CINQUE TERRE

let me just start off by saying that this was the most beautiful place in the world i have ever been. i fully intend on returning some day.

I suppose this journey began Thursday night when I was told that there was train strike going on in Italy. I was sincerely concerned about this, but no one else seemed to be, so I shrugged it off a bit. Kathryn and I had decided to leave early Friday morning since, if we left after our classes Thursday, we wouldn't have gotten there until about 10:00, which didn't seem worth the money for the hotel. We had originally planned to take the 6am train Friday morning, but because we didn't want to get up and find that our train was canceled, we got to the train station at about 9:30 instead.

The train station was a mess. Everyone was trying to figure out how to get where they wanted with the few trains that were actually running. For a while, Kathryn and I thought that getting to the La Spezia train station was hopeless. We needed to get a train to Pisa and work out way from there, but there were no trains going to Pisa. BUT she then realized that another train was going to Livorno, which stopped in Pisa along the way! We took that train. When we got to Pisa, I rushed to get my ticket to La Spezia, and then went out on the platform to find that the next train to La Spezia was canceled. CRAP. To make things worse, the ticket machine wasn't capable of giving back change, so I have a 9,20 euro receipt that I need to redeem..

We got in the excessively long line at customer service to inquire about what to do. When we finally got to the front, we were told to take a different train to Torino, which was leaving in about two hours. So for two hours Kathryn and I hung out in the air conditioning of the McDonalds at the train station. I felt like I deserved that Big Mac.

We made some friends on the train to La Spezia- 3 guys who were backpacking around Europe after graduating were also headed to La Spezia to get to Cinque Terre. It was nice to have some additional company and hear about where they had been. We also convinced them that Pisa was worth skipping- they had sat at the train station instead of heading to the Leaning Tower during all the train mess.

Six hours after we began, we finally got to La Spezia!! (BTW, that trip was only supposed to take about 2.5 hours) The next train to Monterosso, the city with the biggest/best beach, wasn't for maybe another 2 hours. the train strike was affecting cinque terre too! fortunately, they weren't completely canceled, and we got to Monterosso around 6, I suppose. While we waited for that train, we wandered around La Spezia taking a few pictures. Kathryn and I were so exhausted from all of the train mess, so after taking a few pictures of our first view of Cinque Terre, we got in the water for a bit.

The three girls who left Thursday for Cinque Terre (Erin, Barbie, and Olivia) met up with us after they had hiked 3 of the 4 legs of the trail. After they rested for a while, we went out to dinner in Monterosso. I had a seafood pasta, which had clams and crawfish, two things i've never had before. despite the fact that i had two whole crawfish (which we promptly named) on my plate, i really enjoyed the dish. We also split a bottle of the Cinque Terre wine, because of course that would be good!

After dinner we took the train back to La Spezia, because from there we had to take a taxi to our hotel. This turned out to be a lot harder than it should have been: when they thought that some other people were going to take the taxi we had been talking to, some of the girls got angry and started cussing, which prompted the taxi driver to close his doors and drive away. We eventually got another taxi to take us, and we got to the "Luna Rossa" safely. The Luna Rossa, from the outside, looks like it could be just a nice house. It is just set up inside with a dining room and with the hotel rooms accessible from the sides. It was precious and wonderful. We were greeted by the old man who owns the place, who speaks no english, and speaks with a napolitano dialect that i could not understand. He seemed like a really nice man, and i felt bad that i couldn't communicate with him. his sons Gianpaolo and Danny came out to visit with us- they speak english pretty well, and enjoyed hearing about what we had done that day. Gianpaolo and Danny would later be really really nice and drive us to the train station the next two mornings, instead of making us call taxis to take us there.

SATURDAY:

The five of us got up around the same time, though we didn't have plans to stick together as a group. We ate breakfast together, which consisted of sweet cake things and cheeses. It was awesome, and we ate a lot of it. Kathryn and i were going to conquer the mountain, and hike the trail between the cinque terre. Fortunately, the trains were running very well (and by that, i mean that they were running) and Kathryn and I ended up hopping onto a train that was packed and about to leave in the direction we were headed. We knew that because it was so crowded that surely no one would be able to come through to check that everyone had tickets, so we never bought one. Besides, we were getting off in the first town. Success!

