Cinque Terre

Well, we went out on another adventure but this time our intent was to have a relaxing weekend viewing beautiful scenery. However, just because that was what we wanted it doesn't mean that we didn't have any mishaps. It all started with picking which or two trains we should take. They both had the same stops and stuff but one left earlier on Friday and got us to our destination at 6 o'clock on Saturday morning and the other left later and got us there at 11 o'clock. Since we had to switch trains like 4 times in the middle of the night anyway we chose the 6 o'clock train because it would give us more time there. We ended up having a 4 hour layover in the train station from 12 to 4 in the morning. When we got off the train it was horribly cold and we all about froze to death waiting in the open train station. Apparently this train station's indoor sitting area was only open from 7 am to 11pm. After getting basically no sleep, our train finally arrived at our platform and we rushed in and waited in the warm cabin for 35 minutes until it actually left. For the next two hours all three of us were out like a light, but somehow we all woke up around 15 minutes before we arrived at our stop.

It was a bit chilly in Cinque Terre but not near as bad as it was at the other place. We walked around a while and found our hotel, but we couldn't check in till 2 so we went back to the train station and checked our luggage. Before I go any further, Cinque Terre is not a city but a type of region or territory. It is actually a string a 5, hence cinque, towns that are about a kilometer to 3 apart from each neighboring town. These are the 5 towns names in order from bottom to top: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. So, we had just missed a train to go to the other towns so we went and explored ours, Riomaggiore. The town was really pretty, hilly, had had lots of stairs to get down and up from the coast. This actually proved true for all of the towns though. We played a lot on the rocks and took lots of pictures, partly for fun and partly because we needed to kill time.

After out little stroll through the Riomaggiore we hopped on the train and went to Corniglia. The train station was down at the coast and the town was way up on a hill. We had to walk up a whole bunch of stairs but it was really nice and the weather was amazing. The temperature had risen since that morning and there was a light breeze. It felt great. We took our time walking up and enjoyed the beautiful mountain like hills along the coast with pretty flowers and numerous lemon trees.



When we got to the top, we walked around the town for a while and soon realized why Cinque Terre is not know as a touristy place but one where people come to relax. There are few shops and very little to do other than hike around and enjoy the view, at least during off season. We found this nice restaurant at to top of the town and we set out on the balcony and ate an amazing lunch. Afterward we went to Riomaggiore and checked into our hotel and freshed up a bit.


Then we headed to Manarola. It was just as pretty and we had fun on its coast. We walked across a walkway made of rock to a bigger one and took pictures. The hard part was that this makeshift walkway, if you will, was under the water besides just a little strip. Plus we had to time our crossing well or we would get drenched by the waves coming in and crashing against it and the rock that we were headed to. Plus it was slippery, but it was a lot of fun. Rachel slipped coming back but caught herself so only her shoe got wet, but she did manage to cut her hand a little though. If you enlarge the picture you can see a little blood dot on her palm.



We then walked around this cliff opposite to the one that the main part of the town was on, and me and Kyle climbed down and played on the rocks. Rachel stayed above and took pictures. You can see then in the photo album. It was a really fun place and really beautiful. It was definitely one of if not my most favorite town. I got a really pretty shot of the sun, branches, and water.



We found a really nice restaurant that wasn't that expensive so we had an early dinner there. Once dinner was over, we hopped on a train back to Riomaggiore and went to our hotel. Exhausted we all took showers and went to bed early which really didn't matter because there is not much of a night life anyway. After a long nights sleep, we woke up feeling refreshed and went and had some breakfast, checked out, and went to Vernazza. It was the biggest town and we did all of the same things like walk around, go down to the coast, go into what little stores were there, and so forth. There was a really cool shop and we all got some stuff from it. It was cloudy that day and it started raining after a while so we had some pizza at a pizzeria and then went and got a cappuccino at a cafe afterward.



Moving on to Monterosso, the rain had simmered down but there wasn't much there. We walked down the streets and looked at a few shops there but didn't get anything. At the end of the town by the coast there was a man carved into the rock holding up part of a building. It was pretty cool and easily the best part of Monterosso. Sadly our trip was at an end and we got onto our train and headed home, but with another train mishap. The man who had given us all our tickets in Bassano told us that we didn't need a reservation for this certain train. Come to find out we did and we ended up getting seats 3 minute before the train arrived and we were lucky to get those. We didn't have an assigned seat so we could sit anywhere until its rightful owner showed up and kicked us out of it. We eventually had to sit on little seats that folded out from the wall. It was a very interesting ride but we made the best of it.