Our trip to Cinque Terre

(Written on Wednesday, June 10 on the drive from La Spezia to Rome)

Buongiorno!  We're headed back to Rome after two and a half days in Cinque Terre.  I think we've found Heaven on Earth, by the way.  Cinque Terre, Italian for "five lands," is a series of five small villages contained within a a large national park alongside the Apennine Mountains.  Located on the northwest coast of Italy, Cinque Terre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site (I know, we've been visiting a lot of those lately).  Each of the villages is unique in its own way, but all offer spectacular views of the Mediterranean Sea.  We stayed in Riomaggiore, one of the smaller and less touristy villages.

View of Riomaggiore at sunset.

A view of Riomaggiore during the day time (taken while kayaking).

A view of Riomaggiore surrounded by beautiful candles at night.  This was done
on a Sunday evening, shortly before a religious procession from the main church
in Riomaggiore to the marina.  Joe got to see part of the procession.  

Watching the sunset at the Riomaggiore marina.

To get to Cinque Terre, most people park at a nearby costal town, La Spezia, and take the train into one of the villages.  (This is what we decided to do.)  Some people do drive but we've read that this route is not for the "faint of heart" because of the narrow, winding roads through the mountains (and limited parking at each village, for that matter).

We took Tren Italia to get from La Spezia to Riomaggiore.

The night before we left Assisi, I felt an upper respiratory infection coming on.  Luckily, we were headed to La Spezia that day so I popped some ibuprofen and got a nap in while Joe drove us through the Liguria region in our awesome rental car, a cute little Fiat Panda.

Unfortunately, we had a few more obstacles in our way.  As we approached La Spezia, we had a hard time finding our way to the train station and long-term parking garage (where we would park while we were in Cinque Terre).  Further, we discovered that Tren Italia employees were on strike and the trains were not going to start running until 5:00 PM that evening.  Subsequently, many of the scheduled trains had been delayed or even canceled.  At that point, we had no idea if we were going to make it to Cinque Terre that evening.  We contemplated driving, or even hiking (not conceivable given my health that point) but decided to wait it out to see if our train showed up on time.  It was delayed fifty minutes, but it did show up and we somehow made it to our little home away from home in Riomaggiore.

Like some of the other Cinque Terre villages, Riomaggiore is built up on a slope of a hill, so there are a gazillion stairs everywhere (No elevators! Keep in mind that these are small villages situated in a national park!).  So although the little apartment we were renting happened to have amazing views of the coast and the nearby marina, we had to take about fifty stairs to get there (with luggage).  Somehow, we got there in one piece, though, and immediately fell in love with the view from our balcony.

View from outside our rented villa.

View of the Riomaggiore marina from just outside our rented villa.

By the evening, my body was still raging with fever, the ibuprofen was not reducing my body temperature, and I was feeling pretty miserable.  Still, I was determined to hike, swim, and kayak my way through Cinque Terre.  The only regret from my last trip to Italy was that I did not make it to this beautiful utopia and I was not going to let a pesky throat infection get in my way.  Joe, who wins the award for the world's best husband, found a nearby laundromat to do some of our laundry (up and down fifty flights of stairs) and took care of me while I slept.  In a somewhat delirious state, I woke up with I thought was a brilliant idea!  I would start taking the round of broad-range antibiotics I brought with me on the trip in case either of us got sick.

In any case, I figured I had a 50/50 shot at the infection being bacterial (*Note: As a public health professional, I do not recommend self-medicating with antibiotics without consulting a physician).  Even if it was bacterial, I was assuming it was susceptible to amoxicillin.  I went ahead and took it anyway, though, because GOSH DARN IT WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO MAKE IT BACK TO CINQUE TERRE AGAIN?!

Feeling really proud of myself, I went back to bed, satisfied that I might be feeling healthy enough for a long hike by the morning.  Well, I was wrong.  In fact, I had gotten a lot worse the next day.  Joe and I weren't sure what to do by then.  I think I remember asking Joe whether he could go to the pharmacy and ask where the nearest doctor's office was, at which point he asked for the name of the medication I was taking.  "It's on that table," I weakly told him, pointing roughly in the direction of the dining table.  But when he picked up the medication packet, it turned out to be an over the counter medication for stomach trouble.  Gah!  I had been taking the wrong pills -- so of course I was feeling worse.

Anyway, once I started taking the antibiotic, I almost immediately started to feel better.  By noon, my fever had somewhat subsided, I started to feel more perky, and we both just decided to seize the day and go for a short hike.

As I mentioned, the five towns in Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso, hug the northwest coast of Italy and overlook the Mediterranean Sea.  Visitors can hike from village to village or choose to take the train.  Beyond the last town (the one furthest north and west), Monterosso, are more hiking trails to Punta Mesco, which we were told had great views, and another town called Levanto.  We decided to take the train to Monterosso and hike up to Punta Mesco since it looked relatively short and seemed like something I could handle.

