My friends Amanda, Stephanie and I left for the lovely coast early Friday morning but didn't arrive until 2pm because of the long train ride. We immediately decided we didn't want to waste time on this beautiful day in our hostel, so we went to two of the towns that were closer to us, Manarola and Corniglia. The sun was shining on our faces and the bikini-clad bodies that were laying at the water's edge soaking up the rays. It was so warm that we didn't need a jacket and Amanda changed into her shorts. Manarola is so beautiful, and offers the best photo opportunities of the city if you walk on the hike path away from the city. Most of the other cities didn't have a good spot to take pictures of the city itself unless you were on a boat in the ocean. The hike leading to Manarola, however, offered the most amazing view of the pink, yellow, and salmon houses and the clear, turquoise water below. It didn't seem real because it was SO beautiful. We were lucky that this was the first city we saw because it exceeded anything that I thought I would encounter on our short two-day trip.
We then hiked the 382 steps to the town of Corniglia. Corniglia is not nearly as pretty as Manarola and is super small. It also didn't have any good spots to take pictures, except for this one ledge that looked over the ocean and had cacti and flowers growing on the ocean-side of it, leading all the way down to the water. You couldn't see the city from this place though. We took a break there and ate some nutella sandwiches. We sat there for a long time and watched the sun sink below what looks like the far edge of the ocean where the world drops off.
After the sunset we made our way back to the town we were staying in (just outside of Cinque Terre) to take the bus to our hostel. This bus led us up through the mountains on a very windy road for about 20 minutes. We were all so confused as to where our hostel was, it didn't look like there was any life that high up the mountain! Sure enough, the bus dropped us off right in front of our hostel which was located in the smallest hillside town ever. There was one single restaurant that (luckily) was open. Stephanie and I went and had some pesto spaghetti and wine while Amanda went to bed. We had heard that Cinque Terre is famous for their pesto and my oh my did this dish live up to the high expectations I had. The pesto was so fresh with not much added to it. It was perfection. We headed back to the hostel to get some rest for the big day ahead of us.
Saturday morning we woke up at 7:30am (yes Mom, I woke up that early all on my own during a vacation!!) so that we would be able to get an early start on our day. Our original plan was to head to Riomaggiore, the closest town to us, take the hike called "Villa dell'Amore" (walk of love) to Corniglia where we had been the day before, and take the train from there to Vernazza. After seeing Vernazza we would make our way to Monterosso, the largest of the 5 towns with the biggest beach, and see the town and then lay in the sun all day until our train at 5pm. Well, we woke up and saw that it was raining outside. Yes, raining. Weather.com had NOT prepared us for that! It was supposed to be a nice warm weekend! Well, we sucked it up and headed to Riomaggiore in our sundresses and bathing suits. As soon as we started walking down the hill to the center of town, I slipped on the gravel and sliced my knee. It was gushing blood all over for about 10 minutes before we encountered an old man who had gone home to get me bandaids (which I bled through within an hour). It was an awful situaiton, but it was nice to have had our first look at good Italian hospitality. Even though it was raining and cold, the views were still amazing. Villa dell'Amore was beautiful. I should tell you now that this was the only hike we did because all the rest were closed because of possible mudslides or falling rocks on the sides of the hills.
When we got to Vernazza we sat by the water and took some pictures with the brightly colored kayaks and canoes by us, but not before we had changed back into our jeans and jackets from the day before. We headed to Castello Doria (an old castle with an amazing view of the town and ocean) that my "Go Italy" book had suggested seeing. We paid one euro to enter the old, yet remarkably in tact castle. We walked around, snapped some pictures, climbed to the top of the tower, and took in the sights. After spending a few good hours up there, we got on the 2 minute long train to Monterosso.
By the time we got to Monterosso, we were starving! We walked around the city and found a place to have lunch. I'm so glad we waited until then to get lunch because Monterosso had the most options for food, being the biggest town and all. We ordered what we thought was pizza, but turned out to be bruchetta! My bruchetta had tomato sauce, mozarella, and pesto on it. I never would've thought to combine tomato sauce with pesto, but it was delicious! After lunch we didn't know what to do since the weather was so terrible. I whipped out my "Go Italy" book again and we found a place called "Fast Bar" that was an American-friendly bar that has dollar bills lining the walls, signed by all the visitors who contributed to the creative wallpaper. I realized after being there that I had seen pictures of the bar in some of my friend's pictures who had been to CInque Terre before me. I was so mad that I didn't have a dollar bill to sign/contribute...I mean...who carries around dollars when they only accept euros? While sitting at the table with a margarita in hand and the futbol game blaring above on the TV screen, I found myself reading all the messages on the dollar bills. That's when I discovered the greek letters for Kappa Kappa Gamma (my sorority) etched into the wall. It was so cool to see that another Kappa sister had sat at that same spot as me years before and left her mark! Once we left the bar we decided to get the infamous Focaccia bread- yet another thing Cinque Terre is famous for! Oh. My. God. Those are the only three words that come to mind when I think about this bread. It was so plain, but so tasty! Stephanie got a regular/plain one, and I got one with onions on it. We had to catch the train right after that to come home, but I was so sad once I was on it because I wanted to go back and get more bread!
We got back to Orvieto late Saturday night safely without any mishaps. Cinque Terre was absolutely stunning, and I would suggest anyone traveling to Italy, or just Europe in general, to allow themselves 2 days on this wonderful coast. Despite our misfortune with the weather, it was still one of my favorite places I've been to in Italy, if not #1 on that list. If any of you ever visit this natural beauty, I want to hear all about it. Until then, Ciao!
