Five Wonderful Towns

I am going to give you a little primer info on the Cinque Terre before I begin on my day. As stated previously, they are five small towns perched on cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea on the Italian Riviera. They are HUGE tourists spots now that the word is out on them. Well they are huge tourists spots when it is warm and sunny there all the time (i.e. summer) in February the only people there are locals which is interesting. The five towns, from north to south, are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggoire. Each town has a different identity sort of and cool in their own way. They are all within a 7 mile stretch of coast. If someone visits Italy and doesn't visit the Cinque Terre, they are truly missing out.

I started the day out at around 6:30 am because I went to bed at around 9 the night before (felt so good). After waking up, I walked from the Old Town to the New Town by way of the ridge above the tunnel. It was really cool up there. There was a convent and a statue of St. Francis. It was really quiet out. Even the waves seemed to be softer than they were the night before. I love the sound of waves by the way. There is pretty much nothing as calming as that. On the way back to the apartment, I got some fruit for breakfast and Vanessa already had yogurt. We got ready to do the hike between the towns. The hike is 7 miles long. The toughest part of the hike is the part we did first, Monterosso to Vernazza.

The start of the hike was up, and up, and up. There were a ton of stairs and uphills to get out of the town and high up on the ridges between the two towns. The sucky part was that there were clouds. It made it super hard to take pictures because there wasn't enough sun to make everything show up right. It was really annoying. The trail was super green though and very pretty. Vanessa and I didn't say much to each other during this part. We were breathing pretty hard, it was early, and I think that both of us kind of enjoyed the immense quiet. Along the trail there were terraces for farming (picture 1). All the ridges around each town had been cut into terraces for grapes and other plants to grow, kind of like in the Andes. We ran into a group of three cats who had their own little encampment on the trail. It was very strange. There was a cat tent and water dishes. At the highest point on this section of trail, we ran into two couples from Cleveland. They started talking to us because I was wearing my MN Twins shirt. They were all older (new retirees maybe) and seemed pretty well to do. They were nice. From there all the way to Vernazza was basically downhill. There was a metal track thing that we later found out had a chair that powered people up the hill to the top of the trail. The chair and track looked super unsafe if you ask me.

We made it to Vernazza. This is probably the most beautiful city to see. It has a horse shoe shape because of a small bit of rock that juts out to sea (picture 2). Just incredible to look at from above. We walked around in the city and at the marina. We bought some more fruit as a snack from a farmer guy. One of the pictures I took is the exact same one as on Rick Steve's Best of Europe 2005, a book I had with me on the trip. From Vernazza, we continued walking on to the next town, Corniglia. On the trail we saw a sign that said, "down to beach". So we followed it. It was insanely steep and very rugged. There were a few places that I slipped a little. I felt like I was bushwhacking. Anyway, we made it through that trail and then followed a road through an orchard to the sea. It was just super beautiful. We ate lunch here (picture 3). I had crunchy bread (like wassebrot or however you spell it) and jam. Vanessa had tuna. Like usual, very gourmet. While we were eating, the sun started to break through in a couple spots. I was so excited. We headed back up the super steep trail and got on the regular one. We ran into a guy from the University of Florida. He took our picture (picture 4). We talked to him for a while about Minnesota. He said he knew someone from Eli (that's how he pronounced it). I laughed. Because of my Twins shirt, we also talked baseball.

We got to Corniglia. It is the only one of the 5 towns not located directly on the sea. It was up on the cliffs. Not much else to say about the town. There were 363 switch-backing steps from the town down to the sea and the next part of the trail. It reminded me of the Wiggles at Angel's Landing in Utah (except we didn't have to go up them). We walked along a pebble beach and the sun was poking through the clouds and it was super amazing (picture 5). I loved it so much. I could have spent all day there. We had to move on though. At the end of the beach, we met a couple from Australia who told us that while we were traveling, we should visit Poland. They thought Krakow and Auschwitz were very interesting. The rest of the trail from Corniglia to Manarola to Riomaggoire is pretty flat and easy. So after the beach we continued walking a little above the water and came to a marina. I walked out to the end of it and had my picture taken. Finally, we got to Manarola.

Manarola (picture 6) is the smallest town I think. It has some rocks as a breakwater for marina where people sun tan in the summer. We went out to these rocks and had our pictures taken. Vanessa got wet getting to the rocks we sat but I didn't. Some awesome pictures were taken (picture 7). The trail from Manarola to Riomaggoire is called Via dell'Amore or Road of Love. It is paved and almost completely flat. There is a tunnel with "love graffiti" all over it. Another spot along the Road is a railing where guys come with their girls and lock a lock to a railing to signify the fact that their heart is closed to all others or something (picture 8). The Road also has plants on either side of it, cactus, flowers, etc. Super romantic and beautiful.

