A Long Time Coming

Hello again blog readers.  I would like to direct your attention to the fact that the number of posts in October is significantly lower than the number in September.  This you may have noticed.  I blame school. It's getting in the way, finally.  But don't worry....I'm still having adventures I can assure you, but you just aren't being told about them.  I apologize.  So without further ado I shall tell the tale of Cinque Terre.

My roommate Megan and I set off early on the 23rd of October.  We had no plans, no reservations, no tickets.  We wanted a spontaneous, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of adventure and that's exactly what we got.

After a three hour train ride through lovely Italian countryside, we had arrived in Cinque Terre.  It consists of five villages, nestled into the coves and hills of the northern coastline.  The towns are connected by train, ferry, and a smattering of trails.  Us being the enthusiastic albiet inexperienced adventurers, we chose to hike.  Our goal was to hike south to north, hitting all the towns on the way, and to spend the night in the last town.

We left Riomaggiore (town 1) after getting some delicious foccacia.  We walked on Via dell'Amore (the walk of love) and came to Manarola (town 2) after only 5 minutes.  And the path was paved.  Our thoughts were somewhere along the lines of: we took a four hour train up here to hike and this is what we get? Lame.  We walked around in Manarola and decided on some gelato.  After that, I spied a boat ramp!  And if you know me you know that water is irresistible to me, it's a must touch.  So we walked down the ramp and slip...down I went.  Luckily my hand holding the gelato was the one to attempt to break my fall, the other option was my camera.  Thanks sea muck.  I stood up and tried to retain some dignity (did I mention that there were a bunch of professional looking camera people perched on the rocks next to the ramp?  yeah they got some entertainment.)  I wiped muck and gelato off my legs, and as I did, Megan (who's still laughing hysterically) comes to my rescue.  Then she fell.  And then a wave came in and I was left with squishy shoes.

We continued on the trail, but just outside of town we came to a locked gate.  Apparently that trail was closed.  We went back to the town to decide on another way and I got more gelato (hey i dropped mine in the sea remember??)  At that shop, we ran into three German men who informed us that they had just come from Corniglia (town 3) and had used that trail.  This intrigued us.  We returned to the gate and found that you could climb over the bars beside the gate because someone had bent a few back.  We ignored the fact that it was closed due to frequent falling rocks..we wanted an adventure!  The trail was an easy one and we made it to the other gate quickly.  This one was a little trickier...we had to throw our bags over first.  Then scale the guardrail while holding on to the rusted metal bars that protruded out and over the rail into the space over a waterfall and large drop.  Then we had to climb on to those and around on to the other side, hanging over the 30 foot nasty drop.  Well I'm blogging so you know I made it.

We were then met with 382 steps up to Corniglia.  Megan and I chose to have an apertivo (italian appetizers) at a cute wine cafe with a most breathtaking view of the ocean, town, and cliffs.  We headed for Vernazza (town 4) and the trail was finally starting to look a little rough around the edges.  It was dirt and old stone steps and wove us up and down and through gorgeous olive groves.  Along the way we found a handwritten sign that read: Nude Beach, 15 minutes.  I had read about it in Rick Steves' guidebook (he knows all!) and so we took the detour.  This path was just wide enough (barely) for me to walk on, had precarious steps, and was barely visible.  It was rough going.  A couple of times it got so steep that there were ropes to hang on to.  I felt like a mountain goat and loved it.  The other half of me was seeing my life flash before my eyes.  I ignored it.  We had to walk through an old train tunnel to get to the steps down to the beach.  On the other side we met two guys our age who spoke English!  We chatted and found that their names are Jon and Francis and they're from Minnesota.  Small world.  We exchanged info and hope to meet up with them sometime in Rome.  The beach was lovely and pebble covered.  And yes, there was a nude man.  Yikes.  We were fine until another man came down and stripped, then we didn't like the naked men vs. us ratio, so we left.  I wasn't really looking forward to the climb back up the mountain but we made it.

We continued for another hour and finally got to Vernazza.  The piazza of the town was so cute...huddled in a cove, right on the water.   The water was so blue and clear.  I've never seen water that color in my life, not even in Cancun or Capri.  It was in the golden hour and getting late fast so we didn't stop to eat anything, even though our bodies probably could've used some energy.  We knew the hike was going to be an hour and a half so we had to go fast (we didn't have flashlights..told you we were inexperienced.)  And little did we know (but soon found out) we had saved the hardest hike for last.  I've never taken so many stairs in my life...up and down and up too much and they were tall and I'm not....I'll never look at a step the same.  We were about half way through when we realized that it was getting hard to see.  We definitely hiked in the twilight and it was probably dangerous and something bad could have happened, like falling into the dark abyss below, but nothing did.  I was so glad to see the lights of Monterosso (town 5) you have no idea.  It was dark when we got there.

Vernazza

I had been really set on camping, really roughin it, but after that day I just really wanted a bed.  We booked a room at a hotel and got some much needed dinner, water, and wine.  We slept like rocks for about 11 hours and when we woke up in the morning we felt like we'd been smashed by boulders.  Every inch of my body was sore, especially my left arm.  I later deduced that it was from falling on the boat ramp.  Lame.  I had gotten so mucky and dusty from the day before and really didn't want to put my hiking pants back on, but the show must go on.

We went down to the beach and it was amazing.  It had such great views of the hills we had just hiked and the dark clouds forming over them.  We found a boat oar and decided to keep it as a souvenir.  Little pink jellyfish were stuck on the beach in low tide, so I took the oar and flung them back into the water.  Megan and I wanted to take the ferry back to Riomaggiore but the water was too choppy for the ferries to run.  Hiking was definitely not an option.  We took the train back and it was only a 5 minute ride to each town.  Kind of a slap in the face after all that walking.  Once we got there, we shopped around and had coffee.  Then we took the train to the central train station to get on the line to Rome.  We had to wait two hours for the next train...luckily there was a Mc Donald's that was nice and warm.

Monterosso Beach

I really enjoyed the ride home.  It was soo nice to sit somewhere comfy and to talk with Megan recapping our trip and laughing about all the hilarious stuff that happened to us.  I had to laugh because there was a food and drink cart that would come by every so often and it would ring a bell as it did so...total Harry Potter moment...like I was on a train to Hogwarts.  We made it safe and sound to our apartment around 9 that Sunday night.

Now I don't know about you reading this but my head hurts from writing it...maybe my screen is too bright.  So I shall end by saying that tomorrow all of us leave for a field trip to Milan and Venice to visit showrooms and get inspirations for our studio project.  Afterwards, my roommates and I will be traveling to Florence.  We'll be back on Sunday.  Hopefully I have enough underwear....