Sunday we finally got to Cinque Terre after three train rides a little after four. From the train we had seen the gorgeous views of the water so we had a taste of what laid ahead. When we left the train station there was one main road that was seriously uphill surrounded by colorful buildings on each side. Thankfully the office of the place we were staying was near the bottom of the hill. We checked in and were put in a four person dorm room which was basically an apartment complete with a small kitchen, table and chairs, and a bathroom. However to get to the apartment we had to walk up a serious set of steps which was a struggle with our bags. The guy showing us our room didn’t even offer to help. I managed to make it by myself and thankfully a guy who was walking up at the same time offered to carry Mackenzie’s bag for her. When we got to the room the guy that carried Mackenzie’s bag happened to be one of our roommates.
After we took a breather and set our stuff down we wandered around the town. All the food smelled so good! We couldn’t wait for dinner. The lady who checked us in told us about a spot that had free wifi because someone didn’t have a password for it but nobody knew whose it was. If you sat in a small square next to the church at the top of the hill though you magically had this pretty fast wifi. After that we wandered back down the hill and into a wine store where the owner was describing some of the wines to someone which we listened to very interested. It also had pesto which Cinque Terre is also known for in addition to wine. We went to a few more shops and I bought a post card and we bought breakfast for the two mornings we were staying.
We dropped off our breakfast and walked down to the beach. It was sooo gorgeous! There were cute, colorful little boats, gorgeous rocky cliffs, and a pebbly beach. It was a scene straight from a painting. We ended up sitting down and watching the sun start to set. In the process we met two guys who were cliff jumping which was fun to watch and we decided we definitely had to do it the next day. After about an hour we headed back to the hostel briefly and went to find something to eat. We sat down in a little cafe and ordered Cinque Terre’s signature wine which was a sweet dessert wine and was really good. We split bruschetta for an appetizer that had pesto, mozzarella, oregano, salt, olive oil, and tomato which was probably one of the best things I have ever tasted in my whole entire life. One bite and I was in another world. For our main course we each got a class of red wine and a pasta with pesto on it. It was really good but not quite as amazing at the bruschetta. After dinner we headed back to the hostel to organize our things and get in bed early so we would be well rested for our hiking adventure the next day.
Monday we woke up around 8am and got ready for our hike. We decided to put our bathing suits and towels in one backpack and then alternate who carried it. We bought our pass to the park and walked the first trail connecting Riomaggiore and Manarola which was really easy. It was called “via del amor” and there was a tradition to close a lock around the various gates with your significant other and then throw away the key to symbolize everlasting love. I thought it was a cute tradition. The views from the path were gorgeous and it was right along the coast. We arrived to Manarola and it was cute and small like Riomaggiore. I got a scoop of gelato because I heard it was really good there even though it was only like 11am. We started on the next trail and then realized it was closed. We found a map and it turned out that 2 of the 4 trails were closed that day which was kind of disappointing. There was another trail that was harder and a little bit longer that also connected Manarola to the next town Corniglia and we decided we were up for the challenge. The first 30 minutes of the hike were hell. Completely uphill in the sun with a very unstable/unclear path. However, when we got to the top of the climb we were rewarded with gorgeous views of the countryside and the water. We continued walking and the views got better and better. Eventually there was a part in the shade which was nice but some of the paths were literally a couple feet wide with a cliff on the other side. We felt extremely adventurous to say the least.
After our hike we explored Corniglia which was a cute little town on the top of a cliff. We walked around and even met some people from Charlotte. After we were done walking around we walked down over 300 stairs to get to the train station since the next trail was closed and we didn’t realize there was another trail we could have taken. We waited what seemed like forever for the train but eventually made it to Vernazza. It may have been because we got off the train with a bunch of other people but it seemed a lot more busy and touristy than the other towns. It was pretty and had a nice beach but it just seemed crowded to me. We ate lunch there but not very cheaply because Mackenzie was set on eating mussels while we were there and only the more expensive places had them. I ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce which was really good and Mackenzie enjoyed her mussels. There was a 2.50 euro service charge each which seemed a little much but there was nothing we could do about it.
