Cinque Terra (by Trevor)

We left Venice, early Wednesday morning. I thought I had calculated enough time for us to get to the train station, but first our water bus was late (they were never on schedule) so even once it did come, I was constantly checking the time, becauce I didn't believe we were going to make it. But we made it to the train, only a few minutes before it left, but we made it.

So we rode to Florence and had to catch a regional train to La Spezia were we could transfer again to Riomoragarrie. At the train station Amber found a prarmacy and got some cream for her hives, they were driving her nuts and rapidly multiplying. We rode to La Spezia in a getto train, it was pretty run down and it was so hot so we had to ride with the windows open. The train to Riomorgeria was interesting too, we had to go through a few tunnels for mintues at a time, no big deal except for our train and the tunnel had no ligths, so we were in complete darkness, pitch black!

We got to our hostel and the guy led us to our room. We had a primo location, our building and our room is right on the water, so we had an absolutly amazing view of the ocean. The only good thing about the hostel was the view, other than that things were scetchy:
1. There was a washer, so that was cool, but Amber had to open it with a spoon and it electicuted (shocked) me the next day.
2. We stayed in a 6 bed room, 2 bunk beds and a double bed in a seperate room, seperated by a frnch door with no glass inthe middle, so we just stepped through the door without opening it.
3. There was a fridge in the room, great except for it wasn't and couldn't be plugged in because the plugs were not the same as the outlet.
4. There was dried seaweed hung on the wall as decoration.
5. There was a fan in our room that didn't work because he outlet that was supposed to be there, just had random wires sticking out of it.
6. The stairs up to our room (3rd floor) were super steep and dark and the "doorbells" to people's apartments were right beside the light switches with no indication of what was what.
7. The curtains are made of tulle.

Once we got there, we headed right for the beach (not sand, more like huge boulders). We went swimming in the ocean (very cold and salty but refreshing) and then laid on the rocks for a while. Once we had enough sun, we did some laundry and then headed into town. It only took like 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other, (very small, only 1 street). We picked up some Coke and then had a bite to eat. Then we ended the day by sitting of the rocks, drinking rum and coke, watching the sunset.

We went back to our hostel and we talked with our roommates for a couple of hours and it was the first time I actually enjoyed talking to people this entire trip (other than amber, I always enjoy talking to her) I usually leave the talking to Amber.

The next morning, we were hitting the trail! The biggest draw of CinqueTerra is the hiking paths that connect these 5 towns which all lie on the top of cliffs that sit high above the ocean. The hike is supposed to take 5 hours and cover 9 km of trails. The trails were built by farmers to get to their crops which were built on terraces.

So we headed out around 9 and headed for the train station. We were taking the train to the last town and doing the hike in reverse for 2 reasons:
1. So that we would end in the town we were staying in and could jump right in the ocean and not have to get on a train.
2. So that we could do the hardest part first, while we had the energy, otherwise we would be tired and dreading the end.

We got to the train station and realized the next train wasn't for a half hour or so, so we didn't get there until 10 and then there was a market in the town, so we didn't get on the train until 11.

We started with the hardest part, basically straight up steep stairs for 30 minutes. After that I was already drenched,Amber was glistening. So we hiked some more, most uphill but some downhill for the hour or so, until we got to the second town. We were relieved that half the hard part (2 km) was behind us, but we were starving. So we got some pizza on foccasia bread, with pesto.

The next 3 km only took us an hour and twenty mintues. But was almost as trencherious as the first, but the views were just as beautiful. We stopped for more food and most importantly gellato!

We found our way backto the trail and did the last 4 km. It was basically flat but not nearly as interesting, but we wernt complaining. There was a few places that we could have hiked down to a beach, but Amber didn't want to go because:
1. We would have to hike back up (20 minutes)
2. They were nude beaches

I was game but I couldn't convince Amber. So we made it home and headed straight for the rocks to go swimming. The water was a lot rougher than it was the day before, but I told amber that she needed to jump in anyway because I wanted to film it, it took three minutes to finally jump. (A side note to Mom, on the way back to put the camera on the rocks, before I jumped in the water too, I found a 5 cent Euro barely hanging onto a rock.) we didn't stay in the water very long so we climbed out. Apparently I cut my foot on the rock, because I was standing in blood, it was just a scrape (or 4) so it stopped right away. After Amber took a video of me doing a cannon ball, we made our way over to some other rocks that we could lay on. We found a good rock, but every so often it was get misted from the water crashing into the rocks. We were just about ready to go when Amber said "today would be a good day to get a picture of a big wave hitting the rocks", then 2 seconds later out of no where came a big wave and splashed us. Thanks Amber.

We headed in to shower, but had to wait, so we had really really short showers. Then headed out to dinner.

Dinner was interesting. We ordered pasta, amber's had shrimp in it, mine had some sort of fish. Both tasted very good but where a pain in the butt to eat. Amber said "if I find an eye in my food ..." and her concern was valid because her prawns where whole prawns, including bodies, claws, and their heads with their beady little eyes. My pasta had fish bones in it, so they were sharp and cut your mouth if you didn't see them.

Throughout dinner, people were stopping beside/below us to look at this cat who was lying in a boat. Probably 6 couples stopped and made cooing noises. Then Amber said "I am the cat, I am the devil" in a creepy voice and the guy behind Amber sneezed and Amber jumped so high, nearly screamed. I think she thought it was the cat who made the noise, either way it was hilarious.

We went back to the room and packed our bags and fiured out what time we were leaving and called it a night. as we were lying in bed, our new roommates tried to come in. Insay tried becuase they couldn't figure out the door, even though they had already had trouble with it and I showed them How to open it. They litteraly took 3 minutes to unlock it, because they kept locking it. Aaah some people.

written by  Trevor and Amber on June 10, 2009 from Riomaggiore, Italy
from the travel blog: Europe Trip
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