*blogspot is not letting me upload pictures unfortunately. go look on my facebook to see pics even though they don't do it justice. gorgeous place!!*
so imagine that- i'm a couple weeks late on this trip but it's worth documenting so i'll go ahead and make a few remarks about it. cinque terre is one of those places that you HAVE to go when you are visiting italy. it's a truly beautiful beautiful place- with trails leading you between the five cities that give you amazing views of the mediterranean sea. unfortunately there was a really bad rainstorm in october and as a result, a couple of the cities experienced flooding and destructive mudslides that wiped out houses, vineyards, one of the beaches and even killed a few people. because of this, they have been working very hard to clean it up in lieu of those cities being so dependent on tourism to bring in their income and some of the trails were re-routed and some are still closed so you have to take a train between one of the cities.
some people choose to go to cinque terre to see all 5 cities in one day and take the train to see all of them but my friend jessie and i decided to take it slow and were determined to take as many of the hikes as we could, and enjoy just being outside. we were also very lucky because it was a slow weekend and since the forecast was cloudy with some rain, there were no crowds anywhere and it was heaven. so friday afternoon we set out as soon as jessie and i were out of class and took the train to the first town of riomaggiore.
this was the first time we didn't book a hostel and we were hoping this wasn't going to come back to bite us. as soon as we stepped off the train, all we saw was water and it was glorious. next stop was of course: a cafe to get a cappuccino. after we ordered, we sat down, jessie facing the door, and all of a sudden jessie goes "look! texas a&m!" and i whip my head around and there is a girl standing in the street with a maroon texas a&m shirt on. (i actually had that same shirt from when i visited in high school….) without even really thinking i hopped up and ran out to the poor girl and started telling her how i was from texas, and all my best friends from high school and camp go to a&m, and how sorry i was if i scared her but when you see people from america, and especially texas, i can't help but say hello because heck, they're basically family when you're over here. we started asking the basic questions like where we were studying, what year we were, who all we are here with, and where we were staying tonight. we told them we hadn't really figured that out yet and that we were going to need to look around at some point tonight. they told us we could just stay with them in their hostel- it had a bunk bed with an extra queen that no one was staying in it. so we said why not! split the cost of the room making it cheaper for everyone and all of a sudden, we had a place to stay. we got their numbers and decided we needed to go exploring. jessie and i wandered through riomaggiore until we came to the top of a hill that overlooked the sea and had a park bench and a giant wooden cross. photo op.
as we were walking down the one main road in riomaggiore, i realized we still hadn't called our other two friends, shannon and jamie, who we were planning on seeing that weekend. right as i set down my backpack to get my phone out, i look over and they are looking at us through the window of their restaurant. small towns these are. we waited for them to finish dinner, got some gelato, then took them up to the scenic overlook before jessie and i decided we wanted to grub. this region is famous for inventing pesto so everything this weekend was sure to have pesto on it. pesto gnocchi, pesto pizza, pesto focaccia…the list goes on. we met up with our new friends that night and chatted for a long while before we finally went to bed.
we woke up early the next morning to meet shannon and jamie to walk on via dell amore or the "pathway of love"- the famous road that traces the shoreline between riomaggiore and manarola. the walk normally takes around 15 minutes but we made sure we documented well and it took us a good hour or so to make it to city #2. i ain't complaining- the walk was beautiful and it was filled with lots of laughs and pictures. there is a tunnel at about the midway point of the walk and we decided to leave our mark like everyone else had.
manarola is the town that you see on all the postcards of cinque terre so naturally, we had to take a postcard pic AFTER we got some of the most delicious gelato i've had in italy at 9:30 in the morning. if you know anything about me, you know that i love sweets but mainly sweets pertaining to chocolate. even though there are lots and lots of different gelato flavors everywhere we go, i always stick to the chocolatey/oreo/chocolate chip type flavors. i'm loyal what can i say. this gelato was mandarin, the most delicious fruity gelato i've ever had.
after the postcard pictures, we said goodbye to shannon and jamie and jessie and i started our hike from manarola to corniglia, city #3. this was one of the hikes that had to be rerouted and it was a heck of a hike (i'm out of shape. thanks gelato and pizza) but it was beautiful nonetheless. we took our time, met some fellow study abroad students and a cat that jessie is obsessed with, and enjoyed the on and off again rain that sprinkled down on us. at the top of the hike we sat and had some time with Jesus and enjoyed the view, where we could see manarola on our left and corniglia on the right.
