Well the 11 day adventure in Italy has finally come to an end. And looking back on the week, it had to be one of the best weeks of my life. Yes, there were times where I felt stressed, overwhelmed, and tired, but with all of those little breakdowns came an even bigger smile on my face and hilarious stories that I will be laughing over for years. Austin has headed to Rome for his last couple of nights in Italy, and I am back in Florence (and... back in class.)
March 16, 2012
Our first part of our tour of Italy's off the beaten tracks (most of the time) landed us in Corniglia, the cliff town of the Cinque Terre. It was a very easy train ride to Corniglia, and everything went as planned. After we checked into our hostel, the owner suggested that we should take the high trail to Manarola (the next town over). The "blue trail" was mostly closed because of the flooding of last October, so for most of the trip we had to resort to the "high trails". We both agreed that we were almost glad the blue trail was closed, as we probably wouldn't have even thought of going another way. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip in Cinque Terre and possibly even of our whole trip. With a steady incline, in the beginning we (or I) worked up a sweat. But as we hit the top of the mountain and start to ride the ridge, the beautiful views of the blue water and the towns nestling below took over. The mountains had been cut into stairlike formations creating a perfect farming environment. We were able to walk through small farms and experience a different non-tourism based culture of the Cinque Terre. Ending the hike in the 2nd town of Manarola at dusk only created a more perfect first hours of the trip. We hurried down to the shoreline to capture a memory of the beautiful homes and buildings of Manarola. With the sun setting over the ocean, it only added to the beautiful and lively color already found there. After many... many pictures we decided on tasting our first bit of pesto of the Ligurian Region. We weren't disappointed by any means and that was only the start of it. After a long first day we headed back to our hostel in Corniglia (luckily catching one of the last trains there) with full stomachs and beautiful first memories dancing in our heads.
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Manarola
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March 17, 2012
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| Via Dell' Amore |
We woke up early and had a quick breakfast of croissants and black tea provided by the owner of the hostel. It was still cloudy outside when we set off to our first "real" touristy experience: "Via dell' Amore". The walk was one of the only parts of the blue trail open and was a beautiful cliff side stroll from the town of Manarola to the southern most town of Riomaggiore. A bit cheesy for my taste, it was still a fun and side paths brought a little more adventure as it took you close to the sea. We jumped and climbed around on the rocks reverting back to being five year olds. The walk left us hungry and when we hit Riomaggiore, the first thing we found was a large slice of foccaccia covered in olive oil and pesto. Served warm, I almost thought I was dreaming when I took a bite of it. We finished off lunch with a short walk around Riomaggiore and 2 "prunghe", which we later found out were actually plums.
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| Riomaggiore |
The next stop on our list was Vernazza, the town hit hardest by the October floods. I was excited to go there because I had heard to brighten up a rather unfortunate situation, the town had come together and painted murals on many of the doors in the town. Many of them displayed whimsical depiction of the coastal towns or the sea; all were very beautiful and unique.
We were planning on doing another high trail from Vernazza to Monterosso, since we so much enjoyed the one from Corniglia to Manarola, but was the reconstruction effort, the trails where the last thing on people's minds (rightfully so) and we were unable to find the #8 to Monterosso. We did however get to walk some of the blue trail until was saw that part of it had been destroyed. Following my mother's "goody-two-shoes" outlook, I didn't want to continue onto the trail since they said it was closed. Thinking back, I wish we had ended up going because many other people seemed to just walk right past the "closed" signs; however, I really have no regrets.So instead we sprawled ourselves out on the rocks by the sea and bathed in the sun until the next train to Monterosso was to arrived. I am still in awe over the incredible work the community (with apparently no government help, I might add) has down to recreate the beautiful town of Vernazza.
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| Vernazza |
Once we hit Riomaggiore, the clouds had departed revealing a beautiful and warm afternoon... perfect for sitting and relaxing on the beach! One of my goals was to get a little bit of sun on the trip, so it was nice to be able to sit in the rocky sand and feel the warm sun on my face. After a while though we got a little bit restless and saw a few people climb on on of the large boulders that jetted out from the sea... so, again we retreated back to our kindergarten days and decided to climb too. It gave us a beautiful view of Monterosso and well... it was just plain fun. Soon after Austin went to go get some gelato and the rest of the afternoon was spent sitting in the sand, eating gelato, people watching, and laughing our asses off. After a short but steep hike to a convent with a panoramic view, we headed back to Corniglia to actually spend some time in the town we were staying in.
