Riomaggiore, Italy
Friday, July 6, 2007
We had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a train to Le Cinque Terre, but as soon as we left the tunnel through the mountain side and saw the water we knew it was worth it. Every single person on the train, non-touristy Italians as well, gasped when we saw the water. It was blue like Peter Pan's mermaid lagoon blue. We stayed in the first of the five towns,
Riomaggiore, which is basically at a 90 degree angle. Eight of us stayed in one hostel (which was more like a nice apartment with a balcony) that was right on the marina. We fell asleep to the waves at night. The hostel is actually shown in every picture you see of
Riomaggiore, it's a pink building with green shutters and three balconies. We immediately got into swim suits and jumped into the water. The beach was a rocky cove and rocks sort of pummled us when we got in, but once we made it past a certain point there were no more rocks and you could float. There's so much salt in the Ligurian sea that you float forever and the water is like a bathtub. We sunbathed on slabs of cararra marble, the same marble that Michaelangelo used for all his Florentine sculptures. Not a bad life. That night we went to the grocery store and got sandwiches for a picnic, then went up to one of the hostels where other classmates were to hang out.
