Cinque Terre - Monterosso

I think they may have given us a bit of extra time for lunch, because we veered from our original four town itinerary and made it a three town one. If that meant food and getting to swim in the Ligurian Sea, then I didn't have a problem with it.

Even the view from the train tracks was beautiful. 

The train station!

We hopped the train from Manarola to Monterosso and entered a quaint beach town oasis. For five euro we each got our own awesome beach chair (Viareggio style with the shade that can be pulled up and adjusted) and access to the water.

Taking in the fresh air and the incredible blue hues, I sat back for a moment and wondered how this could be real life. Then I booked it to the water.

I'm pretty sure that it was my best salt-water swimming experience. The water was clear and you could see the bottom no matter how far you swam out. It was cool, but refreshing. The salt content also must have been pretty high, as floating was no problem. In fact, if I kicked my legs while swimming, my lower body would go up too high.

Views from the beach!

While we were here, we also so an old woman get a truly full-body massage from one of the massage-peddlers on the beach. 

After our half hour swim, we sat and dried off. One of my friends stepped on a sea urchin while jumping off of the rocks near the water and we had to talk to the Italian beach manager to get a needle and tweezers for her (ouch!). Somewhere in here I also found the time to call my dad with a "Greetings from Cinque Terre!" opener.

What's the best way to ease that sea urchin pain? Gelato. While it's not the best that I've had in Italy, the beachside gelato shack offered more fruit flavors than I had seen anywhere else. So I decided to try pink grapefruit. And you know what? It really did taste like it.

GELATO! It never ceases to make me happy.