Well another week in Italy has flown by, nothing much to report during the week but we had a really fun weekend. 
Friday after Brett got off work we headed off to Cinque Terre for the weekend. It is about 3.5 hours from our house so we stayed in a little apartment there for 2 nights. The Cinque Terre is a stretch of five towns along the Italian Riviera. Italy has declared this region a National Park-(towns and all). The towns are all traffic free so to get from town to town you can use the train or hike along the trail to the next town.
We stayed in the tiny town of Manarola, we could look out our window and see the ocean. We arrived late on Friday night and had to park our car at the top of the hill and walk down to the town. It was quite a walk with the 3 kids and luggage and several stairs.
Saturday morning was our first look at the Cinque Terre since it was dark when we arrived. Wow! This place was very pretty. We walked down to the train station and bought an all day train and trail pass so we could explore the other 4 towns. We took a 30 minute hike to the first town Riomaggiore we walked right along the cliff overlooking the ocean, it was gorgeous!
It was a beautiful sunny day and a nice break from the city. We took the train to the next town of Vernazza this was my favorite of the 5 towns. We walked down to the harbor where there were little fishing boats, a kids’ beach, a big clock tower and an old castle. 
We walked up to the top of the castle and climbed the tower and got a good view of the other Cinque Terre towns peeking out from jags in the rugged coastline. From Vernazza we did a good hike to the next town which took us about 2 hrs up a lot of steep stairs. Brett carried Allden in the backpack and the girls did pretty good hiking, we just had to take breaks and sing songs to keep them going.
Most people on the trail were amazed that we could hike with 3 small children, but we did it! 
We even saw a few cactus on the trail and it reminded us of our home in Arizona. We got on the train again for a short ride to Monterosso the biggest Cinque Terre town and more like a resort with cars, hotels etc. We walked around the town for a little while and found some English speaking tourists to talk to. 
Everyone was worn out after a lot of walking so we headed back to the train and to the apartment. It’s nice to rent an apartment instead of a hotel since we have our own little kitchen to fix dinner. It’s difficult to take the kids out to dinner especially when we have to wait a long time for the food. We had a great day with many good memories.
Sunday morning we checked out of the apartment and made the hike back to our car at the top of the hill. We drove around forever trying to find the church but finally found it just in time for sacrament meeting. The people here were very warm and friendly. They were doing the Primary Program and they wanted the girls to sit up front with the other kids. There were only 3 kids in the Primary! Alana and Addy knew all the songs but the other kids were singing in Italian and they didn’t know what to do so they just stood up there and smiled.
After church we drove to Pisa and saw the Leaning Tower.
It was a bit of a disappointment, as it seemed like a giant tourst trap and was surrounded by a bunch of souvenir stands and tons of tourists. We saw Pisa’s important sites the cathedral, baptistry and the tipsy bell tower. Yes, the tower leans, we took lots of photo’s, walked around and then left, another fun day in Italy!
Friday after Brett got off work we headed off to Cinque Terre for the weekend. It is about 3.5 hours from our house so we stayed in a little apartment there for 2 nights. The Cinque Terre is a stretch of five towns along the Italian Riviera. Italy has declared this region a National Park-(towns and all). The towns are all traffic free so to get from town to town you can use the train or hike along the trail to the next town.
We stayed in the tiny town of Manarola, we could look out our window and see the ocean. We arrived late on Friday night and had to park our car at the top of the hill and walk down to the town. It was quite a walk with the 3 kids and luggage and several stairs.Saturday morning was our first look at the Cinque Terre since it was dark when we arrived. Wow! This place was very pretty. We walked down to the train station and bought an all day train and trail pass so we could explore the other 4 towns. We took a 30 minute hike to the first town Riomaggiore we walked right along the cliff overlooking the ocean, it was gorgeous!
It was a beautiful sunny day and a nice break from the city. We took the train to the next town of Vernazza this was my favorite of the 5 towns. We walked down to the harbor where there were little fishing boats, a kids’ beach, a big clock tower and an old castle. We walked up to the top of the castle and climbed the tower and got a good view of the other Cinque Terre towns peeking out from jags in the rugged coastline. From Vernazza we did a good hike to the next town which took us about 2 hrs up a lot of steep stairs. Brett carried Allden in the backpack and the girls did pretty good hiking, we just had to take breaks and sing songs to keep them going. Most people on the trail were amazed that we could hike with 3 small children, but we did it! We even saw a few cactus on the trail and it reminded us of our home in Arizona. We got on the train again for a short ride to Monterosso the biggest Cinque Terre town and more like a resort with cars, hotels etc. We walked around the town for a little while and found some English speaking tourists to talk to. Everyone was worn out after a lot of walking so we headed back to the train and to the apartment. It’s nice to rent an apartment instead of a hotel since we have our own little kitchen to fix dinner. It’s difficult to take the kids out to dinner especially when we have to wait a long time for the food. We had a great day with many good memories.Sunday morning we checked out of the apartment and made the hike back to our car at the top of the hill. We drove around forever trying to find the church but finally found it just in time for sacrament meeting. The people here were very warm and friendly. They were doing the Primary Program and they wanted the girls to sit up front with the other kids. There were only 3 kids in the Primary! Alana and Addy knew all the songs but the other kids were singing in Italian and they didn’t know what to do so they just stood up there and smiled.
After church we drove to Pisa and saw the Leaning Tower.
It was a bit of a disappointment, as it seemed like a giant tourst trap and was surrounded by a bunch of souvenir stands and tons of tourists. We saw Pisa’s important sites the cathedral, baptistry and the tipsy bell tower. Yes, the tower leans, we took lots of photo’s, walked around and then left, another fun day in Italy!
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