Cinque Terre and Pisa

Yesterday we packed our agenda with visiting Cinque Terre and stopping in to Pisa to eye the tower for two seconds (at Julie's request). Cinque Terre is a set of 5 villages clinging to cliffs or on the water that are only accessible by foot paths or train. In actuality there are roads that lead to each now, but some are only available to residents. We arrived in Monterosso after a crazy route provided by our GPS (video soon). Sometimes the fastest route isn't the most logical, as the GPS doesn't consider if the road is 7' wide or 3' wide. Monterosso is on the water and felt like a resort town with a packed beach and tonnes of shops. Many Canadians, Americans and Germans in these villages. Making the hike to the next village, Vernazza meant hiking narrow paths (see photo -- this was the widest at some sections) clinging to the cliffs among vineyards and rows of olive groves all with stunning views of the ocean. The elavation changes were deadly and the 30+ C weather didn't help. The views were similiar to the Cabot trail in Eastern Canada although the view of the pastel villages was like nothing we've ever seen. Vernazza in a hidden cover was the most beautiful of the villages, in our opinion. Continuing on to Corniglia, a village set atop cliffs, with barely any tourist or shops we decided that after about 3.5 hours of hiking up over a kilometer of elevation change that we would take the 7 min train ride back to Monterosso and drive off to Pisa. Our 1 hour stay in Pisa included dinner and about 12 seconds of looking at a tower that, from some angles, looked liked it was leaning (it obviously was). Not sure how this ever became a tourist destination.