we met ruthie and katie after jessie and i enjoyed some pesto pizza for lunch. corniglia might have been the coolest city we saw. we got to hike almost all the way down the beach (unfortunately it was closed) but again, beautiful views, cool little town. i forget some people get to actually call these places home.
ruthie and katie were doing the day-trip thing so once we looked around corniglia with them, we took the train to vernazza and separated so we could do the last hike the next day before we went home. vernazza was the city that got hit the worst from the mudslides and it is still suffering economically and scenery-wise. no more beach, lots of mud still being cleaned up, and business is just very slow for apartment-renters and restaurants. we sat on the edge of the not so beachy-beach for a little while after katie and ruthie left and decided to go exploring because after all, we didn't have a place to stay for the night…again… we wandered up the streets and they kept going up and so did we. we found a couple bed and breakfasts and apartments and the first one was just too expensive for 2 people and the next one no one answered when we buzzed asking if they had anything available, which would have been a stupid question because nothing is full in these cities. we were ascending on the winding roads until we could no longer see many roofs and were only looking at the skies. what awaited us was elizabeth's.
third time's a charm. we rang the doorbell for elizabeth's and no one answered the door but a man called out "buongiorno!" from the terrace above us. we said buongiorno and asked him if he had a room available for 5, knowing our price range and hoping we wouldn't have to bargain much. he said yes and to hang on (not exactly those words, it was mostly broken english/italian, or itenglish as we have come to call it…) and he would get his sister to come help us. she said she had 2 rooms available for 5 of us at 20 euros/person. it sounded like a steal but we asked to see the rooms first. she led us up some extremely narrow and windy staircases to the first room which was literally just that- one room with one bed and a bathroom. that would be for the boy. (jessie's roommate in florence and 2 of her friends who were visiting from their study abroad program in ireland were also going to be in cinque terre that night so we called them to make sure they would stay with us before we committed.) we kept climbing the stairs and came to the very tip top of this apartment building to the ladies' room and it was an incredible view. me and jessie just looked at each other, stunned, and called megan and they agreed to get these rooms with us. the lady probably just pocketed the money since they are hurtin for some business but we didn't mind- we loved that we found this and were so thankful the Lord provided a place for us to stay. we brought jessie's hammock but with the rain and chilly weather, we weren't sure that would have been very suitable to sleep in….
once megan, brady, and erica got to vernazza we got them settled and hung out on the terrace before we left for dinner. pizza and wine it was and we spent the rest of the evening just staying up talking and enjoying those precious moments. we fell asleep and woke up to the sound of the waves outside our door. i could get used to that :)
the last day we got up and hiked from vernazza to monterosso al mare, the last city, and the only one that really has much of a beach. we took our time, stopped to take lots of pictures, and were even more thankful we stayed in vernazza when we passed a million and a half people starting the hike from the opposite direction. the hike took less than a couple hours and the weather was perfect for us. once we started the last 15 minutes or so of the hike, we looked out over the sea and we can just see this wall of rain headed for monterosso. we picked up our pace and felt slightly bad for those people who had just started their hike because they were about to get pounded. as soon as our feet hit the city, the rain came. and when it rains, it can pour. we hid out under a bridge for a little bit while megan erica and brady ran to find an atm and we decided this would be a good time to have some lunch and make our game plan for the next few hours. we had eaten plenty of pesto but hadn't had focaccia yet so we were ready to indulge in some of those delicacies. lunch was filled with lots of it and even a nutella pizza to finish it off. we wandered around the town a little bit and did some shopping before we enjoyed gelato on the "beach" and hopped back on the train to florence. side note: if you ever go to cinque terre, buy some oranges or lemons. it's probably a safe bet that if every trail is lined with orange and lemon trees, they're pretty tasty and you should take some home with you. i've never eaten a slice of lemon whole before we got these and took them home to cook with. judge me but they were delicious, peel and all.
so all this to say, the guidebooks are right, you should absolutely go to cinque terre if you are in italy. make it a priority and stay for more than a day. enjoy the hikes, give these cities some business and help boost their economy. wander through the backroads, knock on the door of a b&b or apartment renter and see what kind of deal you can get. oh and its okay to make an effort to talk to people that you know are from your home country and sometimes it's okay to have gelato at 9:30 in the morning. you only live once.
No comments:
Post a Comment