July 30, 2007
Cinque Terre
We arrived on the Italian Riveria to a flood of heat. We were a littled worried that our train would skip over the town we were staying in, Riomaggiore. Fortunately it stopped.
I converted my backpack to a roller bag, thinking it would be easier to maneuver the streets. HA! We begun our climb up the town’s main street, a hill, but the hill never seemed to end, we began to sweat, badly. By the time we made it to the top, found our hotel and went to check in, we were dripping. It must have been quite a sight and I believe we left some small pools on the floor. I know that Eric had a little trouble signing the paper because the pen for some reason was extremely slippery. So then we had to walk up a steep flight of stairs to our room. But it was well worth it, we had a little balcony, air conditioning and a FAN! A little oasis…
Cinque Terre is made up of 5 small hillside towns, and they mean hillside! Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterrosso are only about 7 miles apart. Vernazza and Monterrosso are the most resorty and Monterosso actually ships in sand so they can create a beach for the tourists. This is an absolutely beautiful area, so we decided we should attempt the treacherous walk between all five towns.
The “walk”, more like a grueling hike at points, was amazing. The pink and orange buildings of the towns seem to be barely standing straight, and seem to come from nowhere. Much of the area has terraced farming and I saw my first olive tree, and my first lemon tree. The view of the sea is of course magnificent. In an attempt to make sure we kept cool, I think it was around 90 degrees that day, we had stopped at the hardware store to get a bottle with a sprayer to use as a mister, however, it was pretty leaky by town 3. I guess that is what 2 euros in the boonies will buy you. If only we had remembered to pack our mister.
So the hike between town 4 and 5, Vernazza and Monterosso, we read was suppose to be pretty tough. Rick Steves wasn’t kidding. Uneven rock stairs straight up, for what seemed like forever…narrow pathways, and if you peer down far, far below waves crash on the rocky coastline. I will admit at this point I was hurtin and really wanted to quit. It seemed like too late to turn back and by the time we got close to the last town it was all downhill. I’m just really glad we didn’t have to walk up that direction, it was much worse.
The next day we hiked (yes, again) to a small sort of sanctuary for the flora in the area. Of course the views were incredible and it was well worth the burn in the quads. There also happened to be a train strike that day, so we decided it was the perfect day to take the ferry to another town. Of course the sea was furious for the first time and just walking the gangplank to get on the boat was quite scary. It didn’t help that the boat people were in encouraging us to move really quickly. Of course I was a little worried that my previous seasickness would occur again, but it wasn’t too bad. The girl downstairs was much worse off. After many ups and downs we made it to the resort town of Monterosso. It was amazing viewing the towns from a different perspective. Eric captured some great pics and even took one of the cliff restaurant we ate in the day before. We could actually see the path we took the day before and it was nice to brag on the ship about how we had hiked ALL of the towns the day previously. Although I think people were more thinking that we were crazy rather than being impressed. We spent a little time in the town, had lunch, walked around and headed back.
That evening we took another walk down the Via Del Amore from Riomaggiore to Manarola and had a fabulous dinner in this little family run place. The tiramisu was the best we’ve EVER had and the owner actually brought us some dessert wine and little biscuits (real biscuits) to dip in it. We were thinking oh, that’s so nice, I bet it is just like a sweet white wine. No sirree Bob, this stuff was wicked, stick to your throat burn, but surprisingly good. I actually used most of the biscuits to get the stuff down. The walk back with the moon reflecting on the water, well, you don’t get to see that very often, truly spectacular.
Cinque Terre is definitely one relaxing and beautiful place that I know will stick with me forever.
Update: view photos of the Cinque Terre.
Filed by LeAnn at 12:11 pm under Europe 2007