Cinque Terre Report!

I've been cherishing this time on Italy's northwestern Mediterranean coast (see on map near La Spezia) for many weeks now! And it is time to report on it! Continuing the travelogue....

Let me start by again reiterating that photos were pricelessly captured on a disposable camera only, but the images are all too vividly joyous in my mind. I shall try to recreate them for you, but I'm sure it won't do it justice. Otherwise, I have borrowed some pictures from online to help your imagination.

After an overnight train from Pompeii, through the eerie Naples and dealing with a packed, unsafe, and stuffy train situation, we arrived at La Spezia train station. It was pitch dark around 5 a.m. when we arrived and there was a slight chill in the air at this empty station. We had to wait till 6 or 7 for our 8 minute train to Riomaggiore which turned out to be our new and most favorite home on the whole trip (Tracey don' t let me speak for you, but let me! HA!)

There was no one on the train and the town was far from stirring as the train let us off hovering above the beautifully serene and peaceful Mediterranean.

We were heavy with the overnight trip that dealt with quite a high level of stress in Naples and on the train, i.e. "Why won't anybody help us!"...BUT THIS, this one town of five wonderful towns, was an oasis!

Instantly we felt it was time to slow down, a time to truly embrace the Italian culture where time with family and friends is number one, and where you'll surely here an inevitable elongated "goooooooooooooooooal" shouted from the rooftops. That is even more so if you're there during the World Cup.

Cinque Terre (5 towns and we call it CT) was two days, turned into 5 of basking in the sun, walking up and down many, many stairs and cliffs, observing a peaceful early history culture of Italy. They still sit and talk with each other after getting their daily bread and vegetables at one of the tiny marketplaces.


We saw this bench scene every day as we came down 7-10 flights of stairs from one of our grand pensiones.

The first couple nights we were spoiled with an old world styled apartment that had 2 bedrooms, a nice large bathroom and living room, as well as a shared kitchen. We made pesto spaghetti with bread and bitter salad while sipping wine and staring off into the Mediterranean. Although logistically misplaced, I just kept thinking of Jesus on small boats with the apostles, calming the wind and waves, embracing the fisherman lifestyle.

The main draw for being in CT was to hike the one mile in between each town. One mile of quite rugged terrain straight up and straight down cliff sides. We were a little apprehensive to go for it considering it was our first big hike of the trip and it was for 5 hours, but we went for it of course because we had been dreaming of it for 10-12 months!



"I myself was over strenufied on the hike, huffing and puffing and enjoying pit stops! The views were spectacular and unbelievably serene. Through family owned vineyards and on a skinny trail, often times we had to scoot and wait or be excused by other hikers or visa versa. (Remembering the heat of Pompeii) needless to say it was very hot and tiring. But all was made perfect through Jesus' blood as well as the splish splash of the cool Mediterranean when we got to Monterroso's super sandy resort beach area." - from my travel journal.

Passing quickly through Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, we finished the hike in Monterosso which is a larger more touristy town with resort hotels and even a "pay to be in" part of the sandy beach. The public beach area was exactly the same, minus the cocktails and sun umbrellas, so we layed our towels out there for free and headed into the refreshing earned water! Tracey and I had eyed a wonderful beach front restaurant with a large basket of bread and yummy looking food that we planned to go to after laying out.

IT CLOSED EARLY THOUGH! It was, after all, a day when Italy played in an afternoon World Cup game. No one was working anywhere at that time, so we missed out on what seemed to be a great restaurant!

Sorry but that's all for now! More to come about a river rock beach discovery, limonetta in frosted glasses, and an Ikea outfitted pensione!

Hey Dad do you see Tunisia on the map there oh so close to Italy? Neato!

If anyone wants to find out more about Cinque Terre go here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.cinqueterre.it/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcinque%2Bterre%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG