Saturday morning all eight girls in the CET program woke up at 7:30am to head to the train station to start our journey to Cinque Terre. The trip there took a total of three hours because we had to stop in Empoli and switch trains. Unfortunately, the train to La Spezia (a town next to Cinque Terre where most of the affordable hostels are, and where we were staying) was not air-conditioned. Plus it was very crowded, and we had to stand for most of the way. Therefore, we were all ready to get off the train and start our weekend adventure. When we arrived in La Spezia, we stopped at a café for lunch first. La Spezia is a pretty large town with some cute, colorful apartments and shops mixed with some run-down buildings with a lot of graffiti. Three of the girls were staying in a hostel near the train station and our lunch spot, so we went with them to check-in and empty our backpacks in their rooms, so we only had to carry what we needed on our hike in Cinque Terre. We took the train to Cinque Terre, which was about a thirty minute trip to the farthest (fifth) town, Monterosso. Most of the train ride was in a tunnel through the mountains, so whenever we emerged and caught a glimpse of the ocean, the whole train could be heard going “Ohh!!” Once we arrived, we started hiking the trail from Monterosso to the next town (the fourth) Vernazza. You have to pay to enter each trail, since Cinque Terre is a National Marine Park, so we bought a weekend pass that allowed us to enter each town to hike and take the train between towns or back to La Spezia as frequently as we wanted. It took us about two hours to hike, although we did stop and take pictures because the views were so incredible! This is the hardest trail along Cinque Terre because it is up-and-down with a lot of steps. Plus the trail is basically dirt or stone and very narrow, and some parts were on the edge of the mountain, quite scary at times. The views along this trail were breath-taking, especially as we approached Vernazza and began seeing the town below. Since it’s summer, Cinque Terre is very crowded with tourists, but this trail is the most difficult, making it the least travelled. Plus, we started about 3:30pm, late enough in the day where a lot of tourists had already left. It was a nice hiking this late in the day because it was not quite as sunny or hot. When we first got off the train, it started sprinkling and we were all afraid it would rain. However, it stopped as soon as we started hiking and actually the little bit of rain cooled things off for us. When we arrived in Vernazza, we spent the rest of the day here, enjoying a nice, cold gelato, sitting out on the beach, and going swimming. Vernazza was beautiful, and its town was so colorful – each building a different color of pastel – green, blue, yellow etc. Each window had shutters and flowerboxes too. The water was very clear in parts, and the entire scene was so picturesque! Around 7pm, we took the train back to La Spezia and picked up our belongings from the other girls’ hostel. And then the drama of the day began… Unfortunately, five of us booked a hostel that we thought was in La Spezia but ended up being eight miles outside of the city (though Hostelworld.com advertised it as being in La Spezia). We didn’t want a hostel in Cinque Terre because they are very expensive in the summer. By the time we figured out where our hostel was, we had missed the last bus to where the hostel was located. Plus, the busses are very confusing and not marked with their destination, so we spent about 45 minutes asking each bus driver where it was headed. Each one told us different information on which bus to take until we finally realized that the one we needed had stopped running for the night. In the process of calling the hostel several times, trying to get directions and letting them know we would not be there in time to check-in by the 9pm check-in time, we asked local shops where to get a taxi. Yet, there were no taxis in the specified taxi pick-up lane. Finally, two very nice Italian girls saw our distress and gave us a taxi number to call. We waited for that taxi to arrive, only to find out that he wouldn’t let five us of ride with him and had to call a second taxi, all the while letting the meter run. So 25 euros per taxi and an hour later we finally arrived at our hostel by 10pm. You can imagine that everyone was tired, stressed (it was getting dark quickly), and hungry (we hadn’t had dinner), so paying this fee only made matters worse, since we could have stayed in Cinque Terre for that many more Euros! But we made it safely and soundly and definitely learned to do more research before booking hostels! The owners of the hostel were very nice, though, and heated up dinner for us even though the kitchen was closed. We had a nice, large plate of pesto pasta – Cinque Terre is the “birthplace” of pesto too! The owners felt so bad for our struggles of getting there that they gave us free wine and bread too. The hostel was very clean and nice, and sitting out on their balcony, overlooking the hills of La Spezia was a good way to wind down from the stresses of the evening.
Sunday morning, we decided it would be best to break up into smaller groups to explore today, especially since some girls wanted to do different things. Another lesson of the trip is to travel in smaller groups… Since eight girls brings a lot of opinions, personalities, and emotions together! Therefore, after getting to Cinque Terre around 10am, Ana Rose and I started our day in Cinque Terre’s first town, Riomaggiore. The walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called Via dell’Amore. It is only a twenty minute walk and is very crowded – the most touristy of any of the walks because it is so short and paved, making it very doable for tour groups. However, the views are still spectacular, looking off into the distance to mountains along the sea. The trend is to close a padlock with your lover onto part of the railing of the trail, so the walkway is lined with padlocks the entire way. Once we arrived in Manarola, we had enough time to climb the hill to the top of the town to the church, San Lorenzo. The timing was perfect because we were able to attend their 11am mass. Although everything was in Italian, Ana Rose is Catholic so she explained to me what was going on, plus she knows Italian so she summarized the sermon to me after the service. It was a humble church but very beautiful because of its antiquity. We were the only Americans in the service, and the rest seemed to be from the town. There were probably about 40 people in the service with five girls in robes at front with the priest, helping with the service. At one point, they said the Lord’s Prayers (in Italian) and held hands across the rows, with the people on the end lifting their palms upward – it was a beautiful portrayal of community. After the service, Ana Rose and I continued our journey and hiked from Manarola to Corniglia (the third town). This hike was more rustic than Via dell’Amore but was still paved most of the way, making it much easier than yesterday’s hike. As usual, it promised amazing views along the way, and only the beginning and ends of the trail were uphill and difficult. Corniglia is the only town not on the water and has a population of only 240. I would have loved to hike another hard trail (like what we did on Saturday) to the fourth town, but time was running short. Instead, we took the train from Corniglia to Vernazza to enjoy some more beach time. It was nice to relax in the afternoon, especially since today we were carrying all of our things in our backpacks. We got lunch to go and ate along the shore before jumping in the frigid water of the Ligurian Sea. The water is also very salty! I couldn’t stay in for long since it was so chilly, so we spent the rest of our time reading on some rocks along the water. We then started our journey back to Siena. Our first stop was in Pisa, where we ran into three of the other girls who had stopped for a quick visit to the Leaning Tower, so we ventured the rest of the way home with them. From Pisa we stopped in Empoli to change trains again, and we barely made the connecting train to Siena! We arrived as soon as the other one was supposed to depart, but thank goodness it was two minutes late, giving us just enough time to figure out the correct platform and run to the train! We didn’t want to have to wait another hour for the next train, especially since we were all feeling gross from the hiking and swimming and wanted to get “home” to Siena. When Ana Rose and I got back to Stella’s apartment, it really did feel like home. A combination of the hiking and the travel made us very tired, so a hot meal from Stella was very welcome! Stella ended up arriving just after us, after being gone all weekend too, and she had some hiccups in her travel as well. Therefore, we all were exhausted at dinner and swapped stories of the highs and lows of the weekend before going to bed very early (after very nice showers!). Despite the difficulties of some of the travel, it was a very great weekend, and I am so thankful to have been able to travel to Cinque Terre. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect!
No comments:
Post a Comment