We started the hike in the first town, Riomaggiore. As Barbie put it, this trail was a walk in the park, where you're thinking "I love my life!". The beginning of this trail is called "Via dell'Amore", and was covered in locks with "Amy and Bobby forever" written on them. We were so excited about the gorgeous view that we took our time walking through, taking as many pictures as we could.

Riomaggiore

When we got to the second town, Monarola, the trail started to get a bit harder. Some stairs were involved, but we still felt great. Just before getting to the

third town, Corniglia, we had to climb 382 stairs, which was pretty brutal. We still felt accomplished, though! Collectively, these first two legs took us about an hour to hike. Kathryn took a picture of me looking exhausted on my camera when we finished this part. The battery promptly died. I thought that was appropriate.

death after 382 steps

The leg from Corniglia to the fourth town, Vernazza, was much harder. It's supposed to take about an hour and a half, and is much more strenuous. Here we actually started walking through the woods of the mountains, up and down dirt paths/stairs, sweating our butts off. Honestly, I don't think I've ever sweated that much in my life! On this leg, we saw the guys that we met on the train the day before. I'm sure they thought very highly of me if they realized that I was wearing the exact same thing that they had seen me in the day before. It's fine. Also on this trail is a small sign that says "free beach 15 -->" Kathryn and I were desperate to cool off, so we headed that way. Soon we realized that getting there would be harder than anticipated- using a rope that was tied to a tree, we had to repel down about 20 feet. Once we had done that, we didn't see how we could go any farther down the mountain, and climbed back up. If there was a beach, it was really well hidden.

When we FINALLY got to Vernazza, we took a break. The girls who had hiked the day before had only gotten to Vernazza, so we planned on stopping after this. We took a quick dip in the water there, and got some lunch. The water was the most refreshing and welcoming thing at this point, and we both felt better after we swam and ate. It was about 2:00, and our bodies could feel it. After we sat around for about 2 hours, we decided that we felt good enough to do the last leg of the trail. We got some gelato for the road, and for encouragement, and started up again.

For the first 30 minutes, I felt like i was going to either pass out or throw up. This was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. After the first bit, the trail turns into NOTHING BUT STEPS UP THE MOUNTAIN. Kathryn was so nice and waited for me when I had to take break every 30 steps or so. I kept drinking water and pumping myself up- I really wanted to finish the trail. The trail finally started going down (and I enjoyed walking past people going the other way who looked as bad as I had) and I was able to rest a bit. When the trail turned back to an incline, I was ready for it, and almost jogged my way through it, feeling great. We climbed down the last bajillion stairs, and made our way to the beach in Monterosso. We had hiked the whole thing and wanted to get to the water!

The last three girls, Yoya, Annie, and Katie, had gotten there by the time we finished. Everyone was hanging out at the beach. We all put some real clothes on and went to dinner in Vernazza to a place that was suggested by a local. Here, I had the best meal I've had so far in Italy. The food was great, the service was awesome, and the view was incredible. We hung around in Vernazza for the evening, and ended up sitting and watching a dance performance. During the intermission, some people brought us two bottles of champagne! I think they were kind of thanking those of us who were still there for supporting the performance, but I'm not really sure of that. The dancing was really fun, and we all decided that we wanted to stay there forever.

We had originally planned to go back to La Spezia and maybe go to a disco, but when we got back to the hotel, it was clear that we were all entirely too exhausted to do that. We all went to bed with plans to wake up and go to the beach the next day.

SUNDAY:

We all got up and ate that awesome breakfast, paid for our stay, thanked everyone for being so awesome, and rode with Gianpaolo and Danny to the train station. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the beach before taking a train back to Florence.

Gianpaolo and Danny

(yes, Gianpaolo ALWAYS wore his sunglasses)

I was so exhausted from the weekend that I couldn't make myself go out and watch the World Cup game. It's a shame that I didn't do that while I was in Europe, but my body thanks me for it.

sorry this post has taken so long for me to get up! I started it last night but then realized how tired I was. check back later for more pictures! gotta run to the ballet!

Love and miss y'all!