Boy, was this a difficult hike!  The trail literally ascended straight up a mountain.  It was actually only about an hour and a fifteen minutes to Punta Mesco, but it was definitely one of the most strenuous hikes I've ever done.  It was so worth it though.  Since Punta Mesco juts out a little, hikers can see for MILES on a clear day.  We had views of all five villages, Porto Venere (the "gateway to Cinque Terre") and some of the islands of nearby Palmaria.  I would still say this was the most rewarding hike we took in Cinque Terre.

It's hard to see, but this map gives you an indication of where the Cinque Terre villages are in relation to one another.
We took the trail from Monterosso to Punta Mesco during our first hike.  Palmaria is includes a few islands
southeast of Punta Mesco, kind of close to La Spezia.  

 Shortly after, we headed back to Monterosso and grabbed a light lunch (it was a hot day...plus we were hiking in the middle of the day, so neither of us wanted anything too heavy), which included a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from the Liguria region (well-known for their fresh oranges and lemons).  Monterosso is a nice place to walk around.  It is the largest, most developed village, and the only one that offers a large (ish) beachfront.

We saw fresh lemons all over Cinque Terre.  

Feeling proud that we finished the hike!

Happy to have finished the hike!

Unbelievably breathtaking view of the 5 villages and parts of Palmaria from Punta Mesco.

Instead of taking the train back to Riomaggiore that afternoon, we decided to take the ferry that regularly stops at each of the five villages (except for Corniglia which is built on a cliff and has no marina) and Porto Venere on a daily basis.  This gave us a unique opportunity to see each of the five towns by sea!  How beautiful!

That night, we enjoyed some take out pasta (served in what we think of as Chinese take out containers) and enjoyed a lovely sunset over Riomaggiore along the marina.

Determined to hike through the five villages, we woke up at 6:30 to get an early start (to avoid the heat during the hottest part of the day).  There are two main trail systems going through Cinque Terre -- the red trail, which is an inland trail that connects the towns, and the blue trail, a coastal walkway.  We knew Via del Amour, the portion of the blue trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola (the next town), was closed, so we took the inland trail on this portion.  However, we found out this coastal trail was also closed from Manarola through Vernazza, and in fact, was only open between Vernazza and Monterosso!  This was a little disappointing (since we wanted views on the coastal trail the whole time), but we ended up taking the scenic inland route from Manarola to Corniglia, the train from Corniglia to Vernazza, and the coastal trail from Vernazza to Monterosso.

Beautiful view of Vernazza.

Happy we made it to Vernazza!

Gorgeous Manarola.

Beautiful Corniglia, the only one of the five Cinque Terre villages set on a cliff.

The hiking path went through tons of vineyards.

Some of the vegetation we saw on our way to Monterosso.

No caption needed.  

We saw so many unique flowers along the way!

We saw these flowers everywhere -
they look like some type of orchid!

Ecstatic that we made it to Monterosso in one piece!

The path from Manarola to Corniglia was the most difficult of the trails we took that day, but offered the most diverse and beautiful views.  All of the trails involved walking through farmland, but this one traced through vineyards, olive groves, and a large forest with much more variety in vegetation than the farmland on the coast (uncultivated by man).  The one downside of this trail is that I almost tumbled down the side of the mountain.  The one problem with the inland trails is that they're not as well-maintained/marked so even the slightest misstep in a narrow trail could result in injury.  Luckily, I fell in the "best" possible way -- I basically slipped into several bushes, which cushioned my fall and spared me from any major cuts/bruises.  (Joe is joking about how I'm undergoing my own personal version of the "Ten Plagues of Egypt" on this trip, between the sprained ankle, extreme seasonal allergies, severe infection, the plague of ants that attacked me while we watched the sunset during our first night in Riomaggiore...even though we haven't reached ten, it is quite the streak, isn't it?)

Each village was beautiful in its own way, but I found Vernazza and Riomaggiore to be the most picturesque:

We finally arrived in Monterosso a little before 2, after which we enjoyed a long, relaxed (and well-deserved) lunch and took a dip in the Mediterranean Sea before heading back to Riomaggiore.

Fresh orange juice - so refreshing after a long hike!

Focaccia topped with tomatoes and cheese!

Joe enjoyed a lovely lasagna after our long hike.

I was a little sad that we had to leave Cinque Terre the next day, but in celebration of a successful (and less disastrous than expected) trip, we made a pot of pesto pasta in our little kitchenette and paired it with a bowl of fresh local fruit (strawberries, cherries, oranges).

After watching the sunset on our balcony, we reminisced about our amazing time in Cinque Terre.  We ate fresh, local fruit every day for breakfast and as snacks throughout the day (oranges, apricots, cherries, strawberries).  We watched spectacular sunsets every night.  We went on unforgettably beautiful hikes along the Mediterranean coast.  We would miss Cinque Terre, but we were moving on from one paradise to another!

We couldn't leave Riomaggiore without a quick tandem kayak excursion, so the next morning, we rented a boat and explored the areas surrounding our little village.  The sea was so calm and easy to kayak and swim in!  Shortly after, we took a train back to La Spezia (which went seamlessly this time around, although I'm still not impressed by Tren Italia) and started driving back to Rome.

We found these rock formations beautiful!

We explored many caves while kayaking.

We're looking forward to exploring the Vatican early tomorrow morning before flying out to Athens!