Day 39

Trip Start May 07, 2008
1
18
19
Trip End Jun 23, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Italy  , Italian Riviera,
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Day 39 (Sun)   Jerry and I left Ti and Dru behind at the apt. because they were running behind and we didn't want to miss our train ride to cinque terre.  We made it in plenty of time the train was a little late getting to Florence which was good for Ti and Dru they showed up 5 minutes after the train was scheduled to leave they are lucky this is the first train we have been on that was not on time.  We got to the first city 2 ½ later on the way I forgot my book so I read Ti's about Anthony Bourdain's path to becoming a chef it is a very good book and kinda funny. (for an adult audience)  The first city was Riomaggiori it was raining when we got there.  We really didn't get to see much of the town because we headed Northwest on the trail.  The path wound around the cliffs over looking the sea it was beautiful.  The path took us to the next town which was Manarola one of the bigger towns.  We stopped for lunch I had swordfish spaghetti very good and very cheap only 6 euro.  After lunch we continued down the path at one spot they had a path that took you down to sea level and we watched the waves crash on the rocks Jerry and I considered going snorkeling here but we didn't want to be wet the rest of the trip Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre
 .  As we got back on the main path a gate was closed by this time had stopped and the sun was coming out, but the rain made the path to dangerous.  We went back into Manarola and got on the train and took it to the third town Corniglio.  Here the path went up from the train station to the town it was funny to see people slowing down as they got tired it was a long climb.  Corniglio was a nice little town we had some great views of it as we left it.  Here the path went back it the mountains for a while along olive groves and fruit plots.  Every once and a while there was a place to stop that you could see the sea with a great view.  On the way to the next town we struck conversation with a lady from Melbourne, Australia.  She had been in Florence just a few days before and I got to use some of what I learned in art history to tell her some things.   Jerry and I took a picture for her at the next town Vernazza and she took one of us.  The first view of the town was probably one of the best views of a town that we got, not like all the others were bad but this one stands out.  From there we headed to the last town Monterosso to get in the Sea.  The path between these two towns was great it got kinda narrow in some spots.  We ran into some people that were wearing Purdue stuff so we stopped and talked to them they had kids that just graduated.  Right before the last town we had to walk next to a lemon plot and there was a guy with a lemonade stand.  We stopped and got the freshest lemonade ever right of the tree Cinque Terre 2
Cinque Terre 2
 .  We finally got the chance to get into the water so Jerry and I armed with snorkels jumped in and right away there were some little fish in very shallow water so we watched them for a while.  A little further out we found a school of fish were the smallest might have been about 8 inches and the biggest around 14 inches it was fun to follow them around.  The water was murky because of the sand beach so you couldn't see down that far.  We got out to a point were we could touch about 10 ft deep or so and it wasn't clear but the color of the floor change so we took a deep breath and dove down.  It was a rock bottom with sea grass growing out of it we only saw one fish when we dove.  Most of the fish we saw had strips down the side and a black dot right before the tail but I have zero idea what it is.  After we enjoyed or snorkeling for a couple of hours we needed to get dinner and get on a train.  I had a very good dinner I got the fresh noodles with lobster sauce.  It came in an enormous thing with the lobster just cut into six sections with the legs and claws.  Before the dinners came out Ti and I shared anchovies (fresh) very good a lot better than how you get them in the states.  They were served headless and butterflied with a lemon olive oil over it very good.  We bought cremi di melone, a melon cream liquor.  We headed to the station because we didn't have tickets home yet.  No one was working so we just used the machine and got ticket for La Spezia where would try to get tickets home.  When we got there we couldn't figure out what we needed to do because there was no ticket man and we had to use the machines again Cinque Terre 3
Cinque Terre 3
 .  We ran into some girls from Montreal that needed to get back to Florence as well because they were studying there too.  They found a train ticket checker he told us to get on a train for Pisa and he would sell us tickets on the train.  He hung out with the girls from Montreal on the way back they were basically trilingual.  They helped out a lot.  The ticket man hadn't made it to us yet and we heard the speaker say that we were at Viareggio and that there was a train for Florence at binario 1 so we got off and didn't have to pay and that was good because we were on the fast train.  Then in Viareggio we got on the train again and waited for the ticket man to come around which he never did so the ride home only cost us 1 euro for the train to La Spezia.  We talked to the girls for little longer then said thanks and started to walk home.  As we passed the bus stop we saw the bus that goes to our apt. which isn't suppose to be running on Sunday but we didn't ask question we just got on and got home quickly.  Ti and Dru started to work on their paper that is due tomorrow; I have already finished mine so I went to bed.
Slideshow Print this entry Monterosso hotels