Cinque Terre

Sleep was hard to come by in Cannes, so waking up for our 7am tain ride was a real treat. It was a huge help that we used the trains the day before so we knew exactly what we were doing at this point. I was surprised to see the sun was up for our 6:30 walk to the station since it sets around 9:30 at night. It was a very pretty tain ride across to Italy with the coast right next to us.

Our first stop in Italy was ventimiglia, which we had to kill about an hour until our connection arrived. We went to the local market to grab some fresh fruit and pastries for lunch and then walked the town a bit before moving on. At our next connection in Genova we ran into three backpackers from Indiana that were headed to cinque terre as well. We all hopped on the train only to realize that we were headed in the opposite direction. We were starting to realize all those complaints about trains in italy may be warranted. Apparently they changed the terminal number and failed to mention that. We took the next train back the other direction and ended up playing a game of euchre with the guys. About half way there, we saw our first train attendant who asked for our tickets and of course we hopped a train that wasn't part of the tickets we purchased so we got to dish out more money for that. We got very lucky the guy was so nice and explained the situation to us as later in the trip we witnessed several people who were forced to pay 50 euro for a two minute train ride for making a similar mistake. 

 Once arriving in La Spezia we walked around looking for our hotel which showed it was the same block as the station. Google maps hasn't been the most trustworthy source on this trip. We did finally track down the hotel, which was pretty nice. We were trying to get settled in and the breaker appeared to blow about every 3 minutes. We went and reset the box only to have all shut off again. We went to the front desk and they said we had to insert the card into the wall for it to stay on. We definitely felt like the typical dumb American tourist. We then checked out the rest of La Spezia, which was a pretty small town. The city center was at the back of the hotel and this was essentially a large outdoor mall. We found some dinner and went to the supermarket for some breakfast and lunch items for the rest of our stay and then we found a gelato stand (a near necessity each night) this stand had the best gelato we experienced yet. We walked down to the pier and enjoyed the sunset over the water.

 The next morning we set our for our first day in cinque terre, which was about a 20 minute train ride. We got a Late start and decided to fill up on some McDonalds coke at the train station. While in there, Nate connected with a guy from Australia, who was a huge cyclist and made carbon tires for a living. Him and his travel partner ended up the telling us how they met lance Armstrong and of their travels. We swapped pics of the trip and of our kids (she had a sweet looking pit bull). They were both very adventurous and I wish we would have had more time to hang out with them. We did get his card, so perhaps we may connect in the future.

Once we made it to monterosso and decided to do the hike to the next town of vernazza. The views were absolutely stunning. The old Italian town were so quaint and the terrain reminded me of that in Big Sur. The hike was about two and a half hours and I dont think I have ever gone up that many stairs before, combined. Even so, the views were worth it. Vernazza had been hit pretty hard by the floods this past fall and many of the shops were still vacant. There was quite a bit of construction going on. We sat on the water and ate our packed lunch and tried the local wine. The mountain sides were vineyards all the way up so wine is a staple in this area, as are lemons. We then took the train to the next city because the trails were not yet reconstructed from the flood. This ended up being ok with me as the first hike was pretty strenuous. Corniglia sat atop a hill that overlooked the coast and we yet again got to enjoy approximately half mile hike up steps to get to the city from the station. That deserves a gelato. From there we hopped another train to Manerola, where we found a spot by the water. Several people were jumping off the rock into the cold water below. Nate and I both wanted to do some cliff jumping so we remembered this for the next day. We found a local spot for dinner where I tried my first gnocchi, which was pretty delicious. There was one last trail from Manerola to Riomagiorre which included the famous via della amor. While walking this hike we spotted what looked to be a possible cliff jumping spot down the mountain. After what seemed to be a long day, we headed back to la spezia exhausted from the long day. Our last full day in cinque terre we decided to spend as a beach and relaxation day. We jumped back on the train, got to monterosso, which was the beach town and were ready to lay out.

Once we arrived we realized it was not the picturesque weather from the day before. It was cloudy and I actually had to get my jacket out because it was so cold. We contemplated going to Pisa and foregoing the plans but decided to stick it out until after lunch. For lunch, we felt pretty bold and went for a traditional 3 course meal trying the local dishes which inc.uded squid and anchovies. I ordered the scallope which I thought were scallops but turned out to be veal. We did at least try everything, but not something that we would order again. At this point the weather hadn't cleared too much, but Nate was determined to get in a cliff jump so we headed back to Manerola. I was too cold to join in at this point but I gladly tagged along to watch Nate cross this item off the list. By the time we were wrapping up here the weather started to clear and warm up so I changed into my suit and we hiked to the other spot we discovered. When we finally made it there, there were three Canadian college girls who had the same idea in mind. We all ended up jumping in together and had a great time.

The weather ended up being perfect and we got to meet some very cool girls. I did end up getting a pretty good gash on my foot trying to get out of the water, but it was worth it. We spent a few hours sunbathing before heading back. We were determined to find out favorite gelato spot in la spezia one last time. This isn't an easy task if you know anything about gelato and Italian towns. After a while roaming, we finally stumbled upon it. We enjoyed two (yes two) cones each. However, while enjoying out dessert, it quickly turned to disaster when Nate realized his iPhone was no where to be found. After thinking things through we had an idea that maybe it was left on the table at lunch or it was stolen. We made our way back to monterosso at sunset, which was beautiful. At the restaurant to our amazement they had the phone! We decided to celebrate and go to vernazza to grab a bite to eat. Many people recommended supporting this town if possible because it was hit hardest by the rains and struggling to rebuild. This turned out to be a great decision as a very kind restaurant decided to keep its doors open just for us and made a pizza. It was the best pizza we had yet, caprissiosa- ham, mushrooms, olives, and artichoke. Mmmmm. We sat in the dark on the dock, overlooking several of the lit up towns. What a great way to end our stay. On the train ride back we met another group of people that had family attending Kenyon college and a college student from the university of San Francisco who was a film student and knew the same people Nate did. What a small world.