Cinque Terre: Hike of a Lifetime

Moving on from Venice, we had high hopes for our next city: Cinque Terre. I had never heard much about this place before, so wasn't exactly sure what to expect... But after our travels through the pouring rain, getting fined for not "stamping" our ticket correctly, and being cramped on a train, we arrive to Cinque Terre five hours later... Almost.

Ok... so Cinque Terre means "The Five Lands" and comprises itself of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We were staying in Riomaggiore, so after much confusion we eventually grab another train to take us there. Well these trains were not the most informative and we had no clue which stop was ours and ended up passing it.... Not a good start to finding this place. So then we get on a train going BACK the other way hoping for the best but got off a stop too soon. We realized this just in time and ran to get back on the train. Marie and myself made it... TK was not so lucky... Fortunately someone saw TK's distressed look on her face and let her back on in the first train. So now we are seperated and don't know where we are going. This was frightening since we didn't have any tickets either, and did not want to receive any more fines. But we made it. No more fines, no more rain, and no more travel for another day!!

So in Riomaggiore we walk up the one street in the village that led to what we thought was our hostel. Ok... when I say street I mean MOUNTAIN. it was basically walking up a 90 degree angle. it was intense with all of our bags... but it was good because we were greeted by the friendliest little Italian man. Had nothing but a smile on his face.

So he took us to our place which ended up being a little apartment down the alley through a couple back alleys and eventually right on the edge of the sea. It had two bathrooms, 3 bunks, a full bed, and a full kitchen all covered by a warm coral color on the walls with beautiful Italian oil paintings. So nice!

But we were exhausted at this point and just wanted to grab a bite to eat before bed; too bad we arrived during siesta, and everyone was napping. No worries, we grabbed some gelato before grabbing some pizza and then met some australians before hitting the sack. (I swear I have met more people from Australia than England!)

Ok so today we wake up bright and early to get a move on what Cinque Terre is famous for: hiking the five villages. Now I am sure many of you think of hiking as walking a couple miles through a forest, etc.... But you could not be more wrong. Because of our lack of research we basically started the hike backwards. Many begin in the other town, Manarola, and work their way back to Riomaggiore because then you work from hardest to easiest. We did it opposite. bad idea.

But we begin and it is absolutely breath taking. We had amazing weather and began our walk on the edges of the Cliffs over looking the Mediterranean. There is no way one could put into words the scenery. The paths started with flowers growing from the cliffs of every color, surrounded by different graffiti of all the passerbys throughout the years. And as you continued on; this scenery began to continually change.

The nice smooth walks turned into walking uphill, both ways, across boulders portruding in the middle of the "paths" which were barely big enough to fit one person. Wow. It was intense. It was roughly 9KM long, but felt like longer through the rocky terrain. Many times we thought it was never going to end. It literally took us all day... roughly 8 hours?

We had a couple close calls a few times as well. VERY intense because whether it was up or downhill, the rocks were sharp, jagged, narrow, slippery, and the paths were so sketch and small. Crazy experience.

Along the way though, we discovered a little outlet to the Sea with the waves crashing 15ft. in the air, different old "villages," a couple little street vendors, fishermen hanging off a cliff, playgrounds, and some old abandoned buildings. It was beautiful. But what made it really neat was to stop in every village and see the different surroundings.

Although they all seemed similiar with their rustic Italian architecture of houses built on top of one another, scattered about the cliffs, made in every shape and color; each had its own personality. They also had their own tastes in gelato! (We decided to do a tour de gelato with our hike. We deserved it. Don't judge us.)

In one of the villages, Corniglia, we stopped to eat at a classic italian restaurant which had amazing gnocchi, and while we were checking out, the owner presumably, stopped us. Although, this was uncomfortable since he didn't speak english. The only thing we got out of it was that he liked TK's blue eyes and thought I was cute? But then he offered us some champagne...

Note to everyone: NEVER take champagne from an Italian. It is NOT champagne; more-so a bitter mix of tequila and everclear. Ouch.

Needless to say, we left with a bitter taste in our mouth (YES. Play on words!)

So we continued our hike, and after 3 more gelatos, one point at which we had to climb 386 steps, and finding a beach; we headed home on the train where we then passed out, preparing to meet up in Florence with Kelley the next day!

Cinque Terre - breathtaking. What can Italy offer next?