So, Cinque Terre,
which was originally written about here, was eventful. Our first day was
exhausting and stressful, due to (1) our missed train and (2) many times calling out “Do
you know where this address is?” followed by a “No English” response.
I had mapped out each of the 5 cities, which
we were so eager to go to! But of course, the train strike was in the way. We
decided to wing it! We bought a ticket at 8 o’clock in the morning to visit the
town two stops from our location, Manarola, we decided to prioritize just in case we couldn’t
visit them all. This colorful village was similar to Vernazza with the pop of
color and rural atmosphere but differed in two ways. First, we could only find
one open restaurant (which was terribly expensive) and second, there was much
easier access to the ocean. In Vernazza we could walk down by the boardwalk, but it
wasn’t very pretty or safe, as there was tons of floating 2x4’s everywhere.
However, Manarola had amazing rock formations that really just added some extra
flair. We sat and looked at the ocean for a very long time. I think we were
just lost in the awe of this change in scenery.
Afterwards we bought some goodies from the train station, includinga nice bar or Swiss chocolate which is hands down the best piece I've ever put in my mouth (and that's saying something), counted our lucky stars that it was still running. and decided to buy tickets to Monterosso. We shimmied on back to the main train hub, La Spezia, a mid-sized city 15 minutes away. Guess what! When we arrived we found out that the trains were all parking their engines until 9pm, which meant we had at least 6 hours to kill around town. We lucked out in La Spezia though, this town was ready for action! They had a Christmas concert (including Santa's on stilts) and tons of gelato shops that we happily attended. We piddled around for as long as possible, before freezing our buns off and going back to the train station's McDonald's to wait. Graham and I played the quarter game for one solid hour, met a LDS Missionary and bought locally knitted scarves. At 11 o'clock, two hours after the predicted time, trains began to work again. We shipped over to Monterosso, walked around for 45 minutes seeing more bridges filled with locks, ivy ridden walls and the coast (once again, but c'mon ya just can't look away) before catching another train back to Vernazza.
The following morning we spent time on our terrace enjoying the view and relaxing before the hustle and bustle that comes with traveling. We picked oranges the day before, and decided to eat them with our breakfast and promptly realized they were more sour than a pack of Warheads in your mouth. Yuck! We talked about how we were disappointed that we weren't able to visit all 5 villages. But we did manage to visit 3 of them and a city, so it's hard to complain too much. And the ones we saw? Those little villages were some kind of beautiful! We mentioned how we only saw a few locals and really got the rural feel in this region- it was such a welcome change from the rest of the trip. We decided to get a picture of us with the spectacular background, and managed to end up with 50 so-so ones. #Typical. Then we jumped on the train, missed our stop (is this just a permanent thing with us?) and narrowly made it back to the central hub in time to catch our train to Rome. And we were off!
I would, hands down, have to recommend this place to anyone! It was a special place- just so dreamy. I desperately want to visit the 2 remaining villages- maybe one day ;)
Afterwards we bought some goodies from the train station, includinga nice bar or Swiss chocolate which is hands down the best piece I've ever put in my mouth (and that's saying something), counted our lucky stars that it was still running. and decided to buy tickets to Monterosso. We shimmied on back to the main train hub, La Spezia, a mid-sized city 15 minutes away. Guess what! When we arrived we found out that the trains were all parking their engines until 9pm, which meant we had at least 6 hours to kill around town. We lucked out in La Spezia though, this town was ready for action! They had a Christmas concert (including Santa's on stilts) and tons of gelato shops that we happily attended. We piddled around for as long as possible, before freezing our buns off and going back to the train station's McDonald's to wait. Graham and I played the quarter game for one solid hour, met a LDS Missionary and bought locally knitted scarves. At 11 o'clock, two hours after the predicted time, trains began to work again. We shipped over to Monterosso, walked around for 45 minutes seeing more bridges filled with locks, ivy ridden walls and the coast (once again, but c'mon ya just can't look away) before catching another train back to Vernazza.
The following morning we spent time on our terrace enjoying the view and relaxing before the hustle and bustle that comes with traveling. We picked oranges the day before, and decided to eat them with our breakfast and promptly realized they were more sour than a pack of Warheads in your mouth. Yuck! We talked about how we were disappointed that we weren't able to visit all 5 villages. But we did manage to visit 3 of them and a city, so it's hard to complain too much. And the ones we saw? Those little villages were some kind of beautiful! We mentioned how we only saw a few locals and really got the rural feel in this region- it was such a welcome change from the rest of the trip. We decided to get a picture of us with the spectacular background, and managed to end up with 50 so-so ones. #Typical. Then we jumped on the train, missed our stop (is this just a permanent thing with us?) and narrowly made it back to the central hub in time to catch our train to Rome. And we were off!
I would, hands down, have to recommend this place to anyone! It was a special place- just so dreamy. I desperately want to visit the 2 remaining villages- maybe one day ;)
Manarola:
Not much sexier than a man wearing a fanny pack, amiright?
La Spezia:
Monterosso:
Vernazza:
No comments:
Post a Comment