The train from Pisa went to La Spezia, a small town where we had to catch another 10 minute train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a picturesque dreamland along the Italian Riviera. It's a series of 5 little villages tucked into the cliffs right on the water and it looks like it came straight out of a movie. The train ride from La Spezia was mostly through the mountains. Literally...through the mountain. So it was completely dark the entire time. When we finally reached light we had a magnificent view of the cliffs and the ocean and we were so excited! But that view lasted only about five seconds before we went back into the tunnel...SUCH a tease. We were disappointed (and I think the rest of the train could hear our devastation) to be back in the dark but luckily it only lasted for 3 more minutes. By 2:30 pm we finally were in Cinque Terre!
First view of Cinque Terre that lasted longer than 5 seconds.Our hostel was located in the first town, Riomaggiore. We checked in, looked for some wifi (fail) and went out to explore. There is a coastal trail that runs from each town to the next. Unfortunately one of the trails was out of commission due to a landslide that really messed up the path. Another downfall is that the trails close at 6 pm. Walking the entire route takes at least 5 hours so that was out of the question. So we decided to take the trains from town to town so we would have more time to explore each one and see more of the Five Lands.
We did walk one of the trails, though--Via dell'Amore--the trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola. This path is the only one that is paved, it's the shortest one (the others take over an hour each) and it's mostly flat, so it was easy to make the 20 minute trek. It was mostly married couples/lovers/lots of people holding hands on this trail so the Bike Crew joined hands and faked a romance for most of the walk.
I think Manarola was my favorite town. Maybe because that's where we took the best pictures, or maybe because that's where we came back to eat the absolute best meal of the entire trip. But I guess it doesn't really matter why it was my favorite. It just was.
Self timer on the cliff.
From Manarola we took the train to the fourth town, Vernazza. Vernazza was my second favorite. All the postcards of Cinque Terre feature this amazing view of Vernazza that we tried desperately to find but unfortunately we would have had to climb the mountain and the trail was already closed. Bummer. But it was still an adorable town. We thought about eating a snack or something in this town but we decided to save up for dinner in Manarola.
After we thoroughly explored the two streets of Vernazza we jumped back on the train and headed out to the last town of Monterosso. Monterosso is primarily a beach town, and considering it was completely dark by this point AND a storm was brewing out at sea, the beach wasn't exactly a hoppin place. Sofia and I did find a giant rock and we climbed to the top of it while Caitlin guarded our stuff back on the shore. But other than that we kind of missed the Monterosso party. Since we had an hour before our next train, we found a bar and partook in a typical Italian beverage, Limoncino, which was delicious. And so began our Saturday night gastronomic adventure....
We hopped on the train to our last town (which is actually the third town), Corniglia. The town of Corniglia is up the mountain above the train station, so we had to take the bus up there. At the top, when we got off the bus, we asked what time the last bus left to go back down to the station. "In five minutes is the last bus." Awesome. We were going to have to walk down 340-something steps to get to the train. That's fine. We needed the exercise. So we went to go explore Corniglia. The problem was that it was nighttime and we didn't really know where to go. I think Corniglia is probably the lamest of the 5 towns. Not that that's a bad thing...it's just more residential than the rest. We couldn't really find the main area so we just decided to go buy some cheese. We asked for a slab of "typical Cinque Terre cheese" and paid 67 cents each. We took our cheese to the nearest wine bar where the owner gave us each a glass of his own personal wine. His picture was even on the bottle! And it was SO GOOD. We felt super classy, sipping on wine and nibbling on cheese in this small coastal Italian village. Then Mr. Wine Man brought out these cheese/garlic/onion cracker thingys to go along with our wine and cheese and we were in heaven. We didn't want it to end, but then we realized that we had only 10 minutes to descend a giant staircase to catch the last train back to Manarola for the glorious dinner that awaited us! We ran pretty much the whole way there (not in a straight line) and made it just in time.
Back in Manarola, we prepared for our feast.
Dinner Menu:
- Caitlin - Trofie with pesto, stuffed mussels for second course
- Sofia - Pesto lasagna (again), steak for second course
- Elizabeth - Linguine with batti batti (local lobster), grilled swordfish for second course
- Famous Cinque Terre wine
- Desert - Tiramisu for Caitlin and Elizabeth, mixed cookie plate for Sofia (complete with a NUTELLA BOAT, to which her reaction was "WOW" every minute or so)
Earlier in the day we had planned to hit up Bar Centrale, the one bar in Riomaggiore. The lady who worked at our hostel told us about it and said it's "the place where boys and girls go to meet at night." But by the time we were done with dinner and back in Riomaggiore we were so full and tired and happy that we didn't want to do anything except go to bed. Which, in retrospect, was a good decision considering what happened the next morning on our way to Part 5 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Venice.
Such a cliff hanger, I know. Check back soon for the season finale!
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