We started the next hike after lunch to the final town called Monterosso. It was pretty difficult but not as hard as the second one we did. It was also a lot more crowded than the others had been which was difficult since the paths were so small and it was hard to let people pass. Eventually we got into a spot where there weren’t quite as many people. The hike was nice and the views were gorgeous as always but my favorite part was near the end of the hike there was a cute local farmer with a lemonade stand right off the path. He made fresh lemonade with the lemons from his garden so we decided it was worth the 2 euro to get some. It was amazing. I could have drank it all day long. He also had bottles of homemade limoncello which is a strong lemon drink that is a specialty of the region that we had been meaning to try. A lady who stopped at the same time bought a small cup of it and let us taste it. We really liked it so decided to get a bottle of that too.
When we finally reached Monterosso we headed straight for the beach. We were soaked in sweat and covered in dirt and my running shoes that were extremely white when we started were then brown. We changed behind towels on the beach and then jumped in the water which was extremely refreshing. After swimming around a bit we swam over to where a group of people were jumping off rocks. We each jumped off one of them that looked a lot higher when you were up there than when you looked from the water. It was really fun though and definitely worth it. We spent about an hour at the beach relaxing and enjoying the water before we decided to go.
We took a train back to Riomaggiore but Mackenzie didn’t have time to buy a ticket and the train was coming so we ran to the train and jumped on hoping they weren’t going to check for tickets. Thankfully they didn’t and I was a little pissed off I had spent almost 2 euro on mine. Oh well at least I was a good citizen. Back in Riomaggiore we dropped off our stuff and then tried to go get free wifi at the church but it wasn’t working. We stopped by a wine shop and bought souvenirs and then got take out pizza which my guide book said was delicious. There was a cafe that you could get wifi at if you bought something so we took our pizza there and bought drinks. The pizza was amazing, especially the slice I got that had cheese, pesto, and tomato. I also got a white wine from Cinque Terre which was really good. She gave us the password before we ate our meal and then we tried to use the wifi. It wasn’t working and eventually I asked her and apparently it expired 30 minutes after we bought something even though she said nothing about that beforehand. Overall the staff at the cafe were the only rude people we have met since we have been traveling.
We took our souvenirs and laptops back to our apartment and our roommate was there. She was an older lady from New Zealand who had just retired and was traveling. She was extremely nice and sweet and we really enjoyed talking to her. When I was talking about Rome and Florence she even pulled out her maps of the cities to show me and gave me some pointers. Then we told her about our camera problems and she had some kind of device that let us but the memory card in it and then upload the pictures to my computer. Finally we could upload pictures! We aren’t sure exactly what we are going to do the rest of the trip but it was nice to get those loaded and have more room on the memory card. We tried one more time to get internet that night but it wasn’t working.
We woke up today (Tuesday) around 7:15 so we could start making our way to Florence. We got to the train station and figured out that there was a train to Pisa so we waited about 30 minutes for that. The train ride was only about an hour and a half and we got off where we saw a stop that said Pisa. However the building was not open and it looked deserted. We wanted to lock up our stuff and go take pictures with the leaning tower but we couldn’t get inside the building to find lockers. We ran into two other girls trying to do the same thing and decided to roll all of our luggage with us to the tower. The tower wasn’t too far away and it was pretty cool. I didn’t realize there were other cool buildings around it I thought it was just the tower. We took the typical holding the tower up pictures and some other ones and then decided to head back to the train station. Back at the station I couldn’t figure out how to go to Florence. Our timetable said Pisa Centrale and we were at another station. I ended up asking somebody and it turned out we had to go to the main station in Pisa to get the train to Florence. Thankfully there was a train going to Pisa Centrale about 5 minutes after I figured that out. The train ride was short and as soon as we got there we saw that there was one going to Florence in 3 minutes so we ran through the station and hopped on the train which was thankfully near the platform we got off at.
We are now sitting on the train to Florence ready for city number 3 of our journey. This trip is already going by so quickly. Hopefully in Florence we will be able to find an answer to our camera problems. Everyone we’ve talked to says Florence is lovely so I’m sure we will enjoy it. Mackenzie thinks one of the wheels on her bag is broken so hopefully it will still work or that is going to cause some major problems. We have looked a little ridiculous trying to get our bags around everywhere. In Pisa we even resorted to carrying them across the railroad tracks instead of taking the stairs down and then up the subway. If I ever travel like this again I’m definitely going to do it backpack style. We just couldn’t really do it for this trip since we spent 6 weeks studying abroad beforehand. But anyways we should be in Florence in about 30 minutes and hopefully we don’t have too much trouble finding the hostel.
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