The weekend trip to Cinque Terre, on the Italian coast east of Genoa, started with a head fake, as we piled into the van and headed down the highway towards the Mont Blanc tunnel and had to double back to pickup the kid's passports, which we had left behind. The weekend turned out great in the end though, with a nice walk from Riomaggiore to our base in Monterossa, we hit all five villages of the "Five Lands" or "Cinque Terre".

Taking a break halfway along our walk, we stopped for lunch after about two hours. Sierra was a trooper, but by the end of the day was out early, like the rest of us. It was beautiful weather for October, and even with shorts on we worked up a good sweat.


The scenery along the winding cliff-walk was awesome, probably why it's so popular and a UNESCO World Heritage site. A shot below overlooking Vernazza with Monterosso nestled in the bay in the distance. It was about 1.5 hours walk to get there, and our final section of the day.


At the finish, Dominick and Sierra survey the beach and sea at Monterossa. We did have a couple of really nice dinners in Monterossa. All fresh seafood and local wine. Not sure about the balance on the overall calorie count in the end, between the walk and the food, but let's call it even!