Cinque Terre!

Friday, October (can you believe it?!) 8th

Me next to the second town, Manarola! So pretty!

A little “info” on Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, (“The Five Lands”), is a section of coast along the central western coast of Italy. The fame of the area revolves around five small costal towns that are scattered tightly throughout the area. The towns are all connected by hiking trails that can be conquered by small children and older adults (we saw 4-year-olds and 70-year-olds). All of the towns share a withdrawn, vacationy feel but each one also has a slightly different feel to it. All of them are outstandingly beautiful, and anyone could look like a professional photographer if they started taking pictures here. 

The grey map of Italy shows where Cinque 

Terre is located (red dot). Each red dot on the 

green portion of the map indicates a town.

We started at Riomaggiore, and headed north.

SO PRETTY! PICTURE PERFECT! 

Today we are heading to Cinque Terre for a little day trip. We woke up at 5:30 to make the 6:37 train. We were so tired and all fell asleep once we got on the train. Fortunately, we all caught up on sleep. Unfortunately, we missed the stop to get off (that we didn’t know we had) at the transfer station in Pisa. We woke up on an empty train at the Pisa airport. After a quick deliberation as to whether or not we should take a plane somewhere for the weekend and skip Cinque Terre, we tracked down a conductor and eventually caught a train back to our transfer station. We missed the train to Cinque Terre by only a couple minutes so we had to wait for 45 minutes for the next rain. Then we took this train to the next station. This was actually all right because they had tables in every group of four, so we were able to play cards. Then we hopped on the train that took us to the first of the five towns in Cinque Terre. 

The third town on our trek, Corniglia!

The weather was perfect for hiking and the ocean looked spectacular, sparkling in the sunlight. The first and second trails were right on the side of the cliff, and I can see why they would close them down during rains season. One wrong step, or little slip, and you’re a goner! There is a little guard rail, or rope along most of the day but I wouldn't trust them all that much. We got lunch at a cute little restaurant in the third town, Corniglia, which is famous for their pesto. I got gnocchi with pesto, which was to die for! So fresh! One thing I loved about the towns in Cinque Terre was that they all had a distinct (amazing!) scent. One smelled like citrus, like someone was constantly peeling the biggest juiciest orange you have ever seen. Another smelled like fresh olive oil. A third smelled like Pesto, and other yummy types of pasta dishes (this must have been Corniglia).

Beautiful tuscan hillside, spotted with trees and grape vines  :)

After lunch, we purchased a couple bottles of wine and headed down path number 3. This path was a little more treacherous and was actually closed. We decided to be rebels and hop the huge gate, which was quite a strenuous process. It maybe wasn’t the best idea as there was a straight drop down a rocky cliff into the ocean if you were to fall, but we somehow managed to maneuver our way over the fence in one piece. Should we have done it? No. Are we glad we did? Absolutely. This path was the most fun because it was basically only us and a few other rebel adventurers we passed. Also, by far the most beautiful path! We looked around at some shops in the fourth town, and then continued on the path to the fifth. The path from the fourth to fifth town was pretty challenging. I must say the most embarrassing moment of my day was when I was slowly making my way up a steep path of hundreds of steps, sweating and panting, and a women who was probably 8ish months pregnant passes me with ease wearing a huge smile. I'm sure you can only imagine how that made me feel. Oh well, thats not even safe (thats what I keep telling myself so I feel a little less inadequate ha ha)!  

The sun beginning to set while sitting in our
little piece of heaven with a couple bottles of wine!
Perfecto! 

The fourth town (my favorite!), Vernazza!

We got to the highest point between the two towns that overlooks the ocean and fifth town. After a long day of trains, trails, steps, rocks, and more steps, it was time to sit back and enjoy the view (with our wine we had lugged up and down the hills all day… so worth it though!) After sitting there for a while watching the sky change colors as it was about to set, we headed back to the fourth town to catch a train back to the main station. Once back at the main station, we boarded our train, (a straight shot back to Florence this time, thank goodness!) and we all fell asleep. A short time later, we were shaken awake by the ticket collector asking to see our tickets. We thought the tickets we had purchased this morning were round trip tickets for the entire day, but this was apparently not the case! He said (in Italian, another woman sitting near us translated what we couldn’t understand, the best she could) that if we could not pay for new tickets in cash, we would be kicked off the train and meeting the police at the next station. So we frantically scrounged together 70 Euro, and somehow paid for the tickets plus the extra fee. Lesson two learned, find out what kind of ticket you’re buying before you buy it! All in all, everything turned out fine and we spent an amazing day in the quaintest little towns I may ever see. We even learned a lesson or two along the way!