Cinque Terre

This weekend I visited Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is an Italian National Park on the Mediterranean coast. There are five small towns perched along the cliff sides with an 11 kilometer hike between them. They are beautiful. So on Friday afternoon I was sitting in the computer lab with three of the guys on the trip, Ethan, Jeff and Tony and two of the girls, Kim and Veneta. We were considering a trip to Cinque Terre, but we could not get a hotel reservation in any of the cities. Then Tony came up with a brilliant plan; we could do a day trip! The boys figured out that if we left at eleven o’clock that night we could get to the first town, Riomaggiore at four in the morning, wait for daylight, hike to the last town, Montoroso, and catch a train back at seven and be home by midnight on Saturday! Foolproof, right? So somehow they convinced us all and at eleven o’clock we found ourselves setting out on an adventure.
By four in the morning we were all exhausted. We had switched trains twice, and one of those times the arriving train had been late and we had sprinted across the station to hop on the train right before the doors closed. Now we were on a smaller train looking for the Riomaggiore station. Unfortunately we didn’t see that particular sign until we passed the station, so we ended up in Monorolo, the second of the five towns. When we stepped off the train we saw the clearest night sky I have seen in a long time. Stars sparkled in the velvety black sky as we stood on the train platform, arguing about where we were and where we should go. After a few minutes we decided that, after looking over the dark water and admiring the stars, we would head back to Monorolo and await daylight. We wandered through the deserted streets, admired the crashing of the waves against the rocks, and Jeff and I fell asleep in the middle of the town square while the rest of our group played cards. After a few chilly hours daylight broke and we discovered that the trail between Monorolo and Corniglia was closed due to a rock slide, so we headed back to Riomaggiore with the intention of finding breakfast and buying a train ticket to Corniglia.
The walk between Riomaggiore and Monorolo is called lovers lane, and it is one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on in my life. We saw it at sunset, while the sun was rising pink over the hills in front of us, turning the waves at the bottom of the cliff a lovely rose color. We were all amazed. When we got to Riomaggiore the train was waiting, so we hurriedly bought our tickets and hopped on. After a short ride we arrived in Corniglia and found ourselves a breakfast of hot cornettos and caffe lattes, or green Earl Gray tea for me. We then took an hour to explore the town, which is exactly what I thought a Mediterranean town would look like, with its bright pink, yellow, and orange houses with their green shutters thrown open to the sun, over looking terraces vineyards and the sweeping expanse of the sea.
The next hike was also gorgeous. It was a little more difficult, with many many stairs and a narrower stone pathway that wound up and down the cliff side. It took us through olive grove and around vineyards and out into the cliffs where no one lives. The views from that trail were astounding. And it ended in the prettiest of the towns, Vernaza. Vernaza is built surrounding a sheltered bay with a castle sitting on the end of the point. This was the town we expected to get lunch in, and which we combed looking for a restaurant. But apparently there are no open restaurants in January, so wee made due with sandwiches fro the local grocery store before heading out on the last, and hardest leg of our hike.
The last leg of the trail was very beautiful as well, but it was also the hardest. Partially because we had already walked for so long, and partially because of the number of stairs involved, we were all winded by the time we got to the highest point in the trail. But this trail was definitely the most interesting. It was much narrower than the other trails, and it wound through working vineyards and over small streams with old stone bridges covered with ivy. But I think we were all glad when we rounded a bend and spotted Monterosso.
The first thing that we saw of Monterosso were the beaches. This was the first of the towns we had been in that had long, sandy beaches, and it took us no time at all to scamper down the hill, kick off our shoes and go wading in the Mediterranean. The water was cold and felt so good on out tired feet. Tony and Ethan were quite excited and actually managed to go swimming- dunking completely under for one quick moment before running out again screaming about the cold. We spent the rest of the day wandering though Monorosso, finding lovely wine bars and restaurants and tourist shops. Then at seven we were back on the train, dead tired and heading home. It was an amazing adventure filled day!