Great Places to Walk #2: Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore, Italy (http://walking.about.com/library/walk/bllartcinque.htm)

Along the western coast of Italy are the Five Lands -- the Cinque Terre:  five colorful fishing villages built into the rocky cliffs over a distance of about eight miles. 

You can take a boat from village to village, or walk the smooth path along the coast from one to another, or hike any number of trails higher in the hills.  Open-air markets and cafes are plentiful.  The houses are step and narrow, washed in pinks and yellows, while laundry in bright blues and reds hangs from window-to-window lines across the winding streets.  Fishing boats in the same colors as the houses line the cobblestone roads down to the beaches.  Children splash in the shallows, adults swim out twenty or thirty feet to sunbathe on huge boulders, and tourist boats and  kayaks glide by in the turquoise Mediterranean.

I've only been there once, but it's at the top of my list of places to return to!

Walked: 1 mile