cinque terre

woo hoo!! a full week of vacation!! despite potential visa issues i booked a holiday out of the country, i decided to go to italy...(dubai was also on the list, but because i procrastinated too much, those tickets ended up being out of my budget)...a friend of mine from when i was a lifeguard lives in italy with her husband, so i knew i had people to see...i hadn't met the husband, but mandy is awesome, so i figured the husband must be awesome too...
i flew budget airline wizzair to oen of the airports in venice, they picked me up, and we proceeded to drive across the peninsula to an area called cinque terre...it's a national park, and absolutely gorgeous...it's 5 towns on the coast, there is a hiking/trekking trail between all of them...i don't know how long it would take to walk the entire thing, but it must be gorgeous...

we stayed in a town called la spezia,  it's just outside cinque terre...one of the reasons mandy chose the hotel she chose is because one of the hiking paths starts right by the hotel...perfect...the first part of the drive was flat and easy...it wasn't until the last part that i knew we were going through mountains, as the roads were really curvy, and it was impossible to hold a steady speed...we rolled into la spezia at 2300 or so? i'm not sure exactly, i just knew i was really tired...(especially because my body was still telling me it was an hour later)...
breakfast was included in the hotel price, and i loved it...a european buffet breakfast...rolls, bread, cheese, meat slices, yogurt, cereal, milk, tea, juice, jam, hard boiled eggs, meusli, etc...i ate too much, as i always do when confronted with a buffet...
the guy at the front desk of the hotel told us where we could find the trail head, so as soon as we had water for each of us, we took off...the trail was easy to find, thank goodness...the front desk guy told us we'd go down a little, then up and over the mountain, down into one of the towns in cinque terre...he showed us the map, the trails seemed fairly obvious...plus, he said the trails were marked with what i think of as the polish flag...we found those markings easily for the first while...then we came to a fork in the trail, and we didn't know which way to go...so we chose the right fork...a little while later, we found another of the trail marks, we knew we'd chosen correctly...phew...

i'm not sure exactly when it happened, but we found ourselves on road instead of a trail, we thought the road would wind down the valley into the back side of the town we were heading for...as it turned out, that was not right...instead, we walked around the back of the valley, never going down at all...ooops...on our way back to find where we thought we'd lost the trail, we found a couple gates, there seemed to be paths going down...the first one led only to a house...hmmm...the second seemed to be going well for us, then it just stopped...argh...at that point, we didnt want to go back up to the road, as we'd run out of water, and didn't know how much farther we'd have to walk along that road...we elected to try to forge our own path...

i'm not sure that was the best decision i've ever made, but it was definitely an adventure...(on a side note, hiking through areas with brambles, while wearing chacos was also probably not my best decision)...eventually, we made it down to a proper trail, it connected with a road...from that road, we could see the town we wanted...as it turned out, we didn't get that option from that road...argh...at this point all we could think about was water, and how badly we wanted it...
after asking someone the way to the next town, we walked along that road for what seemed like ages...i don't know how long it was, but it took foreva and eva...FINALLY, after seeing the town from a couple angles, and wondering if we were going to walk past this town as well w/out intending to do so, we made it into manarola...not riomaggiore, as we intended, but at that point, anywhere with water and food sounded amazing...

there isn't much to see in any of the cinque terre towns...they're just cute...brightly coloured buildings and houses, small streets...lots of gelaterias...lots of restaurants...tourists...i found postcards straightaway, and bought 40...mandy and boyd thought that was a lot...i assured them i'd be buying more as my italy visit kept going...hee hee...i am an addict...i also had gelato, AWESOME!!!!
we ate the most fabulous meal i've had in a loooong time...i don't know if it was the food, or the waiter, or what, but it was great...i'd be happy to go back there regularly...too bad italy isn't closer to kyiv...after lunch (which we had at 1530,) we walked out to a viewpoint of the city...beautiful...beautiful...beautiful...mandy and boyd like to take photos as much as i do, thank goodness:)

at that point we figured we'd seen everything there is to see in manarola...
we'd thought about taking the train back to la spezia and going back to the hotel, but mandy had seen on her phone that the predicted weather for the next day was cloudy/rainy, so we to stay out and take advantage of the beautiful weather to take more photos...we took the train to riomaggiore and wandered around for a while...as it is another of the towns in cinque terre, it's similar to manarola, but not the same...the same colours of buildings, but the streets are a little different...we were able to walk around, check out gelaterias, buy postcards, etc...
none of the towns in cinque terre require much time to see, we didn't stay long...only about an hour, actually...then we hopped the train and took it back to la spezia...each train ride was only a few minutes...i love public transport!!
by the time we got back to la spezia it was dark, so we took a taxi back to the hotel, and crashed for the night...since we'd eaten "lunch" so late, none of us was at all hungry to eat again...

the next morning we got up a little earlier, and again overindulged at breakfast...a quick hotel checkout, and putting our bags into the car...our drive to the train station in la spezia included a mini tour of the city, since there are a bunch of one way streets, and we weren't too sure exactly where to park...i think the whole day of parking was only a few euros:)
this time we took the train to the farthest town in cinque terre...the very last town...the weather wasn't so great, so i was doubly glad we'd stopped in two towns the previous day, and gotten heaps of pictures...no matter how beautiful or ugly the town or setting, every place looks better when the photos have blue skies in the background..

the last town in cinque terre ended up being the town i liked the least...it wasn't nearly as cute as the others...there was a good gelato stand, of course...the lady who sold the gelato asked where i am from, as i was buying at 10am...she said italians don't eat gelato in the morning...hee hee...as far as i'm concerned, there is never a wrong time to eat gelato:)
after an hour of wandering (during which we spent most of the time in cafes checking out various snacks) we took the train to town #4, veranazza...again, a quick ride, only a few minutes...

veranazza seemed to be the cinque terre town hardest hit by the storms last october...quite a few buildings seemed to be abandoned, even six months later...many of these abandoned buildings had plywood doors, and on those doors were murals...no two murals alike...i took heaps of photos:)...the "port" area (i don't know what to call it, as there is water, and there has been a protective "arm" built of rocks, but there are no boats in the area) hasn't been fixed yet...it's slowly happening, we could see the construction equipment, and the big mess of rubbish and dirt...i wonder when it will be finished?
lunch that day wasn't nearly as good as the day before...still good, but not AS good...oh well...
after lunch we stepped into a couple more shops, as i still needed postcards, and mandy wanted wine...from there it was back to the train, this time to la spezia...we got in the car, and started driving back across the peninsula...4 hours later, my weekend in cinque terre was over...it's an area i would love to see again...maybe the trails and buildings will all be repaired...as far as weather goes, this was the perfect time of year to see cinque terre:)