cinque terre
Vernazza
Alex, Alex, Ursula, Cameron, Sophie, Shaun, and I hiking between villages
Seen in Corniglia
The commemorative selfie Chris and I took to document how warm our hearts felt when we found out our new friends waited to dine with us
The squad eating at L'Alta Marea in Monterosso
Dawn at Riomaggiore (as seen from the cold, windy, slanted rock slab by the sea)
Swimming in Corniglia
Aidan cliff-jumping in Manarola
Golden hour in Manarola
DAY ONE
Equipped with Luisa’s killer itinerary I wrapped up my last day at Orti di Mare and made haste to Cinque Terre where I planned to meet with fellow Triton, Chris Khoury. I was ecstatic about the chance to meet up with a good college friend and see a familiar face for a few days. Elba is quite a difficult place to get to and from (duh, it’s an island) so it was a long day of travel made even longer by delayed trains for both Chris and I, even coming from different directions. I met Lorenzo and Lucrezia, two Florence youths, in Piombino and spent most of my journey chatting with them and making really hazy plans to meet up in Florence which actually happened, albeit accidentally. When I arrived in La Spezia to catch the last bus to Biassa where my hostel was, I learned the hard way that not all buses in Italy stop at every stop. In fact, in many smaller towns you actually have to wave them down and thus, I was on the verge of tears as the bus passed right by my face and had to resort to taking a €20 taxi.
DAY TWO
I will be writing detailed reviews of my hostels later, but the best thing about Ostello Tramonti was the free shuttle service they offer (if you stay three nights) to Riomaggiore, the first of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre. I hopped onto one of the earlier shuttles the next morning and met Chris near the Riomaggiore train station. Not surprisingly, he had already made a few new friends who were my apparent hostel-mates and they told us later that they loved witnessing our reunion; reunions are fantastic. We quickly formed a group to hike from Corniglia to Vernazza, the usual mix of Americans and Aussies, but not before we found some sustenance in the form of Luisa’s gelato recommendation. Alberto specializes in fresh and local ingredients and the basil/honey combination Luisa suggested was both delicious and refreshing. We worked up quite a sweat with Alex, Alex, Ursula, Cameron, Sophie, and Shaun on the way to Vernazza and enjoyed a long swim in the clear, crisp, water. We met Rachel and Eryn during our beach session and eight of us headed out to Monterosso together for some beers by the water. I spotted a friend Chris had made in Rome that we ran into in the morning in Riomaggiore, Aidan, while we were all sitting down and he joined in on the fun too. Nine of us planned to have dinner together at a restaurant nearby that Luisa had also suggested, L'Alta Marea, but I accompanied Chris back to Riomaggiore to try to sort out his awful hostel situation first (and yes it was hostile too). After a major struggle with his intended hostel a nice young Swedish man helped Chris find somewhere better to stay. We didn’t think any of our new friends would wait around for us since we were two hours later returning than we expected BUT, to our delight, they had in fact waited and were able to get a hold of us on Facebook to rendezvous; while Chris and I were waiting for the train back to Monterosso I took a selfie of us in the moment to document how warm our hearts felt when we found out our new friends hadn’t given up on us!
We had a magnificent dinner with everyone, we shared mostly everything, drank plenty, and talked heaps, no word of a lie (it’s an Aussie thing). Among some of the dishes were squid ink pasta, rabbit, seafood pasta, pesto pasta, and bruschetta; I think we all would highly recommend Alta Marea and were thankful for the dish suggestions Luisa made for us—the food was fresh and scrumptious! Our evening was so magnificent that we (Eryn, Rachel, Alex, Cameron) managed to miss the last possible shuttle back to the hostel (there’s a 1AM lockout) and were stranded together with Chris in Riomaggiore on a very cold, windy, slanted rock slab by the sea. Luckily, we weren’t alone, we had some wine, shared best and worst travel stories, cuddled for warmth, and got to see the sun rise on the colorful iconic buildings of Cinque Terre, reminding us that every struggle becomes a great story!
DAY THREE
Delirious and forlorn, our first two real days in Cinque Terre blended together in a hilarious haze. We said our goodbyes to Chris and Cameron, found our way back to the hostel for an hour of sleep and then Eryn, Rachel, Alex, and I made our way back to Corniglia hoping to meet with Aidan for some cliff jumping. In our rush we weren’t able to coordinate with him but we all had this funny feeling that our new Steve-Irwin-esque friend would just happen upon us, and he DID! After our trying evening/morning blend we didn’t feel like walking up the many steps from the train stop to the city center and opted for the road, not knowing if it would even lead there. Thankfully, it did and it was so much easier for those wanting to avoid some steps. Taking the road also allowed us to meet two more Aussies, Tony and John, who ended up spending the rest of the day with us and also accompanied me to Pisa with Aidan. We all had lunch at Kilometro Zero a sandwich shop Luisa said I had to try, and again she was on point. The sandwiches are made very slowly but are so tasty, affordable, and definitely worth the wait (I had the cheese and grilled veggie, scrumptious!). After lunch we stopped at Alberto again for more gelato—the Mango flavor was out of this world. Our hike down the many steps to the sea was beautiful and it was maybe thirty minutes in that Aidan found us (but no cliff jumping here really unless you want to climb some slippery rocks…please don’t).
We all rushed to Manarola together before our dear Floridian friends (Rachel, Eryn, and Alex) had to head out—we wanted to make sure we saw all five towns. Just a little background: the five villages are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso and can all be visited both on foot and by train. Cinque Terre is a UNESCO World Heritage site nestled high above the coast and most of the photos you’ll see on Pinterest are of Manarola specifically. We took photos, shared drinks and bruschetta, and said goodbye to the Florida kids and then after Aidan and I cliff jumped (well I mostly just almost paralyzed myself) we got to witness Manarola in golden hour with Tony and John. The four of us made plans to head to Pisa together the following morning on the way to our next destinations, and then I made my way (very slow and crippled-like) back to the hostel to pack. Read all about our Pisa adventure on the next post, ciao!
