Cinque Terra

The Cinque Terre lived up to be everything that I expected and more. I really thought that with their increased popularity lately that the towns were going to have a run down with tourists feel but they really didn't, especially the town that we stayed in. Although the town was beautiful, we didn't have a very good start to the day. We were to first to arrive to the check in office and were the first to be checked in but the guy asked us if we could just wait a couple of minutes and we figured that would be ok with us. Within the next couple of minutes, 4 or 5 other groups showed up, none of them having reservations like we did and he took them all to their rooms before us. Oh, I was getting so pissed off I couldn't stand still. After all of the other groups were brought to their rooms, it was finally our turn. All of the other groups were directed to go down the hill, but instead, we went up. We were following an older woman so I figured that it couldn't be that far up the hill. YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME, WE ARE GOING WHERE!!! We ended up having to walk about a half mile straight up hill. No joke, and to add to this, I had to carry my moms bag for a small portion of the trip because she was visibly not going to make it. Once we were to the top it was worth the view that we were going to be having for the next 2 days, but in hind sight I would have paid 20 bucks for a taxi or small group of Italian children to carry me to the top.

Another view after sunrise

That first night we didn't do much, we went to the beach to cool off but that didn't quite work out because the water was like bath water so I jumped in expecting to be immediately cooled off, but no. The next day we headed to Monterosso, the town the Eric and his family were staying in. Monterosso was also a very nice city, although it was much larger than the one that we were staying in, Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre mean 5 lands in Italian, so its just 5 small fishing villages that are very close together, connected by a trail and now a train. Riomaggiore has a single major road that just goes straight up the hill and almost all of the major business are located on this road. Monterosso is a little larger, with a couple of major roads and actually having cars. We decided to go there because unlike our beach, it has sand that we can lay on comfortably. Once we met up with the Gjersees, My mom and I and Erics two brothers decided to stay at the beach while Eric and his parents went on a hike to the next village. Im so glad that I decided to not go on that hike because apparently it was hell in the heat and their was no access to any water. I have a good feeling that staying on the beach was a good idea. We found a couple of cliffs to jump off and even though they weren't very high, only about 30 feet or so, they were intimidating because the landing area was surrounded by rocks so a slip or over jump and me being paralyzed was a good chance.

The beach at Monterosso

That night our two families met up again and went out to dinner together. We ate at a small Italian place that had very good food and everybody walked away feeling good and being full. After dinner my mom headed back to our town and I stayed behind because Eric and I decided that we are going to go out and get a couple of drinks. We found a place with really cheap beer and outdoor seating so we stayed their a while before heading to another bar to save ourselves some money and ended up meeting up with two other guys from California. They ended up being cool but one of them was a bit sketch. He started stealing everything that he could from beer to other peoples drinks and then he claimed that his grandfather owns the Starbucks building in Seattle but he cant afford to stay in Europe for another week, I don't know about that... We stayed out till about 3 or so and by that time their weren't any trains running between the towns so I had to crash in Erics room which was ok by me because they had air conditioning and we did not. Apparently when I walked in the door to their hotel room, I made a weird sound and told that it was ok because I was a Brachiosaurus. Im just impressed that I knew what that was in that state of drunk...

The cliffs we were jumping off of

The harbour at Riogammiore

The main road of our town

The sun setting just below our hotel

The town of Riogemiorre after sunrise