This place is amazing! Its hard to convey how beautiful it is. The Cinque Terre is a group of five villages all along the western coast of Italy. They've been around for hundreds of years, built into the cliffs. There aren't cars there, though I did see the odd bus/garbage truck. But for the most part you either train or hike between the villages. Each one has a beach too.
I arrived in La Spezia and then went to find the bus I could take to my hostel. It was light out, so much easier to find this time. Plus the directions were better. While waiting there I met two girls also heading to the same hostel. They were from Australia. Then two more Australians joined us. All of them were very friendly and we had a nice visit on the way up. One of them asked what it was like to come from the country with the best reputation in the world. How do you answer that? Well, I said it feels pretty good. Haha let's hope they never meet a mean Canadian!
We arrived at the hostel and as soon as we got in the door the owner asked if we wanted to go to the beach. The public bus was leaving in five minutes and we could store our stuff and check in later. The hostel shuttle would pick us up at 9. Since I only had one full day, I jumped at the chance to enjoy the evening there as well. I went with two of the Australians and a girl from NYC. I sort of wanted to be best friends with the NY girl so I could stay at her house for free, but we just weren't kindred spirits. Though they were all very nice. We went straight to the water. It wasn't your typical beach. It had big rocks and so you kind of had to scale them. We realized later that there was an easier entry a little bit further down, all well. I was so happy to jump in the water. It was perfect for a hot day. Not long after we were all enjoying the lovely scene the NY girl got stung by a jelly fish. Yes you heard right. We didn't know for sure it was a jelly fish, but she seemed alright. Then they decided to head in and one of the Australians got stung. Now we knew. See, we happened to be swimming out in the deeper water, which I guess is where they hang out. We got out of the water, in the process I cut my leg. Not bad, but it looked pretty sick. Haha. They decided to hit up a pharmacy (farmacia) to get some ointment for it. I opted to stay and hang out at the water, laying on the warm rocks and taking in the beautiful sites. Before long the water was calling me again. So I hopped on in. Not five minutes later, ZAP. I got stung by a jelly fish. Just like that. On my left arm. Bad Squishy! So I got out of the water. Maybe I should have just gone with the other girls after all. But it is a pretty cool story, and even though it hurt, it left a pretty sweet mark. Dude those little jelly fish creatures are crazy! I don't know how they do it. Its almost electric. My souvenir from Riomaggiore! Yay!
After my electrifying dip I went to explore the village. It was super cute. I found a take away place called Tutti Fritti, at first I thought it said Tutti Frutti like my fave fro-yo place. But it had fish pictures, so obviously not the same. Unless they did fish flavored frozen yogurt there, which I was pretty sure they didn't. But what they did have was a ton of little deep fried seafood pieces. I decided to be adventurous and get their random mix, a 'cone-o-fish' as I called it. Since it came in this big paper cone thing. Deep fried calamari, anchovies, shrimp, cod, and mussels. Turns out its like the best thing ever! I had to close my eyes when eating the anchovies and shrimp so I didn't have to see them looking at me when I ate them. They keep the heads on them. Eek. For dessert I got a giant peach, that wasn't pretty but tasted amazing. Then after taking in the sunset I headed to where the shuttle would pick me up. Met up with the other girls, and they shared their ointment with me for my now very red and swollen stung arm. Yay for new friends!
The next morning I was up and ready to go, especially after the church outside our hostel rang its bell 85 times. Literally. I counted. At 7:00am. I thought it was hilarious. Other people in my room didn't. I ate breakfast at the hostel and caught the shuttle down. The drive itself is beautiful! I caught the train to Monterosso where I was going to meet up with my dear friend Lisa Martin and her fiance Derek. I wore my swimsuit since we were planning on hiking and since there's a beach in each village, I planned on beating the heat by jumping in to the ocean each village. This turned out to be a great plan since regardless of ocean, I was in a constant state of wet.
I found Lisa and Derek and we set out for the first trail. After getting gelato of course! We updated each other on everything that has happened in our trips thus far. They've been to Barcelona and Venice so far. The first trail was pretty hard. Lots of steps. Apparently its the longest trail. We got to the next village, Vernazza, and I went straight for the water. It was a lovely beach! Not too busy and no big rocks or jelly fish. After our dip we sat and had a cold drink. I got a strawberry Italian soda. Yum!
Then onto the next trail. It. Was. A. Beast. Plus this was about 1 in the afternoon when we started, and it was 40°c. We were climbing stairs almost as big as me. Maybe not quite that big, but close. At the top, the view was incredible. So cool! I luckily was alive in my solid form (barely as I almost melted) so I could enjoy the moment. And try and take it in. After what seemed like many miles, and in reality was only 3.5 km, we reached Corniglia. The highest village. We found water, shade, and a restaurant. I got an entire margharita pizza. And slowly I came back to life. The food was delicious! I could go for some right now. Lisa and Derek got some bruchetta that I sampled, and it was maybe the best thing ever. Second only to my cone-o-fish. After taking our sweet time to eat and relax we went and explored some of the shops. I bought a whale shirt. I like it. But I didn't try it on cause I was too sweaty. I wasn't planning on really buying souvenirs, aside from chocolate, but Cinque Terra is taking my moneys. Too many cute things!
We decided to head to Riomaggiore to explore. We walked to the top of the village for the view and just sat there in the shade for a long time visiting. It was great. I was very happy to be there with my friends. We found a small little church up there and it was empty. So Lisa and I decided to do a duet from our choir days together in Kokopelli. Sweet Spirit it was, since we couldn't remember anything else we both knew that didn't need more parts to sound alright. Haha. We sounded awesome. The acoustics helped. It was cool especially since five years ago Lisa and I came to Europe with Kokopelli choir, and then stayed behind on our own and toured more to Germany, Switzerland, and Paris. We always said Italy next! So it was really awesome that our itineraries aligned and we were actually able to meet up.
The day was nearing a close and Lisa and Derek were heading back to their hostel. I caught the train and got out at the one village we missed, since the hiking trails are closed between Corniglia and Riomaggiore. I said goodbye and then went to scope out Manarola. I really liked this one. There was lots of cliff jumping into the ocean there. Which, had I not been so worn out I would have tried. But I just sat and watched. And I was happy to be exactly where I was, exactly at that time, at the end of a perfect day.
Life is good.
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