On 15 August 2011 I was on holiday in Santa Margherita Ligure, near Portofino. I stayed in a hotel with my parents. That day we decided to go by train to the Cinque Terre. I woke up at 8.30 am, I washed my face and got dressed, then I had a hearty breakfast. At 10.00 am we left the hotel and walked to the railway station. We bought the tickets and got onto the train. Our destination was Monterosso, the first village of the Cinque Terre.
After one hour, we arrived. The small village is very beautiful. The sea is almost green and there are succulent plants and palm trees everywhere. It has got also a small sand beach and several rocks. The houses are very tall and colorful. There were a lot of people from all over the world: English, American, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, and naturally Italian. We visited the town centre, the castle and a church. Afterwards we took the tourist boat to Vernazza, the second village.
The village looks like Monterosso, but it's smaller. There we visited the main church and had lunch. We walked through the town centre and reached the railway station to go to Corniglia, the third village.
When I got out of the train, I was very surprised. The train brings you only to a path, and you must do a stair of 382 steps in order to arrive at the village. However we managed to visit it. Corniglia is tiny and, unlike the others, isn't in contact with the sea. We saw the main church and the town centre.
After that we caught the train to Manarola, the fourth village. It is rather small, but has got a wonderful cliff. At that point we were very tired and thirsty, so we stopped in a café.
We went to Riomaggiore, the fifth and last village, on foot, through a beautiful walk overlooking the sea. There I ate a typical focaccia of Genoa. Finally, we took the train to go back to Santa Margherita Ligure.
Once I had arrived at our hotel, I got washed and had dinner. Then I read a book and went to bed very tired but satisfied.