Cinque Terre, a perfect peice of Earth
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
48
65
Trip End
Dec 08, 2008
Cinque Terre,
Italian Riviera,
Italy
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Anyways, Cinque Terre was one of the places on my trip that I was most looking forward to. People can't do anthing but rave about the place and I knew that it was going to be a few days that I could sit back and relax. 5 little viallges perched up on the clliff side over looking the Med sea. Wine vineyards, wonderful people, great food made for a perfect place to refuel the tank. A train connets all 5 villages but walking the 9 km train was much more rewarding. The mulit coloured houses, with the fishing boats bobing up and down in the sea really made you feel like you were in true Italy. As much as the tourist have ruined the natural aspect of this amazing place you still felt like you were in a great place. Each little village was different in their won way, the streets, the shops the crowds. Everyone had a different atmosphere that is for sure.
When I arrived in La Spezia I had no idea that it was going to be reunion city. I found a guy that I met in Ireland close to 4 months ago and I a met up with a couple from Aussie that I had just met a few days prior in Florence. I arrived in Cinque Terre by myself and had 2 dinner invites before I even checked into my hostel. The first day was horrible, it rained and it was cloudy and it was everything I didn't want Cinque Terre to be. I pictured this perfect little peice of Italy and my picture did not include the rain. I chilled out in the little town of Riomaggoire for the afternoon and waited to meet up with Niomie and Paul. They were going to cook dinner that night, a bottle of wine and spagetti sounded nothing but perfect. They were also meeting up with a couple of friends that they had met along their travels. We sat down and had a great night of conversation, good laughs and too much wine. The next moring the day I had been looking forward to for 4 months, the 9 km walk through the 5 little villages along the shore line of Northern Italy.
I woke up bright and early and looked out the window. The rain was coming down in buckets, the wind was blowing and it coldn't have been more then about 10-15 degrees. Not what I expected but I thought to myself that the weather hasn't stopped me yet and it isn't going to stop me now. I pulled on the Gore Running shoes and headed for the trail. I was only going to end up at the 4th village because I was meeting Rob and Anna, the people that I had met the evening prior.
It wasn't all that bad, the trail hardly had anyone on it because of the rain so it ended up to be a really nice walk. It was about 6 km to Vessero and I hammered it out in about 3 hours. I stopped to take pictures knowing that the shots that I was taking weren't going to be anything like the pictures I would have taken if the sun was out. OH WELL, can't ask for everything. I met up with Rob and Anna and we toured Vessarao for an hour or so. The plan was to head to Monterosso for the afternoon but unfortually they had to do some planning. The train system was going on strike the next day so they were not able to leave until the following afternoon. We ran around and found them accomadations and then just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. That night, a nice dinner of seafood pasta, another bottle of Cinque Terre Wine and we called it a night.
I met up with Rob and Anna and we were all in the laziest of moods, didn't really want to do anything. We made a desicion to relax for the day and just recharge the batteries. The sun had come out so we toured the coast line in Riomaggoire and pretty much just killed a day. They were headed off the next morning so we finished the day with a nice dinner and conversation. I walked them to the train station in the morning and then tried to decided what I was going to do for the rest of the afternoon. The sun was bright and really hot and I knew I had to walk the trail again to make sure I got the pictures that I expected to get.
When I got back to the hostel I met up with one of my roommates, Matt, an Aussie again but he hadn't done the walk yet. We pulled the shoes back on and headed back to the trail. It was walking a completly different trail with the sun out. It took us about 6 hours and that is with about 100 picture stops and a beer stop half way through. At the end we felt we earned the Gelato and then headed back to Riomaggoire in the later afternoon. We joined up with a few girls from Perth and, you guessed it, polished off another couple bottles of wine down by the water. I was headed off to Venice the next day and was looking forward to seeing if anything had changed since I was there in 1999................
