I have been in Rome for almost 2 months, and haven't really made it outside of the city. So, some fresh Mediterranean air and time communing with nature was much needed. I heard a little about Cinque Terre, a rugged portion of the Italian Riveria about 4.5 hours north of Rome, and decided that would be my first destination. Cinque Terre consists of 5 small villages perched on the coast with a hiking trail connecting them. The hike is about 10km and offers some of the best views in Italy.
I managed to convince a friend from work at that if we took the first train on Sunday morning and the last train back that night, which would get us back to Rome around 6:00am Monday morning, that it would be a good idea.
We met at the Trastevere station at 6:30am Sunday morning, and thus the adventure began. After about 4 hours traveling up the western coast of Italy we arrived in La Spezia, from there we would take another train for about 20 minutes to Monterosso, the northern most city of Cinque Terre. The 20 minute ride turned into 40 minutes, and now halfway to Genoa we realized we had probably missed our stop. I am realizing that this is quite common any time I try and go anywhere on a train, remember back to the whole Orte/Orbatello fiasco, but...c'est la vie. So we got off at the next stop, turned around, and finally made it to Monterosso.
Once in Monterosso we could not resist the beautiful Mediterranean Sea calling our names. We quickly changed into our swim suits, left our bags with some tourists, and dove into the refreshing salt water. We floated around for about 20 minutes, dried off a bit, and then decided to grab some lunch. This region is famous for its pesto, so of course I had to have it. There were 3 choices: gnocchi con pesto, spaghetti con pesto, or troflie con pesto. For those of you that know me, you know it was no question that I chose the gnocchi. And, may I just say that this was the best gnocchi I have ever had. It was like biting into a cloud, and when combined with the freshest pesto imaginable, I was in heaven!
After indulging ourselves, we decided we should get started on our long hike. The path from Monterosso to Vernazza is the most challenging. It is like spending 2 hours on a Stairmaster on level 5. You could definitely feel the burn. When we finally got to Vernazza we were hot, tired, and needed to get back in the water that was still calling our names. Vernazza doesn't really have much of a beach. It has a little bay area with some rocks, but that is about it. We saw some sea kayaks that you could rent by the hour, so we rented one. Since we couldn't leave our backpacks anywhere we had to tie them up to the kayak. We put our money, phones, and cameras in a plastic bag and off we went.
Within minutes our kayak was filling with water and all of our stuff was getting hopelessly soaked. After paddling around for an hour we headed back in and realized just how wet everything was. By this time it was around 6:00pm, and we had to figure out how to dry everything off. The rocks were still warm from the hot summer sun, so we laid all our stuff out to dry and hopped back into the sea to float around a bit more. After about 30 minutes, our shorts were semi-damp, but our tennis shoes, shirts and socks were beyond dry-able. I brought flip-flops with me that I could kind of hike the rest of the way in, but Pierre had nothing. He went off to try to find some flip-flops to buy. When he came back he not only had flip-flops, but matching Cinque Terre Italia t-shirts, you know the really touristy ones. We put our wet things back in our packs and headed out for the second leg of our journey in matching khaki shorts, matching t-shirts, and flip-flops...it was quite a site.
The path from Vernazza to Corniglia is not as strenuous as the first leg and takes about an hour and a half to hike. We started hiking about about 6:45pm, and the daylight was rapidly disappearing. By the time we made it to Corniglia it was about 8:00pm, we maybe had 20 or 30 minutes left of daylight and a good 2 hours more to hike to get to Riomaggiore, the last town of Cinque Terre. So, exhausted and damp, we decided to stay in Corniglia, find a nice place to eat and then grab the train back to La Spezia to make sure that we made it in time to catch the last train to Roma.
We found this small enoteca, Enoteca il Pirun, with only 6 tables with handwritten menus. As a budding wine enthusiast, I was in charge of picking the wine. So, in my broken Italian I managed to order the one of the best bottles I have ever had. It was a 2005 Poggio dei Magni, Colli di Luni Rosso Riserva...a.k.a. a delicious sangiovese from the Liguira region of Italy near Cinque Terre. To accompany the wine I had pesto...again...this time with troflie, a tasty fresh pasta.
By the time we finished with dinner it was 11:00pm and we only had an hour and 15 minutes to get to La Spezia and on our train to Roma. But first, we needed more wine. It was so good that we wanted another bottle to enjoy on the train. Again, in our broken Italian we managed to get the owner of the enoteca to sell us a bottle to-go, plus give us a wine opener and 2 wine glasses...only in Italy. Now it was time to book-it to the station in Corniglia. When we got there we had a minor panic attack because we thought the station was closed. It turns out that we were on the wrong side and didn't need to contemplate jumping over the fence, we only needed to walk around to the other side.
We finally got on the train, rode 3 stops to La Spezia and had 15 minutes left to buy our tickets and get on the train. There was one problem...the train we were supposed to get on was not showing up on any of the computers, there was however a train going to Napoli, which was stopping in Roma, leaving at 1:24am, Monday morning. We had no choice but to wait for that train. So, what do you do in Italy when you are waiting for trains? Again, remember back to the Orte/Orbatello fiasco...you drink wine. So there we were, sitting in the La Spezia station, still in matching Cinque Terre t-shirts, drinking fine Italian wine out of our gifted wine glasses wondering if we would really make it back to Roma.
The train finally came, we hopped on and crashed for about 3 hours. We arrived in Termini at about 5:45am, caught a bus to Trastevere and arrived home around 6:30 and managed to make it on time for the Monday morning meeting at 8:30.
What a day...I would highly recommend going to Cinque Terre, perhaps giving yourself a little more time, but definitely go!
