CINQUE TERRE

Riomaggiore!

After skimming over the previous MADRID/SEGOVIA/SIENA posts I feel as though I need to pinch myself again. Did all of these events really happen, and were they just as spectacular as we have made them sound?! Well actually…yes!:)

This is not to say that absolutely nothing went wrong over the course of the three weeks (a canceled train here, a stranded bus ride there…which really is NOTHING in the grand scheme of traveling), but our laidback reactions to such minor mishaps as well as our ability to have a blast doing absolutely nothing together made every little ‘mishap’ instantly disappear from the radar of what we like to call our ‘perfect trip’.  

With that in mind, I will begin our next post on the lovely Cinque Terre!:)

First night in Riomaggiore:)

We headed out Sunday in the AM to catch our train from Siena to La Spezia. We had a couple of train switches in between, one being in Pisa (I really wish we could claim that we saw the Leaning Tower from afar but ALAS, we did not). Pisa was also where one of our trains was canceled due to strikes going on throughout Italy…I didn’t realize that this delay would only cause a 40 minute set-back so my initial reaction to this cancelation (which was captured on camera) was not quite so ‘laidback’, but we laughed over and over again at the pictures that captured my before, during, and after shots.;) Once I realized that we would still be going to Cinque Terre not only that day but that HOUR, I was ready for some food, a fanta, and a gorgeous, mountainous train ride towards what wikipedia likes to call the “rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera”.

Via Dell'Amore here we come!!:)

After a short pit stop in La Spezia Centrale we were on our way again, this time en-route to Riomaggiore for the final eight-minute stretch to conclude another well-worth-it day of travel. Words cannot express my excitement as we approached yet another long-lusted after travel destination of mine (and now another place we can both proudly check off of our ‘travel to-do list’).

We stayed in Riomaggiore, which is the farthest south of the five towns. Aside from the notorious ‘Via Dell’Amore’ (or Lover’s Walk)—a path beginning in ‘Rio’ that connects to the following town of Manarola—Riomaggiore consists of all but one main street scattered with a few restaurants and a teeny-tiny marina to match the size of the town. And we loved every square inch of it!

We made it!!!<3

As we got closer to our stop, glimpses of the Mediterranean (the Gulf of Genoa, to be exact;)) would flash by us and I would let out a loud and excited GASP as if I had never seen an ocean before. My enthusiasm rivaled that of two five-year-olds whose reactions were the same as mine just a few rows in front of us. As you can imagine, when we arrived at our stop our excitement levels only went up from there. From being greeted with fresh, clean air and gorgeous ocean views as we stepped off the train, to seeing a sign for ‘Via Dell’Amore’ (it was all I could do to not sprint up the stairs to begin the walk before dropping off our luggage), to walking through the tunnel leading to our tiny town…my heart was racing with excitement that could only be expressed with little squeals of satisfaction, accompanied by the occasional hand-clap. Scottie was just as excited, although he somehow refrained from following suit with the squealing and hand-clapping.;)

Almost lost the keys on this one but well-worth it;)

Bar Dell'Amore on Lover's Walk:)

On the other side of the tunnel we entered the lovely, one-street-wonder of Riomaggiore. The single street in town is an up-hill climb and our lovely Bed and Breakfast was located at the VERY top (again, good thing Scottie was carrying our luggage;)). We arrived late in the afternoon and were greeted at the top of the hill with a rainbow flag adorned with the name of our place, L’Arcobaleno or ‘The Rainbow’. Our initial thoughts about it being a gay-couples Bed and Breakfast were quickly rejected as we came across another young couple waiting outside. After waiting for the owners to return we finally arrived to our room and were pleasantly surprised by its nice accommodations. Gay hotel or not, we had a great stay at  L’Arcobaleno!:)

