Cinque Terre, Italy

(Riomaggoire, Cinque Terre #5)
(Vernazza, Cinque Terre #2)

(June 22-25) The five villages that make up Cinque Terre are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We were staying in the eastern most village of Monterosso at the eastern most part of town. After our wonderful cat nap recovering from the night bus we slapped on the sun screen and went to the beach. The beaches in Italy are facinating. From end to end all you can see is the colorful umbrellas and lounge chairs of the private beaches. The public beaches, for those like ourselves who are too cheap to pay for shade, are typically sandwiched in a sliver in the middle of the umbrella nation or given a small rocky patch at the end of the beach. Matt and I were the proscuitto in a ciabatta sandwich on the beach of Monterosso. After a good dip in the cool clear waters we collected provisions of local food and wine to take back to our apartment. I had been looking forward to stuffing my face with pasta in Italy but the ability to cook for ourselves was too good to pass up. We ate well at the apartment with simple gourmet meals using fresh herbs, lemons and olive oils grown all over the hills of Cinque Terre.

My vocabulary is sparce and my spelling (in a hurry at internet rates) horrible. With that disclaimer you may find pitty on me, and I hope Cinque Terre does too, because of my inability to describe how truly magnificent a place it is. The five villages are a mosiac of color. They look like a colorful version of Jenga played by a steady hand dangling them so carefully on rocky steep slopes above crystal clear and deep blue waters. I marvel at the vibrant wooden shutters and the clothes that hang out from windows drying in the breeze. The buildings are made of stone with a plaster finish and the paint is often barely clinging to the walls peeling away in a lazy manner.

The villages are separated by walking paths that wind through vineyards and olive groves. The first trail from Monterosso to Vernazza is described as the most challenging and they did not exaggerate. On our first hike Matt and I found ourselves at a crossroads with signs in either direction saying do not enter. We found a hole in one of those gates and squeezed ourselves through it. We then navigated carefully down slippery jagged rocks to the water down below. We had read that the first path was difficult we just couldn't imagine it would be this much of a rock climbing expedition. We stumbled upon a lovely cove with calm bath tub like waters. We passed a little old naked man with a tanned ponch singing lovely songs in Italian. He would swim out with his bare butt cheeks to a rock in the middle of this oasis and sing his heart out in his birthday suit. We knew we made a wrong turn because the trail certainly could not have us climbing over rocks along the coast the entire 3 kilometers but we at least found this precious singing Italian so it was worth the detour.

We back tracked and figured where we made our mistake and set off on trail #2. It is a narrow path that climbs and climbs into the heavens. I would have needed a computer to tabulate the number of stairs we trudged up. Luckily the path wasn't totally exposed to the hot sun above so we were able to sip on our ice cold water under the shade of olive trees. Matt had geniusly frozen our water bottle the night before. The hike took us about an hour and a half to Vernazza. The best part about the hikes between the villages is that you can almost always find a path that leads to a beach, or to rocks where you can refresh and float in the waters. At Vernazza there was a beach in the middle of town so we rested our feet and had a picnic of leftovers. We lingered an hour and walked to the third village of Corniglia. There we rewarded ourselves with gelatos and more water time.

Our days in Cinque Terre were all like this. Hiking, swimming, lunching and gelatos. The order sometimes changed but the receipe was always the same. On our second day of hiking to the two final villages of Manarola and Riomaggiore our goal (Matt's goal) was to find a bar or restaurant in one of these towns to watch soccer at. He had visions of watching the game with the water in the background. We had no luck in Manarola fulfilling this vision. We had plenty of luck finding good swimming at a rocky little perch with our Ipod playing as we swam. Riomaggiore seemed to be a disappointment too, for soccer not for scenery. We took a dip in the small marina as leathery fishermen fixed their nets. On our way out of town Matt happened to glance up at a bar and saw a large flat screen tv showing World Cup pregames stuff. We quickly sat down and delighted in our find. Matt got his wish of watching the game with the water just outside the door. The screen was perfect and the wine, local, was chilled and light. We snacked on the little nibbles they left us and enjoyed the 90 minutes of wonderful soccer. The various setting we get to watch the games seem almost unreal. No place during our travels provided us with as much joy, beauty, scenery and exercise as Cinque Terre. Swarmed as it may be with tourists, it is a destination not to be missed. We already plot when we will return.