The most beautiful ever -Cinque Terre, Italy

  Riomaggiore, Italy
Sunday, September 9, 2007

Omigosh!  The pictures won't do justice and I can't express in words how amazing the Cinque Terre area of Italy is.  These are 5 small mountain towns that are just on the coast and are connected by trails that meander through vineyards, olive groves, fruit trees, and cliffs with views that continue to take my breath away.  I got in to the middle town of Vernazza after a long day on the train from Nice, but it was all worth it.  Without a place to stay, I just started walking down the lone street of this town of 500 and by the time I got to the water, I had been given at least 5 offers to stay in a spare bedroom.  I decided to stay with an elderly couple whose apartment over looked the harbor, the small castle, and had a incredible view of the sun setting behind the mountain across the cove. I enjoyed that evening exploring the castle, eating anything with Pesto on it, having my first gelatto and meeting people at the Jazz concert that was going on in the square that night.  Vernazza was primarily full of an older crowd so  I figured I would find a new place to stay the next day while hiking between towns.  I still had a great night though enjoying the scenery, the people, and my delicious 2€ bottle of wine.  The next morning, I got up early and headed to the most southern town called Riomaggiore. Quaint and similar to Vernazza, it appealed to me and I noticed it had a couple of hostels where I figured a younger crown may be.  I decided to walk though to the next couple of towns to explore before committing to anything.  I walked to Monarola along a great path known as Via dell'amore ''the walk of love''.  Monrarola was similar as well but looked to be a great place to swim in the deep and crystal clear water.  The walk to Corniglia was much longer and more difficult and took around 90min.  Corniglia is located at the top of a large foothill.  I climbed the 400 steps to experience a view that allowed me to see all 5 towns at the same time.  This town is surrounded by vineyards and olive groves.  I could see a beach below on the northern side and decided I should check it out.  Once back down, I saw signs for the beach, so I followed.  They lead to an abandoned train tunnel that lead through the mountain to the other said, where the beach supposedly was.  The tunnel was cool and damp and very creepy.  It took about 10min to walk to the other side.  It was not worth it!  When there, I was confronted with a beach full of naked people-let me rephrase, naked dudes.  As if this wasn't enough, I was approached by an old fat hippie guy who wanted me to pay for entry.  I tried not to laugh, and then I tried not to cry as I noticed all the guys started to look at me as if I was fresh meat.  I turned and got the hell back through that tunnel as fast as I could.  It then occurred to me that I had remembered reading something about a beach somewhere that was a hippie nude beach primarily occupied by males.  Once back at the beginning of the tunnel, I saw a sign warning of ''naturalist beach'' that I had failed to see when entering.  I was glad to be out and safe and figured I should find a place to stay, so I went back to Riomaggiore and booked a bed in a hostel.  When there, I met 4 kids my age from the states.  3 girls who were studying for the semester in Florence, and I guy from Philly who was traveling with them for a few days.  Christine, Melissa, Danielle, Steve and myself decided to go cliff jumping at the town over, in Monarola.  It was a great time.  The water was perfect, the sun warm, and the 40ft jump was exhilarating.  After hanging out here for a couple of hours, Danielle, Christine and myself took a ferry to the most northern town called Monterosso.  The ferry was a great way to see the coast as a whole.  Monterosso has an actual beach and we hung out drank wine and I threw a frisbee around with a guy from Israel named Daniel that I had met on the train the day before.  The only leg of the hiking that I hadn't done was between Monterosso and Vernazza and so Christine and I decided to attempt this part that was known for being the most dangerous and difficult but provided the best scenery and since it was coming on sunset, we figured it'd be a great time.  A few minutes after starting, we heard a voice call from a vineyard, ''you like fresh organic grapes?''.  Not knowing where it came from, I just turned and answered ''YES!!''.  Then out of no where, a staunchy grape farmer walks onto the path with one bushel of green grapes, and one red.  We paid the man for his fruit and enjoyed these amazingly fresh grapes as we continued on our hike.    The views were phenomenal.  Every picture I took seemed to be postcard worthy.  It took about 90min to reach Vernazza and when we finished we rewarded ourselves by swimming in the ocean, and another bottle of wine for while we waited on the train.  I picked up may pack from the little old lady I had stayed with the night before and we caught the train back to Rio.  There, we met up with Danielle and Steve and made some pesto pasta that would have made any Italian grandmother proud.  We continued to drink wine, make friends in the hostel and head down to the street to mingle with the crowds.  We had a great night celebrating a birthday with a local.  The girls and steve were heading to Pisa the next day then the girls were going back to Florence.  This was my identical Agenda and the girls offered to let me stay at their place, so I decided to tag along.  We left around noon the next day (9th) for Pisa and then to Florence.  Ciao.