Italy! part 1-Cinque Terra

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  Cinque Terra, Italy
Friday, October 27, 2006

Over the last few weeks, the pace of life has really started to pick up here. The month of October has just evaporated, and looking back that was mostly because I spent two weekends in Italy, had more classwork than September, and have started to figure out my life for when I return to PLU.

But back to Italy... Two other girls and I decided to go to Cinque Terra on the Italian Riviera. Cinque Terra is a magical place-five little villages perched along the Mediterranean coast, and strung together by train tracks and hiking trails. We took along our trusty Rick Steve's guidebook, since Cinque Terra is among his favorite places and he gives lots of detail when it comes to his favorite places. Rick, by the way, is a guidebook author whose philosophy is to experience the real Europe by going to smaller, local, not-so-touristy places. He is also into getting your money's worth, so we were in good hands

01 the view of Monterosso from our hotel

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We took a train from Nice to Genova, which was about three hours. You can't really tell when you've passed into Italy, because they don't check your passport (yay for the EU) or even announce it. The only way I realized we had crossed the border was by looking out the window and seeing Italian signs instead of French. We were riding on an Italian train, which are different from the French trains because they have these compartments that you sit in for six people. I was getting really excited that it was so much like the train in Harry Potter, when along down the aisle came a little Italian man pushing a snack cart. So of course we had to get some candy and pretend like we were riding the Hogwarts Express!

We switched trains in Genova and rode a final hour into Monterosso, the first of the Cinque Terra towns and where we stayed both nights. We lucked out with our hotel room-we got the top floor with a huge deck overlooking the town below and Mediterranean Sea beyond. The deck was bigger than the actual room, with a plastic table and chairs where we ate dinner Saturday night. Each morning we watched the sun rise over the town, which is nestled into the hills, and each night we looked at the stars that we could actually see because there were no lights from the town

02 the cats that hung out next to our hotel

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Friday night we had dinner at this little restaurant where the waiters were all good friends and they liked to get together and joke around. I had a delicious pizza-tomato, salami, and mozzarella with a thin crust, my favorite. The food in Italy is pretty much amazing, and I couldn't believe the low prices after spending so much time in expensive Cannes. The best comparison is ice-cream...in Cannes you pay minimum 2 euros for a scoop, and in Cinque Terra we got three scoops for a euro fifty. I definitely had nine scoops of gelato (Italian ice-cream) over the course of the weekend because there are just so many flavors to try. The chocolate and cappuccino I had in one of the towns was the best I have ever tasted. A really good Italian snack is focaccia, a large piece of flat bread that they put toppings on and heat up.

On Saturday we woke up and hiked through the five towns, which is good because we also ate our way through the five towns. The trails are incredible-you just go up and over mountains to get to the next town, all the while enjoying amazing views of the Mediterranean sparkling below. And I mean way below, because these trails were up high. To start off, you climb up these old stone steps that just keep going up and up and up. Along the way are terraced grape vines, stone houses, and lots and lots of greenery

03 view of Monterosso looking back from the trail

. Then, as we were about to pass out from heat and hunger and tiredness, we would round a bend and see the spectacular view of the next little town dangling off the cliffs. My favorite towns were Vernazza and Manarola, the second and fourth. The hikes do get less strenuous as you go along, so it was nice to start harder and end easier. We spent a bit of time in each town, wandering around, dipping our feet in the water, and eating a snack. At the end of the day, we rode the train back to Monterosso.

Cinque Terra was a great first trip to Italy. I still really love France, but it was fun to experience a different culture, eat some great food, and meet a lot of really nice Italians. It was a little frustrating to not be able to speak to them, but I did pick up a few Italian words. So the Italian word du jour is "mi scusi" (excuse me). It's super fun to say and very useful when you're passing people on the little single-file hiking trails and trying not to fall over the edge.

I left my heart in Cinque Terra, so it's a good thing I went back to Italy the next weekend. Part 2-my trip to Florence-is to come, along with pictures of Cinque Terra.

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04 the teeny hiking trail	05 Vernazza from up above	06 focaccia bread snack time!	07 Corniglia, the only one not on the water
08 Manarola...I love the harbor here	09 me on the way in to Manarola	10 boats in Manarola	11 Riomaggiore and the sea
12 the biggest jar of Nutella ever	13 waiters that entertained the whole restaurant	14 a boat I liked in one of the towns	15 me, Darcy, Kelsey, and our gelato

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