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| Monterosso |
And it was a time well spent... We decided to skip the whole sitting in a restaurant aspect of dinner while traveling and buy a large (pesto) pizza (for 7 euro!) and a bottle of wine at the town's only "supermarket" and head down to the "marina"... which consisted of a bunch of paddle boats lying on rocks and concrete.
There we merrily ate the best pizza I have ever had, drank a glass (or 2) of wine and watched the sun fall under the mountains in the distance. With only a small amount of people and a very peaceful atmosphere, we were very happy to have chosen the center town of Corniglia as our "home" for the duration of our stay. The dinner only added to the dreamlike state we had been in the past 48 hours. I recommend the Cinque Terre to anyone who is in the vicinity. The region brought some of the best food I have had in Italy thus far, the most beautiful views, and a large step out of reality. With the flooding and the early season, we were able to have a very pleasant time without the rush of the crowds and the noise of a normal tourist site.
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| Corniglia |
Our first part of our tour of Italy's off the beaten tracks (most of the time) landed us in Corniglia, the cliff town of the Cinque Terre. It was a very easy train ride to Corniglia, and everything went as planned. After we checked into our hostel, the owner suggested that we should take the high trail to Manarola (the next town over). The "blue trail" was mostly closed because of the flooding of last October, so for most of the trip we had to resort to the "high trails". We both agreed that we were almost glad the blue trail was closed, as we probably wouldn't have even thought of going another way. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip in Cinque Terre and possibly even of our whole trip. With a steady incline, in the beginning we (or I) worked up a sweat. But as we hit the top of the mountain and start to ride the ridge, the beautiful views of the blue water and the towns nestling below took over. The mountains had been cut into stairlike formations creating a perfect farming environment. We were able to walk through small farms and experience a different non-tourism based culture of the Cinque Terre. Ending the hike in the 2nd town of Manarola at dusk only created a more perfect first hours of the trip. We hurried down to the shoreline to capture a memory of the beautiful homes and buildings of Manarola. With the sun setting over the ocean, it only added to the beautiful and lively color already found there. After many... many pictures we decided on tasting our first bit of pesto of the Ligurian Region. We weren't disappointed by any means and that was only the start of it. After a long first day we headed back to our hostel in Corniglia (luckily catching one of the last trains there) with full stomachs and beautiful first memories dancing in our heads.
We woke up early and had a quick breakfast of croissants and black tea provided by the owner of the hostel. It was still cloudy outside when we set off to our first "real" touristy experience: "Via dell' Amore". The walk was one of the only parts of the blue trail open and was a beautiful cliff side stroll from the town of Manarola to the southern most town of Riomaggiore. A bit cheesy for my taste, it was still a fun and side paths brought a little more adventure as it took you close to the sea. We jumped and climbed around on the rocks reverting back to being five year olds. The walk left us hungry and when we hit Riomaggiore, the first thing we found was a large slice of foccaccia covered in olive oil and pesto. Served warm, I almost thought I was dreaming when I took a bite of it. We finished off lunch with a short walk around Riomaggiore and 2 "prunghe", which we later found out were actually plums.
We were planning on doing another high trail from Vernazza to Monterosso, since we so much enjoyed the one from Corniglia to Manarola, but was the reconstruction effort, the trails where the last thing on people's minds (rightfully so) and we were unable to find the #8 to Monterosso. We did however get to walk some of the blue trail until was saw that part of it had been destroyed. Following my mother's "goody-two-shoes" outlook, I didn't want to continue onto the trail since they said it was closed. Thinking back, I wish we had ended up going because many other people seemed to just walk right past the "closed" signs; however, I really have no regrets.So instead we sprawled ourselves out on the rocks by the sea and bathed in the sun until the next train to Monterosso was to arrived. I am still in awe over the incredible work the community (with apparently no government help, I might add) has down to recreate the beautiful town of Vernazza.
cannot. wait.
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