After a quick change we were out the door again to enjoy a beautiful evening walk on the lovely Via Dell’Amore!:) As we approached the start of the path that winds its way around rugged cliff sides to the next town, I still could not believe that “We are HERE!”. Countless Google-image searches over the years and there we were standing under THE entry gate adorned with a lock-covered heart, representing ‘Lover’s Walk’ for all that it’s worth. A million photos later and we were still trying to get a grasp on reality—“We are in Cinque Terre!”.:) We came across a cute café along the way and decided to stop and enjoy some wine, the start of a sunset, breathtaking views, and fabulous company, all while suspended over the cliff sides of the Italian Riviera. Need I say it? Life is Good.:)

Via Dell'Amore:)

We walked to the end of the path and started making our way back as the sun was setting. A little background information—as you walk along Via Dell’Amore, it is impossible not to notice all of the padlocks hanging from railings, gates, parts of the cliffside, and anywhere else you could possibly find. These ‘love locks’ are typically brought to Cinque Terre by couples who follow the popular trend of hanging their lock somewhere along the path and then throwing the key into the ocean to symbolically ‘lock their love’ forever.

Hanging our lock!:)

So as we made our way back to Riomaggiore we were keeping an eye out for a perfect place to hang our lock.:) We came across a narrow, steep set of stairs that jetted off to the side of the path and we cautiously made our way up to the top where a small fence awaited along with other locks. We hung our lock and made our way back down to the main path to throw our keys into the ocean under a gorgeous, Cinque Terre sunset—not bad!;) Once we finally pulled ourselves away from the beautiful views we made the trek back up to our hotel to freshen up for a delicious dinner at one of the few restaurants in Rio to sum up another perfect day in Italy.:)

The next day we set out early and made our way down to the tiny marina in town before venturing off to other cities. One of the things I could not get used to when we were there was how many people spoke English everywhere we went! We were constantly making small talk with fellow tourists just because we could and we even came across a group from good ol’ Portland, Oregon (the world really is SO small!). Speaking of small, we were also both amazed by just HOW tiny all of the towns were. I could not help but wonder WHAT local people DO here. By the endless vineyards covering the hilltops it is obvious they make wine…but what is it like to grow up in Cinque Terre?! And will the towns eventually be taken over by tourists and run by the government since it is a national park? I guess some things we will never know!

Baby beer!;)

ANYways we decided to start our first full day in the lovely town of Monterosso! Monterosso is the largest of the five towns and it is located the farthest north. Being the only town with a beach and easy-access to the ocean, Scottie took full advantage of touching the Mediterranean for the first time—wahoo!:) Monterosso is also one of the two towns that was hit the hardest with terrible mud slides this past fall. We wandered around town where they were still cleaning up remnants of dirt and mud piles on the streets. They had photos hung all over that showed what certain areas looked like when the mudslides first hit and it was unbelievable, not to mention terribly sad, to see the damages that had it caused. After some more wandering and lots of photos later we stumbled across a cute little pizza place where we indulged in a large, delicious pizza as well as some beers to conclude our tour of Monterosso for the day.  

Next we headed to Vernazza, the quintessential Cinque Terre town that was unfortunately hit the hardest with the mudslides. Similar to Riomaggiore, Vernazza basically consists of one main street. Much of this town was covered in dirt as well as photos documenting the initial damages of the street, restaurants, and people’s homes. On top of the fact that Vernazza is so small, the damages from the fall left little to be seen there as it was still somewhat of a ghost town with none of the few restaurants or shops open to the public. We walked to the marina, snapped some photos, goofed around, and took in the scenery for a bit before heading off to the next town of Manarola.:)

Manarola appeared not to show any evidence of the terrible mudslides, and at this point in the afternoon the sun had symbolically decided to come out from behind the clouds for the rest of the day. We enjoyed a sunny little ‘vineyard hike’ in the hills that looped around the town and provided us with some spectacular views and quality time in another one of the ‘5 Terre’. After we had seen everything in Manarola we decided to backtrack and set out for a hike between Vernazza and Monterosso.

