Something different...

After the previous very busy day of walking all over Florence, day 4 offered us a delightful change of pace. We visited the Bay of Poets, Porto Venere and the UNESCO-protected Cinque Terre.  If you haven't heard of any of these places, don't worry, neither had I.  What it is is a long coastline (part of the west coast of Italy), featuring five  villages (cinque terre) famous for their colorful houses, which we viewed from a boat with a few shore excursions, and, at the end of the day, a train ride back to our bus.  

You can see, on this stroll through one of the villages, how different the buildings look from the buildings of Florence.

The arches support the railroad track which helped open the area to tourists in the 1950s. Above are the terraced vineyards.  Wine was the major source of income for the area for generations.  Now it's tourism.

This is a good example of how the very colorful houses have been built up into the hillsides.

Another view.  I liked the tower, and the blue, blue sky.

It occurred to me that these buildings look like the back drop for a musical production.  It really was a beautiful boat ride.