My life has been way, way too busy. I'll post on Brussels in a few days.
The jet-setting traveler that I am, bright and early tomorrow morning I leave for Brussels and I barely have time to update on my last adventure, Cinque Terre. But I wouldn’t dare leave without giving at least a brief account of my Easter (and Passover) weekend spent by the Ligurian Sea.
I met up with my friend Erica Friday afternoon during my train layover in Florence, where she’d been staying with a friend who’s studying there, Sarahann. The three of us got delicious pizzas at a restaurant near the station and it was great to catch up and share study abroad stories. Then Erica and I made it just in time to catch our train to Vernazza, our home base for our three-night getaway.
For those who don’t know, Cinque Terre translates to “five lands,” or really just, “five towns.” It’s made up of (from South to North) Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. You can easily travel between the five towns by train, but hiking is the preferred means of transportation for most tourists. What most people do is buy a train and trail pass for a weekend, so that once they’ve exhausted themselves climbing up and down the seaside cliffs, they can haul it back to their town of choice on board a train. Erica and I did exactly that.
We stayed in a great hostel/bed & breakfast (not a true bed & breakfast, but they call themselves that) that was 100 daunting steps away from the center of Vernazza. After plenty of gelato and pesto pasta dishes (the region of Liguria is the birthplace of pesto, FYI), though, those steps were eagerly anticipated! Really, we were in the perfect location. Vernazza, like the other four towns, was a quaint beach town full of cute trattorias, gelaterias, pizzerias and shops hawking tourist paraphernalia. But it also boasted a little walkway by the sparkling blue bay, and rocks that you could climb on and watch as the waves splashed and crashed into the harbor. Friday afternoon we took full advantage of that tranquil little area and couldn’t stop staring at that gorgeous water—so blue, just like on the Amalfi Coast. Our first night we got to stay in a room with a terrace overlooking the coast and the jagged, colorful buildings lining the mountainside. What a view. And at about 30 euros per person, quite a deal. The bed was super comfy, and the bathroom (though shared with the other rooms) was modern and clean. We did not rough it! Even when we switched to a room “without a view” for the other two nights, it had a window looking out on the coast and part of the town. Only in Italy would you call that a room without a view!
On Saturday we hiked between Vernazza and Corniglia, the second-hardest of the Cinque Terre hikes. It took a little more than an hour and was steep at times, and a little hard to keep your footing with jumbles of rocks lining the pathway. Of course, there was no guard rail to keep you from plummeting into the blue abyss below, but we made it out safe and sound. It was quite a workout, but so worth it. I’ll post pictures below of the views from up there, but I’ll be cliché and say that they were breathtaking and stunning. No other words fully do them justice.
The other two hikes we conquered, between Corniglia and Manarola, and between Manarola and Riomaggiore, were much less physically draining than our first one. We easily walked our way through them, enjoyed the gorgeous vistas of the open sea, and by later afternoon took a train back to Vernazza to nap and shower and take a break before dinner. I was proud of myself for braving a seafood speciality, stuffed mussels, despite the fact that I had zero idea what they would taste like. And they turned out to be pretty yummy, I have to say. We also sampled some limoncino, basically the Northern Italian version of limoncello, on Sunday. We made sure to check off all the local food and drink specialties while we were in the area.
We opted out of the most intense hike of them all, the one between Vernazza and Monterosso. If it hadn’t been drizzly and cloudy Sunday, we might have attempted it, but I did not want to get stuck up on the mountaintop in the middle of a thunderstorm! Instead we took the train and explored Monterosso, which is the odd-town-out in Cinque Terre. It’s not so windy and “classic Italian”-looking…more of a tourist town, with lots of hotels and restaurants. It’s got the biggest stretch of beach, so during the summer I’m sure it’s so much fun to lay out there and go swimming. But instead we went window-shopping, because of all the towns, Monterosso had the most jewelry and clothing stores! It was a nice, relaxing kind of day.
The past couple days Erica stayed with me in Perugia, and we spent lots of time eating, window-shopping and enjoying amazing views! Sounds like the typical activities anywhere in Italy, or scratch that, anywhere worth seeing in Europe. I have a feeling I’ll be doing my share of all three of those thing in Brussels this weekend.
Before this entry ends, I wanted to add that I randomly heard a lady in Cinque Terre belting out “O Sole Mio” last weekend. A sign from Grammy? I’d like to think so. It was really hard on Saturday thinking about how her funeral was taking place and I wasn’t there…I still don’t think I’ve fully processed that she’s gone. But I definitely feel more calm about it now, maybe just because I’ve been so busy. Once my family is here (which I can’t wait for! Three weeks from today!) I’m really looking forward to visiting her hometown and getting a little piece of closure that way.
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