1 HUNTING PICS 2

Cinque Terre, Italy - Five fishing villages on the northwest coast, connected to each other by walking paths on the cliffs.

Place a summary of the images here.

Lillian going up the extremely long and painful steps to the entrance to our hotel

Flower on our balcony an church tower in background

This is how wide this street is. Very typical.

Once you climb the 200 steps at the top of the town hill, you get to the hotel gate where you only have another 4 stairs of about 50 steps each. No handicap accessible anything in all of Italy.

Kidding aside, yes you do a lot of walking but the scenery is spectacular.

The 5 towns are mainly inhabited by older people that are very friendly once you show interest. They are also active fishermen. All the boats seen in all the towns usually go out to sea at about 3:00 a.m. and haul in fresh fish to sell to local people and restaurants.

Funny story about this crowd. Lillian was eyeing some postcards at the Monterosso church and had in her hand a 5 euro bill to put in the donation box when one of the old ladies came up and wanted to see how many postcards she was taking and how much she was donating. After realizing the church was on the winning side she became very friendly and we started conversing. We both can speak some Italian and along with the Spanish we can communcate very well with the locals. The Italian gentleman in the photo approached us and it seemed they all know each other. He asked us where we were staying and where we ate the night before. We said at the Belvedere Ristotante and he mentioned he owns the restaurant at the bottom of the hill at the town's plaza. The lady on the right says to us "Lui e il propitario po no mangiare in propio ristorante" which translates into he may own the restaurant but he doesn't eat there himself. An Italian fight ensued. We enjoyed it tremendously.

Early evening view from our hotel balcony.

Bob climbing a tower. Amazing what pain-killers can do for you.

You go up or you go down. No level ground here.

Cleaning up after an all-night fishing trip.

Locals just hanging around shooting the breeze.

Manarola in the background. Click on the image to see the walkways all over town. See the teraces on top of the hill. The area is full of vinyards and olive groves.

View of Rio Maggiore in the background. Everything seems like it's a painting.

Rio Maggiore

Taking a rest on the "Via Del Amore" walkway between Rio Maggiore and Manarola. Very comfortable with paved floors, nice secure railing, places to rest and many photo ops.

Food was great. Fresh seafood everywhere.

Bob on another Battan Death March. Things we do for our wives...

Taken on the "Via Del Amore" .When we got from Rio Maggiore to Manarola and finished walking around Manarola we decided to walk to Corniglia. Bad mistake! The walkway is good at first, then gets muddy, rocky and in some parts with no safety railing. There is even a creaky wood and rope bridge like in the movies. We only crossed it cause we felt it was safer than walking back.

Bob and the Hat Lady in front of the Castello something-or-other

Bob

She has Vertigo so she didn't look down.

This lady was so happy when Lillian left her the change from a Euro that she asked for us to wait, she went in her backyard, picked tohuge big fresh yellow lemons and gave them to us. Very nice people here.

We got to and from the villages on this water bus. Ther are always on schedule.

Lillian admiring the olives on the branch outside of the Hotel Sten were we satyed at. We highly recommend the family run Hotel Steno.

Once we made it to Corniglia on the rough hiking trail, I found out that to get up to Corniglia we had to climb another 300 steps. Being right next to the train station, we decided to head back to Monterooso and our hotel to take a much needed rest. So, we walked to Corniglia but never saw Corniglia.

Bob

We were eating at Mikeys Ristorante in Monterosso when we see the Hotel Steno's owner Mateo coming in with Rick Steves and sat right next to us. We actually went to Cinque Terre because of his DVDs on the area.

We lover Cinque Terre and recommend everyone that goes to Italy to stay there several days.

If you go up, you gotta come down... sometime.