Cinqueterre

Hey Everybody,

Well, I'm back from Cinqueterre, Italy. Man, we had another great trip. Cinqueterre is a series of five cities along the coast of Italy, close to Genoa on the West Coast. It's very well known as a beautiful location to visit here, there are tons of students staying at hostels there. I had been thinking about going to Switzerland but pretty much all of my friends were going to Cinqueterre so I said what the hey.

We got up early Friday morning and took the train to Riomaggiore, where some of my friends had made reservations at a hostel. I hadn't found a room successfully so I was pretty worried about finding a place to stay. The views on the trainride got great as we got closer to our destination. After some confusion, we arrived in Riomaggiore, the last or first town depending on what order you go in.

Riomaggiore, like most of the towns in Cinqueterre, is a bunch of tall buildings creeping up the hillside with a rocky natural harbor and high bluffs with spectacular views. We proceeded to the office of the hostel my friends were staying at, which was called Mar-Mar. I asked about vacancies and I had no problem getting a bed in a dormitory style hostel. My friends, Luisa, Lindsey F., Melissa, Nicole, Brittany, and Lindsey Z., got two private rooms for themselves, but once I met my roomates I was actually pretty glad to have them.

There was a Korean girl who checked in when I did and she seemed very nice but we couldn't carry out much conversation. Later I met Brad, an Australian from Brisbane, Pilot, a woman from Loch Ness in Scotland, and two Canadian girls, one who was named Anna and one whose name I forgot. All were very nice and kept giving me wine and offering me food. They made meals at home and I was always invited even though I always ate out with my friends. Later I found out Anna was born in Croatia so we had plenty to talk about when we realized that. The hostel was nice although four stories up some steps, but it did have a balcony with breathtaking views of the city.

By this point in time it was afternoon, and we wanted to go to the beach. Five of us took a train to Monterosso, the last town, and walked to a beach. The beaches here were nicer than the one I'd been to in Croatia, but all in all not so impressive. The surf was pretty rough and we had some fun playing in it, then looked around a few shops. We took the train back to our town and soon reconvened for dinner, which we had with an American girl from Ohio named Sarah that we had met earlier. At dinner Luisa and I split a nice bottle of wine and when we finished eating we set out for the main bar in town, Bar Centrale.

I had bought some wine at a grocery store for 2 and 3 Euros apiece, so we went back to Nicole's room and drank some of our wine. It's amazing but wine that cheap here is quite decent. Afterwards we headed down to the bar again to check on our other friends and they shooed us off since we had our own wine with us, so we went over to the harbor and drank listening to the waves. After a while the bar closed and a bunch of people came by, so we met a number of Americans who had been living there for a while and some Italians. Eventually we went home a few at a time.

Now, there's a funny story here. I mentioned all the steps up to my hostel, and I knew there was a light on the steps but it was right next to the doorbells for all the other apartments, and it was 3am. I decided to try and just leave the light off, but after the first floor it was nearly pitch black on those steps. I felt my way up to what I think was my door, and tried to get the key into the lock. I couldn't get it to work, and after a while I discovered I'd bent the key. I think it's because European locks are upside down from American locks and I'd forgotten this, and also I couldn't see a thing. Well, I tried to bend the key back but it broke. Damn. I didn't know what to do, but after I walked around and tried to see if any of my friends were still awake, I went back up the steps. I couldn't tell for sure which apartment was ours in the dark, and I was a little drunk. I decided just to sleep for a while on the steps. Later, a really bad thunderstorm woke me up around 5am I think, and there was enough light for me to see a bit. I banged on the door a little bit, before realizing this was not my door. I walked up to my door and banged long enough that Pilot came to it to see what it was. I explained the key and sleeping in the stairwell and she was super nice. I collapsed in my bed and Brad said I was out and snoring as soon as I laid down.

The next day I had a little hangover but I got up in time to be down in the main street where I was supposed to meet some of my friends. No one else showed up so I went up to one of their rooms and only Luisa was up, so we got some breakfast and gave everyone else some sleep time. Eventually we rounded up some people and set out on a hike we had planned last night, since Cinqueterre is known for its hiking.

The hike was probably the best part of the trip. We started out in our town, Riomaggiore. In the beginning it's known as Via dell'Amore, or Lovers' Lane. The first part is easy and flat and there are so many spectacular views it's hard to describe, but I did take a ton of pictures. We passed through Manarola, the second town down the line, pretty easily, but before we could get to Corniglia, the third one, we had a huge hill to ascend. There was a set of steps to go up and man was it rough. But we made it up and then there was Corniglia, up on a giant hill. It was nice and we decided to stop at a gelateria some Americans we'd ran into had recommended. I had a Nocciola milkshake. Nocciola is hazelnut. Man was it good. I'll take our shakes over theirs but the hazelnut icecream was awesome.

Following that we headed to the fourth town, Vernazza. This part of the hike was the toughest, and I thought our one friend Lindsey would need to be carried at one point. We almost took a long steep path down to a nude beach, but we decided to continue on to Vernazza. I think the worst part was going downhill, because you don't use those muscles in your legs as much and my ankles were killing me.

But we made it to Vernazza fine and stopped for a late lunch (I had Trofie Pesto, or homemade pasta and a pesto sauce). We went to the beach at Vernazza, which was smaller but less rocky than Monterosso's beach. We got some good swimming time in and then we took the train back since we were all too tired to hike to the last town. I hear the last part was the hardest. We met up with four more of our friends who had come earlier Saturday and a couple of Americans they'd met and had dinner up the hill. The place was really nice looking and I got the same dish I'd had in Split, Croatia, but ultimately it didn't stack up to my Croatian meal. They give you everything in seafood here - heads, legs, eyes, tails, you name it. In Croatia they do this too, I just liked the food better there.

Afterwards we reconvened at Bar Centrale, and I hung out for a while with my roomates and their two friends Alex, an American from California, and Martin, a hilarious guy from Brussels, Belgium. We had a great time, and I bought Pilot and Brad a big beer to apologize for waking them up. Last call was around 2am, and everyone (about 20-30 people) walked down to the harbor and took a path down to a little alcove. It was completely dark and the ocean was loud. You could tell where people were by their talking and their cigarettes, and we stumbled out to a little rock beach somewhat illuminated by moonlight. It was just amazing, I wish I could hang out in those sorts of surroundings all the time.

Today we went back to Monterosso and Brittany and Lindsey layed out while Luisa and I did some shopping. I managed to find most of the gifts I needed to find and a nice bottle of Cinqueterran white wine for myself. Then we took the train back and got home around 8pm. I've decided to buy some internet time tonight to get all this uploaded and updated. This is my last week of school and I'm a bit nervous about fitting everything in, but I'm also really excited. What I'm planning on doing is Thursday night or Friday morning taking a train to Geneva, staying there until Saturday morning, then taking a train to Paris and spending a day and a half there until my flight leaves on Monday. Our classes are wrapping up and my birthday is on Wednesday, but I'll try to keep updating everything while I still have plenty of internet access.