We knew we wanted to do at least one hike between two of the towns and since we both share a “Go Big or Go Home” mentality, it only made sense that we would do the longest and most difficult of the four hikes (right?!;)). We were aware that a couple of the hikes were particularly ‘iffy’ with the narrow paths hugging cliff sides but we were not prepared to run into numerous ‘CAUTION’ signs trying to deter us from what we could only expect to be an hour and a half of pure adventure.

Manarola:)

 Aside from a couple of scares towards the beginning of the hike (for example, evidence of a mudslide path and half of a house suspended from the side of a hill as a result) we were pleasantly surprised by how feasible it was and I guarantee that even my grandma could do it—but seriously.:) Estimated to take about an hour and a half, we finished it in an hour, chatting with fellow hikers and taking in gorgeous views of the sunset and all five towns along the way. We made our way back to Riomaggiore for our last ‘hike’ of the day up to our Bed and Breakfast and later enjoyed pasta and wine and lovely views of the marina to conclude another blissful evening in Cinque Terre.:)

The next day we ran into our first and only day of bad luck on our trip in terms of the weather. Despite scattered showers throughout the day we were determined to complete our goal of seeing ALL five of the ‘Cinque Terre’. Corniglia, the town that is the least well-known and often neglected as a result, is also the only one that is not ‘directly adjacent to the sea’, but rather, on top of a cliff-side about one-hundred meters high. To reach the town you must climb the Lardarina, a long flight of switchback steps (33 flights and 382 steps to be exact). I would be lying if I said that the climb was anywhere near as difficult as it sounds, but I assume that the idea of this upward trek is what scares away many tourists. After reaching the top and walking about 100 meters, we had a feeling that we had already seen the entire town of Corniglia. With rain starting to pour and over an hour until the next train we had no choice other than to enjoy a bottle of wine, foccacia bread (YUM), and (big surprise here) PASTA in the green and vineyard-filled hillsides of Corniglia.:) Due to the rain in the already-deserted ghost-town of the ‘5 Terre’, we almost felt as though we were in a scary movie and the town of Corniglia was going to hold us captive forever if we didn’t leave at some point (okay, maybe it was just me who thought that;)). After we finished lunch we took one more look at the ominous town with clouds of mist rising up in the hills and then quickly began the descent back down the stairs before we became part of a real-life version of “Shutter Island”.;)

Stairs to Corniglia!

Along with all of the vineyards in Cinque Terre, it is also impossible not to notice the abundance of lemon trees covering the hill sides as well. Scottie and I had no intentions of missing out on the opportunity to enjoy some finely crafted limoncello while in Italy, and each lemon tree that we passed confirmed the idea that Cinque Terre would be our best bet. We ventured back to Monterosso and quickly found a bar where the bartender kindly offered to enjoy a shot of limoncello with us (what a gentleman;)) and .5 seconds later we were out the door as quickly as we had come in.

Limoncello in Monterosso:)

We ventured back to Riomaggiore late in the afternoon to enjoy a classy “double” bottle of Cinque Terre wine before dinner. We had every intention of going into another town to eat that night but the wine and the weather convinced us otherwise and we ended up at the same restaurant that we ate at the first night in ‘Rio’. At this point I will remind you that we had each consumed a bottle and a half of wine over the course of the day and so as you can imagine (or maybe you can’t), ordering another bottle to accompany our three-course meal seemed like a GREAT idea at the time. Dinner was delicious and we had a fabulous time concluding our wonderful stay in Cinque Terre. BUT, it was my natural instinct to run around after I have been drinking that caused my great demise in the form of ‘hill sprints’ back to our hotel, despite Scottie’s wise advice not to do so. Needless to say, at the top of the hill I was not feeling so hot but rather than going into detail about the rest of the night, I will conclude this post with a lovely quote that sums up our time spent in Cinque Terre as well as our outlook on future adventures to come;)…

Hike from Varnazza to Monterosso with Vernazza in the background:)

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

-Jawaharial Nehru

In sum, Cinque Terre was AMAZING and once again, the ONLY good thing about leaving was being able to look forward to where we were headed next!

Next stop: the island of Sardinia!!!:)