Cinue Terre: five lands

July 16-19, 2009 – Cinque Terre: a much needed relaxing weekend

 

We had a free weekend and after much debacle between Pompeii and Cinque Terre, I decided on Cinque Terre. Pompeii would have been amazing, but I had way too much fun in Florence so Cinque Terre was a much more affordable option! We found some campsite to stay at on Thursday night, which was sweet! It was a tarp about three twin beds wide, and that’s about it. No, that is it. They were the most comfortable beds though! And it was really cool to sleep and hear nature without getting bug-bitten. That sounded really granola-ish… We went immediately to the beach when we got there and swam and watched the sun set. It was beautiful! The boys stayed on the beach at some bar and got tanked, but most of the girls went home. It was like two and a half miles from the beach to the campsite, and our bus was the last one home. Getting drunk and stumbling two and a half miles didn’t sound like a grand idea. We went back and showered and had a glass of wine while looking at the stars. You can see the stars so clearly here; it is amazing! We heard English words so we said, “Americans?” and it turned out to be these really bad ass Aussies! It was Nick, Paul, and George. I asked where Ringo and John were, but to no avail. Anyhoo they sat there and kicked it with us for a while and we were all going hiking through the five towns the next day and all agreed to go together. The next day we had to switch hotels to a main island in Cinque Terre and it was a mess! None of our guys were man enough to go with us on the hike so it was five OU girls and the three Aussies. The Aussies went with us and were totally chill through all of it. We got situated and set off for the hike! Some guy told us to go on the number 2 path because the number 1 was really hard, so we obliged. The path from Riomaggiore (first town) to Manarola (second town) was paved and extremely easy so we were a little let down and thought it would just be a long walk. Once we got to Manarola we found a more secluded beach and hopped in, found some cliffs, and jumped. I love jumping off things, preferably into water though. It was great! After a refreshing swim, we hiked to the third town, Corniglia. The hike to Corniglia was a little more difficult. There was no more pavement. It was all uneven and a real hike. We were kind of glad to actually have a challenge, but it was pretty difficult! Corniglia wasn’t really that eventful so we just marched on through to Vernazza. The hike to Vernazza was a bitch!! It was straight up hill. Some tunnel we were supposed to go through was blocked, so we just hiked up and over the mountain. Once you climb the stairs, you climb more wilderness. Given that I haven’t worked out in, literally, years, it was friggin difficult. I was really uncomfortable, but once you get to the top it is an amazing view and a great feeling of accomplishment. We finally made it to Vernazza and stopped to refuel with some protein….and gelato. Duh. I think we took a little too long of a break because getting back into the climb was awful. The hike from the fourth to fifth towns (Vernazza to Monterosso) is the most brutal one. Apparently they get progressively harder. It was a rough hike, but at the end it was awesome. We just ran straight to the ocean and jumped in. It was a really hard, but great day. We went to a nice dinner, hung out by the harbor a little bit, and went to bed. I was pooped! I was SORE on Saturday morning. Some people wanted to go hiking again, but I said f that. A couple of girls and I went down to the ‘beach’ aka rocks by the sea, and tried to go in but it was a red flag day. No bueno. We found a cool rock place to post up on and stayed there for about five or six hours. It was a total ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’ moment. Just four chicks laying out and having a good time on some rocks by the sea. It was a fabulous day and exactly what I needed after hiking my ass off on Friday. We tried to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner, but the trains are screwy and we couldn’t get there in time. We found a restaurant with outside dining overlooking the sea and asked for a table, but none were available at the time. He said wait 15 minutes and pointed up. We saw this little balcony with one table and four chairs. Score! While we were waiting for the table some kid came up and heard us speaking English and asked us how we deciphered the menu. When we just told him to flip the page to the English side and he felt a little silly. He ended up being really cool though! He was an LSU law student just finishing a study abroad trip in France who got to Cinque Terre before his friends so we invited him to dinner with us. They made room for all five of us on the balcony and we had an amazing dinner while the sun set. Talk about a perfect evening! We stayed in touch with the Aussies and they came to the town we were eating in and we saw them wandering aimlessly and called them up to the balcony and just had our own little thing upstairs. It was a great night. We went back to our little town for a drink and a farewell to the boys we met and ended up finding the rest of our group. Kind of a chill night and off to bed. When we were leaving Cinque Terre the next day I saw Pisa as a stop and a few of us decided to go see it. When you hear people say it is anticlimactic, they are right. We took a bus out there and saw it. It’s really leanin. It does have more of a lean than you would think, so that was cool I guess. It was worth the Euro and the hour to cross it off the list of things to do before I die. The best thing about it was all of the tourists posing with it! I mean I gave in. It was too fun not to, but there were some goofy people there. We had fun. We headed back to Arezzo to work on some great homework!! Poop. It was an awesome weekend though. We got to camp, hike, relax, and meet some really great people. I love Cinque Terre too! It was such a relaxing and outdoorsy place. Weekend: successful!