We reached the last town, Riomaggoire (picture 9). We walked along the water in the town and then all the way up the hill to a church. Some little kids were playing football (soccer) outside it in the square. Very cool. We continued on to the castle on the edge of the cliff. There were some benches that we sat on and watched the sunset. I have said this a ton of times but it was insanely amazing to see. The sun was just all different colors and the clouds were so cool (picture 10). I took a ton of pictures of it and each one is spectacular on its own. We took the train back to our apartment. I had spaghetti and sauce for dinner and Vanessa had lentils and vegetables (just like the night before). I got into bed and read and then fell asleep early. This hike is definitely in the pantheon of hikes I have done (Skeleton Point, Angel's Landing, Skyline Trail, Lake Odessa, Cascade Canyon, Half Dome, etc.). I loved it.

So We Meet Again

Like I said, Vanessa and I talked about going to a whole bunch of places but we ended up deciding on the Cinque Terre. Our plan was to spent one or two nights there and then take an overnight train to Rome. I e-mailed the Roma Inn (our accomodations in Rome) about canceling for two out of the three nights and they said it would be fine. Then I called Hotel Souvenir in Monterosso al Monte to see if they had any rooms available for the next two nights. The woman who answered did not speak one word of English which made things difficult. I got one of the hostel workers to translate for me. Apparently, the hotel was closed but the woman had an apartment with a kitchen available for €50 a night. I'LL TAKE IT!! That's the same price we paid for that itty bitty hotel room in Venice. So we went to the train station and bought our tickets. They were only €10 or so which was good.

Before we left, I had one thing that I really wanted to do (more like 10 but I only had time for one) which was climb up the Dome. There were 463 steps to the top. That's a lot by the way. About halfway up, there is a viewing platform of the painting on the inside of the ceiling of the dome called the Last Judgment. Needless to say, it did not paint a very happy picture for the people going to hell. There was one part with a dragon biting a person in half (picture 1). The painting went from Hell on the bottom, to Purgatory, and up to to Heaven. I didn't like it much but I don't really like the Apocalypse so that would make sense. Also on the way up, I saw the herringbone brick laying scheme Brunelleschi used to create the dome. Very impressive. There were a few tight spots but I made it to the top. As soon as I poked my head out, someone headed me a camera and asked me to take a picture for them. Lo and behold!!! It was the same Canadian family as the day before. What a crazy coincidence! We talked for awhile and they took my picture again (picture 2 of me at the top with the bell tower behind). The dad told me that when I was traveling I had to go to Crete and hike in the gorges on the southern coast. He said its his favorite place in all of Europe. We said goodbye and I went into the actual church. The views from the top of the dome were far reaching and amazing to see (picture 3).

The church was just massive (4th biggest in the world, picture 4). The part of the church under the dome was blocked off because they were having some kind of event in there so I couldn't walk under the dome which was a major disappointment. I walked around and looked at the stuff I could. Then I left and went back to the hostel. I really enjoyed Florence, Vanessa not as much. I want to come back some day and visit all the art galleries we didn't go to. We got off the train in La Spezia and bought panini sandwiches at a McDonald's. The sandwiches were actually really good. Next we hopped on a train to Monterosso. It is just fantastically beautiful there.

The Cinque Terre are five small towns along the cliffs of the Italian Riviera (the towns are along the cliffs you see behind me in picture 6). They are major tourist hot spots in the summer. February, not so much which is fine by me. Monterosso is divided into two parts, the New Town and the Old Town. They are separated by a cliff with a tunnel through it. We waited at the Hotel Souvenir for Pay (the boss of the place) but she didn't show up for a while. While we waited, Vanessa practiced (I suck at Italian but it was hilarious listening to her try). One of the workers who was doing repairs (this was happening all over the city, gearing up for the big tourist season) could hear us and probably got fed up by the poor Italian so he called the boss and she brought us to the apartment. It was so cool. A kitchen, dining table, big bed, bunk beds, bathroom, towel rack with warmer, dishes, and a tv. We were so excited. The wife left for a minute but sort of communicated that she would be back soon. Her husband came and showed me how to turn on the hot water for the kitchen sink and some other stuff. He didn't speak any English either so it was interesting trying to communicate. There was a LOT of hand signals and showing. He would say OK? all the time. They were both extremely nice.

They left and Vanessa and I walked down to the beaches. We walked along the beach of the Old Town (have to pay in summer) and the beach of the New Town (from the Old Town to the New is picture 5 and from the other side of the New Town is picture 7). Very pretty. It was cloudy so there was no sunset but that was ok. We stopped and got groceries which were cheap and a nice change of pace from eating out all the time. I had my usual spaghetti with sauce and Vanessa had lentils and mixed vegetables (I still say that's weird). I read and had some Almond Apricot Cookies which were out of this world. I slept in the big bed which I must say was the best sleep I have had in a long time.