Ok so I knew I'd be bad at this whole blogging thing. I'm sorry I haven't written anything yet but I figured that the best weekend ever was a good place to start.
Emily, Julie, Erica, Kate and I left Friday morning for Cinque Terre. The train took about 3 hours and by the last train we were on it was mainly tourists, actually mainly British tourists. The train went through a lot of tunnels and as we were coming out of a tunnel the tourists on the train literally gasped. All you could see was bright blue ocean crashing into cliffs and mountains. It was breathtaking. At this point many of us on the train rushed to the windows. One man from the British group had his head out the window taking in the grandeur when a woman said with her delightful accent “I’d get your head in Alan.” Ok there’s no way that last part came off as funny as it was but trust me it was funny.
We got off the train in the northern most town, Monterosso, where we were staying at the Hotel Souvenir. We went to the hotel and dropped off our stuff then we went to lunch at a café on a cliff overlooking the Ligurian sea. After lunch we saw the trailhead where you can hike between the 5 villages so we decided to go ahead and walk for a bit. We walked to the next village, Vernazza, and took the train back. That night we had a nice dinner in a restaurant with another great beach view. The weather was pretty stormy in the afternoon and evening, which Julie and I really appreciated. The storms also made the waves pretty spectacular. After a full meal with wine and dessert we headed back to the hotel and watched a movie.
The next morning I got up with Emily at 6 so that she could catch her train at 7. After she left I went down to the beach and climbed out on some big boulders. I watched the sunrise with waves crashing up in front of me and the beautiful Italian countryside behind me. It was basically perfect. Then after breakfast we set out for the full 7km hike between villages. The trail winds along cliffs and through forests with incredible views the whole way. All the towns were very cute and small. We stopped in the middle town for lunch and waited out an afternoon shower. The region that Cinque Terre is in is known for its pesto so of course we had a lot of amazing meals, I’ll try to refrain from describing them all. After lunch we went down to a rocky beach and played around for a while. Kate and I waded into the water and then we all climbed around on big boulders and collected pebbles. We kept hiking then in between the next 2 towns there were some small trails to these rocky cliffs you could climb around in. This was Julie and my favorite part. It felt to secluded, especially after passing through some especially congested parts of the trail. We climbed into this little cave where all we could see was jagged black rock around us, crystal blue water in front of us and a brightly colored little village in the distance. We walked the last stretch of trail in the rain and then caught another train back to Monterosso. That night we had yet another wonderful meal and then went to a bar where they were showing the Italy vs. Scotland soccer game.
On Sunday Julie and I got up a little after sunrise and went out to the water. We sat on the rocks again and then had a nice breakfast. After that we took a ferry to the southern most town, Riomaggiore. The boat ride was so fun. We were out in the big waves so we were rocking back and forth quite a bit and we got a nice new view of where we had been the day before. Once we got to Riomaggoire we laid around on boulders on the beach and climbed a bit. Then we got lunch and gelato and got on the train headed back to Florence. Apparently we were lucky to get a train because there were a lot of strikes going on that weekend. The train back to Florence took a different route than we had been on before and we went through some really beautiful countryside. This is where Julie and I decided that there is really only one way to ride a train and that is with your head out the window. Alan really new what he was doing.
So to sum up it was a pretty perfect weekend. Good food, good friends, mountains, ocean, hiking, climbing, trains and a boat ride. I wish you all could go to Cinque Terre and if the opportunity ever presents itself do whatever it takes to get there.
