A couple of summers ago, Jason and I visited Cinque Terre, Italy. The Cinque Terre, or five towns, is a string of five fishing villages on the the Italian Riviera. The five villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore are some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I still cannot get over the blue of that water! And, the food! Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto, so we obviously enjoyed our fair share. Lasagna there is white, not red, and is made with pesto. The seafood was so fresh and delicious.

This was also the day Jason and I took an accidental 3.5 mile hike from one village to the next. We decided that we wanted to make the most of our time and instead of waiting (20 minutes) for the train, we thought we would take the trail and get there faster. We clearly did not do our research. We did (finally) make it to the next village and were graced with the most gorgeous views of Vernazza. If you’re wondering, we waited for the train to transport us from village to village after our fun little hike.

Enjoying a strawberry basil martini at La Cantina di Miky. Basil was in everything there. I loved it!

Pesto lasagna!

Seafood pasta

The beach at Monterosso

Lemon gelato from Slurp. I loved that they used lemon peel!

Along our hike, we stumbled upon this lemon farmer and enjoyed some fresh made lemonade from his lemons!

Oh, Vernazza.

Coffee granita with the creamy, most delicious custard (?) EVER!

Arrrgh.

Manarola

Riomaggiore