My favorite Italian location so far: Cinque Terre

I'm super crispy right now. And by that I mean I spent too much time in the sun over the last few days in Italy that my skin is crispy! Even with multiple layers of sun block, spending time Under the Tuscan Sun really does a number on you.

After taking the train from Florence to Pisa to La Spezia, then another to Corniglia, and walking up a long winding hilly road (trying to talk to some girls from Quebec on the way, who weren't having any), we finally got to our apartment in the middle of the 5 villages of Cinque Terre.  I actually never thought about visiting CT, but after a friend in London mentioned it, and after Kevin told me he wanted to go, I was up for it.  And now I can't wait to go back.  I HIGHLY recommend this trip the next time you are in Italy. 

Corniglia at dusk

The apartment was very nice, cozy, and after exploring the 5 villages, maybe in my favorite place to stay of the 5...it was a cozy place with few tourists, and everything we needed. We had A/C, clean and new appliances and even a small flat screen TV.

We set out to explore our village, which took all of 15 minutes. The population is supposedly 240 people, and the streets are lined with little shops and restaurants. Clean clothes hang-dry from the windows above the streets, drying in the warm sea breeze. The same friendly faces greeted us from benches as we walked by each day, chatting in Italian with their neighbors, or watching their kids kick a soccer ball in the streets. I wonder what it'd be like to grow up in a small town like this where you know everyone, and the whole town is based on tourism. Everyone works in a shop or restaurant, and you even see the same tourists every day.  It seems like all the locals have a great time.

The streets of Manarola, one of the 5 villages

And boy can they cook.

We had dinner at a place in the 'center' of Corniglia, called La Lanterna. We used Rick Steeves as a guide for a lot of places and his top ranked place in this village was always too crowded for us (one night we tried to go in and the guy just yelled "too crowded" and waved us away.  The second night, he just gave us a back-handed wave, as if to say "shoo!", without even saying a word...I guess they were booked that night too). Anyway, at the place we went to I had great lasagna and the best bread I've had in italy. The table wine was also great, and cheap (7 euros for a liter). After eating so much cheese in Italy, I really need to consider eating more in the future (mom, can you bring more lactaid?). I haven't really missed it until now.  I had a ration of 2.5 lactaid pills per day, and it was really hard to stick to that...with 2 meals and at least 2 gelatos per day, I needed double the allowance!

Lasagna and Lactaid go well together

The next day we did the hike from Corniglia to Monterosso, which took about 2.5 hours. We explored the village in between, Vernazza, and took lots of pictures along the way. Around every corner is another gorgeous view of the cliffs, the blue Mediterranean, the white waves crashing against the rocks, and villages built above them.  I have a hard time picking my favorite view. 

Vernazza - maybe my favorite view

Or maybe this is, from the other side

Or maybe this is, of Manarola

Or Riomaggiore

With all the sun and hiking, we went through 1.5 liter bottles of water like they were...well, water. I don't think I've ever had that much water on a vacation ever. Which meant I had to pee a lot (in case you were wondering). 

Once we got to Monterosso we camped out on the free section of the beach and laid there for about 5 hours. Kevin was much more tan than I was, and I spent the 5 hours trying to catch up to him. I lotioned up quite well, but still burned somehow.  You can see on my back where I couldn't reach with the lotion...the top half is light brown, the bottom half was burned to a crisp.  We needed some girls with us to lotion our backs (any volunteers for the next trip?)...we are too tough to lotion guys' backs!  By the way, Pert is super dark from spending so much time on beaches in the last 3 months that people think he is a Cambodian fisherman.  Or at least I do.

The beach at Monterosso

A couple things I noticed on the beaches:

- The sand and the waves aren't the nicest, but the views are amazing

- It is confirmed that some Europeans are not afraid of showing boobies on the beach (but sometimes the views are NOT amazing)

- Italian kids all play soccer on the beach (and anywhere else they are). No wonder they are better than us at it

- The Mediterranean is beautiful, and the coast resembles the coast of California around Big Sur. With different-looking buildings of course.

The day ended with more pasta and more gelato. Kevin and I tried to find something to do after 10:30 in Corniglia, but everything was closed! Wine bars, gelato places, restaurants, everything. So bedtime was 11pm in CT. It wasn't bad because it meant we'd get up early to explore the next day.  I don't think I've gone to bed voluntarily at 11pm while on vacation in years!

The next day we tried to take a ferry ride to another coastal town, but the high winds shut down the boats. So instead, we decided to repeat the previous day. After exploring the other villages (Manarolo and Riomaggiore), we went back to the beach in Monterosso for sun and gelato.

Feeling quite "Corniglian" after this trip

That night at dinner I think I ate 10,000 breadsticks and drank a bottle of wine by myself without realizing it.  I woke up with a little headache the next day, if you can imagine.  The wine is so good and relatively cheap, that you don't realize you are drinking a lot. Good thing there is 11pm curfew in this town!

Upon our travels we found out that the trains were going on strike on the day we needed to get to Venice...that isn't good news. Why do trains hate me so much? We asked around for alternatives, but nothing seemed like a great plan...so we waited it out...and you'll have to wait to find out what happened!  It was great and not great at the same time...

Venice and a surprise side trip coming next.