Because we went to bed so early last night we were able to get up with the sun this morning. I ran up the monster hill we have by our room a couple of times while Kenny jumped into the shower. After we were both prepared for the day we went to get our free breakfast, which was actually pretty good; I had a croissant with jam while Kenny just had lots of everything. We both ordered hot chocolate, but neither of us actually liked them.
There are five villages that make up the Cinque Terre and we're staying in Riomaggiore. This was the area where we started our expedition and soon after breakfast we found ourselves down by the water. It was a somewhat treacherous walk and neither of us were really prepared. I'm glad we decided to push through though because what we saw was really beautiful, enhanced by the early hour of the day.
Because of our experience we decided to go back to our room to change clothes/shoes before continuing on to the other villages. Most of the towns are accessed by walking up hills and stairs so we decided to save our energy for that and depend on the train to take us from village to village. Two minutes down the track towards Genova and we were at our second destination, Manarola. Much of it is like Riomaggiore, but has a character all its own. We saw a couple of little boys playing soccer, took some time to understand the history of the local church, and sat down to a really wonderful lunch. I had seafood spaghetti with grilled vegetables and of course a side of bread...heaven!! The trattoria (restaurant) was perched up on a hill and so we dined overlooking the town and the water surrounding it, giving us an overall amazing experience. At the end our waiter even gave us shot-size glasses filled with a "digestive" that looked like grape juice but definitely wasn't. I don't think I'll ever know what it really was, but it was not pleasant to drink.
After lunch it was back on the train to Corniglia. This was an interesting town because there are 365 steps (one for each day of the year) leading into the center, as well as a road that can be accessed by cars. Kenny and I couldn't find the steps, so we walked along the edge of the road. We found a post office so I sent off some letters and then we continued on our way, stopping at another couple of churches as well as some scenic viewpoints. We both wanted to find the stairs when we were headed back to the station; we did eventually, but not without going up and down a couple of wrong flights. Let's just say that our legs just about gave out by the time we actually sat down on the train.
The fourth stop should have been Verroza, but due to landslides the train couldn't access the station. Instead we ended up at Monterosso. We hopped off the train with the best intentions, but in reality we were just too tired to explore. We didn't really get to see anything before we decided it would be best to get back to Riomaggiore. We were also afraid that things would be closed early because of New Years Eve. We got back to town around 5pm and on the way to our room we picked up some things we had seen at various little shops before ordering a pizza for dinner. It was great because we didn't spend too much money, the pizza tasted fantastic (mine was pesto), and we got to eat while lounging in our room. The pizza actually fueled us enough so that we could check out the church service going on right next door to where we were staying. We both thought it was pretty cool but Kenny started falling asleep so we thought it would be best if we left before something embarrassing or disrespectful happened.
Now it's 8:20pm and Kenny is already sleeping. I convinced him to stay up long enough to play a couple rounds of cards with my but he just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. We're aiming to catch the 9:49am train to La Spezia before connecting to Rome. We'll be in Rome for awhile, which will give us time to explore the ample number of things the city has to offer.
Here's the link to the pictures taken:
Cinque Terre Album
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