calling from some city...

This has been the day I have most anticipated for our trip: our arrival in Cinque Terre, Italy. While I was looking forward to visiting every place on our itinerary, I was eagerly anticipating Cinque Terre because from the photos, it looked breathtakingly beautiful. Cinque Terre consists of 5 small towns on the ocean (north of Rome and to the west of Tuscany): Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. All the towns are incredibly small; Monterosso is the largest, with about 1700 residents- and that number was only 600 in 2004. Before, it was a destination mostly for Italians during the summer and other Europeans. Since then, Cinque Terre has been “discovered” and becomes packed in the summer with tourists. I had heard about Cinque Terre when I was in Italy, but from what I heard, it wasn’t worth visiting in the off-season (I was in Italy January to March, 2009) because the towns basically shut down until April or so. So, I knew Cinque Terre was one major reason I had to return to Italy one day. And luckily, that day came really soon. I was ready to spent the next 3 days sunbathing, swimming, and hiking.

Anyways, we got up at 9 am to check out of our Firenze hostel and had pancakes for breakfast again. We went to the train station to purchase our tickets for 11 am. We were there in plenty of time, and since it was a regional train (for the awesome price of 9,90 euro) we could pick our seats. We had to make one change (only a 7 minute wait, though) and arrived in Monterosso at 2pm. I wanted to stay in Monterosso because it’s the largest, town with the biggest beach and the most restaurants and “nightlife” (By that I mean they have a couple bars on the beach). Once we arrived, we had a little difficulty getting to our room we booked at a guesthouse. The woman, Isabella, told us to call her when we arrived for directions. The problem is she doesn’t really speak English, and I had difficulty understanding her when I spoke Italian with her. Her accent is really thick, and the phone connection was bad, and then the line disconnected. We managed to get the address of the place, though, and using Scott’s phone, we got there quickly. We’re basically staying in an apartment complex that has 5 rooms that are rented out. The room is small, but perfectly fine, and for the first time on the trip, I got a double bed all to myself. 

We immediately headed into town for food. We walked through the newer part of town, with the large sandy beach and then made our way to the old part, which has a smaller beach but a public section so we wouldn’t have to pay for a chair. We got lunch and then found a spot in the sand to relax. It was overcast and kind of gloomy out, but there were many people outside and in the water. I read, Scott played in this little stream diverting water (or something- he’s easily entertained) and Sara took a little siesta. After a while Scott and I went for a swim, and since it was after 7 we decided it was time to head back to the room to shower. Along the way, Scott and I stumbled across a youth soccer game and watched for a bit- the kids were really into it, as was the crowd. 

After showering, we went to dinner. The food and drinks were very good though the service was mediocre at best. The one big issue was I asked if the ravioli they served was meat or cheese. I was told meat, so I ordered that. Once my food came, it was actually cheese (and pesto). So I had to order something else and then wait for it to cook. Not a big deal, but I was frustrated because by now it was after 10 pm and I was really hungry. Once the food came, it was really good. After dinner, we got gelato, of course.

 We strolled to the old part of town, where there was live music on the main piazza. We watched for a bit, walked around some more, and then went back to the room to get some sleep for the next day!