Cinque Terre

The trip was truly amazing. Here are some pictures from the whole thing.

The trip started later than I wanted. We (myself, Dan, Katy) took off for the 9:45ish train, whereas I wanted to go on the 7:45 train because we were not sure we had a reservation at any place to stay for the six of us who were going, so I was a bit worried. The train was delayed about half an hour, so my worries began to increase a bit. About two hours into the four hour train ride, all was well, because my roommate called (who was coming later) and said that the people at Manuel's Guesthouse called to confirm a reservation for six. No more problems. The train ride was painless, and we talked with some people from Seattle also heading to Cinque Terre.

We bought our 3 day pass to Cinque Terre (shouldn't have: could have saved some cash, in retrospect) in La Spezia, and then trained into Monterosso. That is the northernmost city in Cinque Terre. We also knew it to be "the biggest in most touristy", so we had an idea of what it was like going in. By big and most touristy they mean pretty small and there are a few beautiful public beaches, apparently. It was awesome getting off the train and seeing the beach right next to the cliffs. We were pumped. We then searched for the guesthoues, and we found it within 10 minutes (the "big" city is tiny. The cities are all very, very small. Like 300 residents small). The guesthouse exceeded our expectations. Big time. The triples were big, our rooms had a kitchen and fridge, nice showers, and most importantly, a beautiful, beautiful view (it's one of the pictures in the facebook album. Check that out. Seriously).

At this point I knew it would be an amazing trip. Everything was the anti-Rome. So serene, beautiful landscape, just absolute perfection. The only other place I've been to that compared is Santorini, but I think Cinque Terre is nicer. The attitude is so chill. Such a nice break from the ambulances making so much noise all the time in Rome.

That afternoon we decided we wanted to go to Vernazza, Rick Steeves's favorite town in the Cinque Terre. We missed the dinky train, so we decided to hike there. It is the next town down from Monterosso, but the hike was supposed to be the worst of the four connecting the five towns. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes, and we weren't tired at all afterwards. We watched a beautiful sunset in Vernazza (check the pictures) while munching on some focaccia bread, a specialty of the area. I also bought 2 jars of pesto for my mom's birthday, but as you've already seen one of them ended up on the ground in Monterosso. All the focaccia we had there was the best I've had so far. Anyways, we then trained down to Manarola to try to find a restaurant I wanted to go to. After searching, we realized it was closed on Thursdays, so we went to another place that looked good. Excellent decision. We spent the evening with a 2-3 hour meal, downing wine & delicious food and generally having a blast. Dan and I finished it off with a large shot of limoncino , Liguria's answer to limoncello. It tasted like bad mouthwash.

After that, we chilled (if you are not hiking in Cinque Terre, you are chilling) a bit on a ledge in Manarola and then trained back to Monterosso. We waited until about 1:30 in the morning, when the other three (Andy, Erin, and Anne) got in on the latest train that runs at night. They had class in the afternoon, so they took late trains up.

The next morning, I got up at 7 after only five hours of sleep. The sun had yet to peek out over the cliff to the left, so it was cold. I have never noticed the sun's warmth make as big a difference in temperature than at Cinque Terre. With the sun, it was perfect beach weather. Without, I needed a jacket. Anyways, I walked around Monterosso for a couple of hours alone, watching a city slowly wake up. I got some awesome views, perfect time for reflection and, yes, chilling. I headed back to our rooms around 9:15, as the rest of the crew woke up. We then headed down for the beaches, which had clearer water than Higgins Lake. So blue, so pretty. The water was very crisp, but not too cold. The land below was rocky too, so there were points out where you could stand on a rock that jutted out to about 3 feet below sea level, but then fell off to about 30 feet. A good time was had by all. Also, check the pictures of us climbing the big rock in the middle of the water. That was cool.

At about 12:30 we took off to hike the famous #2 trail, which connects all five Cinque Terre cities. It was a hike, but totally worth it. About one hour into it, you begin to realize you are taking for granted some of the most picturesque views you have ever seen, and then you begin to appreciate it all over again. Fun fun. The last trail is called the Via del Amore, and is plasted with writing of lovers names with hearts drawn around and professions of undying devotion, etc. An especially funny thing was there was one that said "Da Pope" with "Dylan" written under it (no heart, unfortunately). This is a total inside joke because it involves the Tony Kornheiser Show which I'm sure nobody listens to, but this is my blog, so, uh, sorry. Moving right along.

The hike took about 5 hours, even with the stops we made for treats along the way. We were proud of our hiking abilities, and at least I wasn't even that tired afterwards. After training back to Monterosso, we bought some wine for the evening. After showering, we cracked open some of that before dinner. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, but it involved a delicious meal and realizing we bought too much wine & limoncino. We spent most of it just chilling and talking on our terrace, because that place provided one of the best views we had (like I said, the 25 dollars a night for Manuel's guesthouse is the best lodging deal I'll ever see).

We woke up the next morning (Saturday) at 9, and the girls and I went down to buy some fruit to make fruit salad to go along with a chocolate/cream pie. Tasty breakfast, to be sure. We then spent the rest of the morning/ early afternoon soaking up the sun on the beach. Everyone else went kayaking, but I just wanted to lay down and get some sun (great success! First October sunburn ever!). We finally headed out around 3:20 to get to La Spezia to make the 4 PM train home. Most of the group initially planned to stop in Pisa, which would have required going on an earlier train, but very soon after arriving in Cinque Terre, they realized there was no way that was happening: hours 49 and 50 in Cinque Terre are way, way cooler than hours 1 and 2 in Pisa. I thought it was an excellent decision on their part.

The train ride home was a breeze, and we got back into Medag around 9. There was beer pong going on in the room. Home sweet home.