Ciao da Italia!
Smyth and I made
it to Italy.
It actually was
a bit of a
challenge to
leave Paris.
We were
all packed and
had a few hours
before we
needed to leave
for the train
station. Food
and possibly a
bit of shopping
sounded good
and we strolled
around the
Bastille neighborhood in search of souvenirs and a cute cafe.
It was just around happy hour time and we found a spot close
to the apartment called Chavez Oscar or Oscar Chaquita or
something. What really drew us in was the 2,50 wine :)
We instantly made friends with the little round waiter who
brought us extra hefty glasses of vin rouge! He waddled
over to take our orders and giggled at my botched French.
He said "yum yum" when he brought over Smyth's linguini and
wiggled his hips when he said "frommage" ! Adorable. But the
second round really did us in and two drunk Campbell girls
raced back to the apartment to get our things and rush to the
train. We were laughing and lugging our suitcases down the
streets of Paris worried we would be late, only to find our
train delayed an hour. But once we did get on we passed
out in our bunk beds and slept off the silliness :) Well,
I couldn't sleep very well and decided to start Italian
lessons on my phone. A wise decision as I did not know
more than three words in the language of our next destination.
After one other train we arrived in Levanto in the morning.
Our B&B was very close to the train station and we
were a bit early for check in. The place was adorable and
had gorgeous, expansive views of the surrounding mountains.
It was on the top floor of a very quite and dark apartment
building and the hostess did not speak a lick of
English. Thanks to my lightening speed Italian course we
could communicate on the most basic basic level. Her name was
Maria and she made us cafe Americanos while we waited for our
room. We also took a stroll around the small town, went to the
market for hiking snacks and stopped by the beach to
read and take in the views.
After settling in a bit at our hotel we went on our
first cinque terra excursion. It is basically five small
towns along the coast that are interlinked by several hiking
trails through the mountains, coastal paths or by train.
We stopped in the first town Monterossa, which is definitely
the busiest and has the most beach to swim, lay, paddle board
etc. We wanted to hike to the next town but could not find the
trail head we wanted. Instead we explored the churches a bit
and stumbled upon the beginning of the "coastal footpath".
Footpath my ass...this was a two hour trek up a million stone
stairs, through beautiful foliage, all with the coast in view.
It kicked our butts and when we finally reached the next town
Vernazza, we felt pretty accomplished! Vernazza was my
favorite town...many houses and restaurants built into the
mountain overlooking the ocean. It had a tiny enclave with
small boats and the water was a beautiful shade of blue-green.
The third town is only reachable by hiking or train as the
coastal path was flooded during the earthquakes. We hopped
on the train and when we arrived in Corniglia we realized
there was not much to do. We took a bus up to the top of the
town to see the view and back down only to miss the train.
The next one was not for fifty minutes and since this
was definitely the least exciting of towns we were not
thrilled and parked ourselves in the shade to read and wait.
The next stop was Monerola, also not much to the town,
but the starting point of another coastal path called Villa
del Amore (lovers walk). This was basically a bridge like
trail lining the cliffs that drop straight down to the sea!
This leisurely walk was our favorite and we did it several
times over our two days in the Cinque Terra. When we
arrived in the last town Riggamoira, there was also not a
big town center or anything but we stopped at the cafe
built into the side of the cliff. The view was spectacular
and they had 2,50 glasses of wine and free wifi. This was our
spot. We had a couple glasses and snacked on whatever nibbles
we had brought for hiking. It was close to dinner time so we
decided to walk back across the lovers trail and catch a
train to the second city which seemed to have lots of dining
options. We were both extremely dirty at this point and sat
down at a fairly nice place up on a small cliff overlooking
the port area in Vernazza. The staff was very friendly,
brought us some complimentary prosecco, and we ordered salad,
grilled veggies and fries. It was a good meal and we ended
up chatting with a mother and daughter from Denver,
(daughter now lives in Brooklyn). We were exhausted after
dinner and headed back to our B&B for some much needed sleep.
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Maria
made us cafe Americanos and we ate bread with jam,
orange juice and not much else. Not too many options
for us :) we set out on our second day of excursions!
It took us awhile to get started because some of the
trail heads were too far or the guides suggested we
