Cinque Terre

How we got there: Traveling to the region from Nice was quite easy. At the central train station in Nice you can book a ticket all the way through to Italy on the Thello train service. Premiere class offered functioning chargers and solid air condition. A transfer at Genoa was required. We opted to stay in a small town called La Spezia. We spent one night at the Hotel Firenze E Continentale which was literally a 3 minute walk to the train station. We opted for this town so that on our return journey from Cinque Terre we could easily grab our bags and hop on the train to Rome.[wpvideo YLgoRVx2 ]La Spezia: a small quaint town good for an evening stroll and dinner but mostly a town of convenience for the Cinque Terre adventure.For dinner in La Spezia: the top ranked restaraunt on trip advisor was the Osteria Della Corte. Unfortunately it's so popular that even on a random week night it was fully booked. So while we didn't dine there, do make a reservation if it's your first choice. We ended up settling into a a quaint corner table at Joes Bistrot where I highly recommend the fried ravioli stuffed with Pesto. Any dish with pesto was wonderful and a must given the regions roots to pesto.[wpvideo QXs0nzC7 ]Cinque Terre: WOW wow wow. There is not much to write here as the photos truly speak to the splendor and true beauty of this magical place.There are many variations on how to hike the 5 core components of the Cinque Terre chain. My only word of caution is to check with your hotel to see if any sections are temporarily closed so that you can better plan your route. Additionally I cannot stress enough to bring adequate hydration, sun tan lotion and plan for stairs. We only hiked one core section which ended up being about 18000 steps and 108 stair equivalents. Remember the train connects all five towns so you can easily minimize the hike. That being said it was well worth it to hike even a smallPart of this trail.