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Day 49 (7/23/11):
6:30 a.m. arrived way too quickly!
I couldn't buy my train tickets ahead of time, so I decided to try to catch the 8:something train to Cinque Terre. Since my luck with arriving at the train station and getting on the train I want hasn't been so great, I left that morning assuming I would get on the 9:45 a.m. train. I thought I had a solid plan in place until I got to Termini and wasn't able to purchase a ticket at the kiosk! Over an hour later, I finally got to the front of the customer service line only to learn that the 9:45 a.m. train was completely sold out and that my only option was to get on the 12:15 p.m. train, arriving at 4:00 p.m. :o( Bummer. Alas, I was determined to get to Cinque Terre and see Donna, so I bought the ticket (along with a return ticket just to be safe!) and went back to my apartment to waste some time.
Eventually I found myself on the train to La Spezia, where I needed to then switch trains to get to Monterosso. It was just not my day for traveling… once I arrived in La Spezia, nothing was marked for which train would be on which track, so I found myself running to my train just as it was pulling away from the station! Another bummer… I had to wait about 40 minutes for the next train to come, and 20 minutes after that I was FINALLY in Monterosso! Woo hoo!!! :o)
My goodness was it gorgeous there! The water is a perfect blue/teal color and the beaches were full of people hoping to soak up the amazing summer weather. The town is so colorful, too, and right on the edge of some mountains covered in fruit trees and vineyards, which just adds even more beauty to the scenery. Coming here was definitely worth all the train trouble!
Donna and I met near the train station in town, and it was so nice to see her again! It's so nice how someone I've only known for a couple months has already become such a wonderful close friend. After spending 2 weeks apart, we had a lot of catching up to do, too! First thing first, we stopped to buy some wine on our way to the hotel. :o) Donna was staying at Albergo degli Amici, which was an adorable hotel right in the center of town. Lucky for us, it also had the most beautiful tiered terrace on the side of a mountain, too! We brought our bottle of wine up to one of the higher levels of the terrace and were able to soak in the sun and scenery while catching up. Wow… The terrace was covered in olive, fig, and lemon trees, and we had a great view of the whole town from where we were sitting. Beautiful! :o)
After a while, we decided we were hungry enough for dinner and walked a few doors down to a delicious looking restaurant called "Ristorante La Cambusa". We decided to have a nice big dinner, and ordered an anchovy antipasto (a variety of their local specialty - some fried, some stuffed, and some sautéed in a lemon sauce with onion) to start. It was SO good! I'm not a big anchovy fan in general, but I would have this antipasto every day! For our main course we each ordered a pasta dish and split them (so smart!). We got a fettuccine with pesto (another local specialty) and lobster ravioli in a seafood sauce. When I say they were mouth-wateringly amazing, I'm not exaggerating! Wow… Our meal didn't end there, either! For dessert we ordered some profiteroles, a fig tart, and (of course) some limoncello. YUM!!
Once we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we went back to the hotel to get some sleep. We wanted to be well rested for our big hike the next day!
Day 50 (7/24/11):
Donna and I woke up bright and early to start our day hiking through the towns in Cinque Terre. There was a big thunderstorm during the night, so some trails were closed because it was too dangerous to walk on them. That didn't bother us, though! We knew we couldn't walk them all during the time we had, so this actually helped us decide on a good route to take.
We went to take the train from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, and waited in line to buy some tickets since the ticket machine was down. As we are standing there, I hear, "Hey… did you girls go to Providence College?" Ha!! What a small world!!! Of course I would run into someone from PC while in Italy :o) It turned out that the girl, Chrissy, and I were in the same graduating class and she was in Italy on vacation with her husband. It was so nice seeing a friendly face from PC and having a chance to share our traveling stories!
Once we reached Riomaggiore, we parted ways, wished each other well, and went on to our separate journeys. Donna and I quickly found our way to the first footpath called "Via del Amore" from Riomaggiore to Manarola. The path only took us about 15 minutes to walk, but was so interesting to see! It is covered with locks and graffiti declaring each couple's love for each other. The locks themselves something formed a heart shape on the fences, too. It was moving, and really cool to see.
The path between Manarola and Corniglia was closed because of the rain the night before, so we wandered through the town a little before taking a quick train to Corniglia to start our next hike. Once off the train, we were faced with only one option to get to the town - a massive flight of stairs! It took some time, but when we got to the top we were congratulated with a big sign that said we had just walked up 382 stairs! We then found the entrance to the next hiking path and started walking towards Vernazza. The path was beautiful - made of rocks of every size, and full of olive and fig trees and berry bushes. Every now and then we would find ourselves on the open side of the mountain with stunning views of the turquoise ocean and surrounding towns and mountains. It was all SO beautiful!
When we arrived in Vernazza we decided to stop for some lunch at a little restaurant called "Blue Marlin" and got some limonata sodas and split a pesto bruschetta and anchovy bruschetta (both of which were amazing!!). Then Donna got a quiche and I got a foccaccia con formaggio, which was basically a glorified grilled cheese (and totally worth the glorification!).
After lunch we didn't have much time before I needed to catch my train back to Rome so we quickly took some pictures by the shoreline before catching the quick train back to Monterosso. When we got back, I grabbed my backpack from the hotel, and then Donna and I said our goodbyes at the train station. I was so sad to be leaving…
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