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For those of you who don't know about Cinque Terre, it is a cluster of five small towns built on the cliffs of the Liguarian Sea coastline. They have become a huge tourist spot and are also a great weekend getaway for the Italians. From north to south, the towns are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The map above should help clarify. The red A is where our first hostel was located in relation to La Spezia.
What an adventure! We set out on a five hour bus ride from Paderno to La Spezia Friday afternoon. The bus was crowded with CIMBA students and had no air conditioning. Alberto, who had arranged the ride for us, was not riding with us but gave us a sheet with phrases such as "Please wait, my friend is not on the bus" and "Please stop, there is a problem" etc. so that we could communicate with the bus driver. The trip was a steal, only costing us 60 euros (I spoke with some people who did their own thing and it cost them around 75 euros with the added stress of canceled trains) but the bus was crowded and the air conditioning did not work. Needless to say it was a long trip, but definitely a great view of the changing countryside between the east and west of Italy.
The plan was for the bus driver to drop us off at the La Spezia Centrale train station, but we arrived in the city right in the middle of Friday night traffic. It was horrible. I did not like La Spezia at all... it was very dirty and I did not feel safe. Due to the traffic, the bus driver drove until he could not get through the streets anymore and basically unloaded 60 American college students and our bags in the middle of the city. After getting over the initial shock of it all, We figured out where the Centrale station was and made our way there. This is where me, Krista, Jaime and Courtney split from everyone else.
Because we knew we were arriving in La Spezia at night and we wanted to go south to Pisa in the morning, we booked a hostel in La Spezia for Friday night. Krista went into a hotel near the train station and asked them to call a cab which came immediately. Courtney showed the driver the address and he proceeded to take us about 15 minutes up the mountain and out of the city. This is where I really started to get scared. I trusted Courtney's booking skills, but I was starting to wonder how much further the hostel was, especially with the cab fare ticking away. The cab driver dropped us off at a pizzeria in the middle of the Piano di Valeriano Village. There were people on the patio of the pizzeria who understood we were looking for the hostel and pointed us in the right direction. The Locanda la Pergola Hostel was above the pizzeria, and we checked in with a man who spoke English. I honestly couldn't tell if he was from England or Australia. He was very nice and explained there had been a double booking, so we needed to wait for a woman who also worked there to return. She returned and also spoke English, but I believe she was Italian. They were both extremely nice and explained that they were going to give the three girls one room and Jaime his own room for the price of one. We agreed and explained we wanted to leave early for Pisa and we needed to know where the bus came. The woman got us a free map and a bus ticket to La Spezia Centrale for 2 euros each. The hostel and bus ticket together cost 30 euros each. We ate dinner at the pizzeria down stairs. We played cards for awhile and decided to go to bed since we had a long day ahead of us.
We woke up at 8 and after a quick walk to the bus stop, made the 8:45 bus to the Centrale train station. From there we caught the train to Pisa for 5 euros. We had time to eat at the in-station McDonald's. I got some sort of sandwich with very thin, raw bacon, flat bread, and cheese. It was... interesting. I ate half of it and wrapped the rest up because I was unsure when I'd get to eat again. We met a very friendly American couple who had just come from Pisa, and they explained to us that to get to the tower, we needed to catch a bus across from Pisa Centrale. We could buy a bus ticket for 1 euro in the tabacchi (Italian convenience store) located in the train station, which was good from one hour after validation. We would then need to cross the street and catch the bus. They were very friendly! The man went to Florida State and loved the fact that we were from Texas Tech. We also met an Australian couple on the train ride to Pisa. The husband had heard of Texas Tech and it made me really happy that we're known down under :) We were apparently in a large granite region because there were drilling yards everywhere. The Aussie explained that a tall mountain in the distance was the oldest industrial site in the world and rumored to be where Michelangelo got some of his granite for sculpting.
Once in Pisa we were able to quickly get to the tower thanks to the American couple's instructions. The bus driver warned us in broken English that we needed to watch our bags because we would get robbed without even knowing it. The Piazza dei Miracoli was absolutely beautiful. We took the classic poses with the tower, trying to hold it up and lean on it. There were souvenir tents all along the border of the plaza selling things. We didn't got up the tower for fear of being the ones to make it finally collapse, but just being around it was a great experience. Due to time, money, and other places to go, we were in and out of the plaza within an hour and back at the Pisa Centrale bus station to catch the next bus to La Spezia so that we could then head to Cinque Terre.
For the second night, Courtney had found an apartment for us to stay at in Monterosso, so we passed through the other towns by train and got off at Monterosso. The train cut through the cliffs, so when we shot out of the first tunnel we has our first view of the coast. It took my breath away - partly because I wasn't expecting it, but mainly because it was so incredibly beautiful. None of my pictures or any picture you may find on the internet can do these towns justice. We arrived in Monterosso around 4pm and set out to find the Cantina Du Sciacchetra in via Roma, 7. We found it pretty quickly (somehow) and was greeted by the sweetest woman and her brother. The introduced us to Jesse and Amanda, two newlyweds who were on their honeymoon and did not have a place to stay the night. We scoped out the apartment (click HERE for a video tour... sorry it's a bit shakey) and decided that they could stay on the pull out couch in the entrance room. They were from Venice Beach, California (haha) and were very nice. Jesse had been to Cinque about 5 years ago but didn't realize how popular it had become. Splitting the apartment with them cut our price down to 20 euros each - a definite steal for the location and accomidations.
After settling into the apartment, we decided to head down the street to the beach. The water was SO cold but it felt AMAZING after the long, hot day of traveling. The water was so blue and beautiful, it was perfect!! The sun started to set over the cliff and we decided it was time to eat dinner. We found a place and I was determined to get seafood. I settled on pasta with scampi and tomato and cream sauce. The scampi was served... as whole shrimp. There were about 4 whole shrimp, shell and all, in my pasta. I was not expecting this haha so I picked the meat out and it was delicious with the sauces and pasta! Courtney and I split a half liter of wine and they also served bread.
Back at the wine shop that we went to for the apartment, they were giving out free samples of wine. We had decided that we wanted to try grappa because it very popular in the region. We got a free sample and it was horrible. Grappa is made from the leftovers of wine (skins, stems, etc) and it basically tastes like a bad vodka/tequila concoction. But at least now I can say I tried it! We also sampled some lemonchello and white and red wines for free. We also mentioned we were planning on hiking to Vernazza in the morning, and she gave us huge bottles of water for free. These people were so incredibly nice, they made our time there the best it could be. We got some gelato, played more cards, and went to bed early again so we could wake up and hike in the cool of the morning.
I made a horrible mistake and did not hydrate myself properly before the hike. It was a beautiful clear morning, but the steep steps up the cliff were a definite work out. I drank some water too fast and ended up throwing up at one point. It was bad and embarrassing but I felt a lot better afterwards. The rest of the hike was great and full of wonderful views of Vernazza. We decided to stop at the other cities by train instead of hiking and then made our way back to La Spezia for lunch. The bus driver picked us up at 2pm and we were on our way home to Paderno.
Some observations I have made:
-I am still experiencing a little culture shock. The language barrior is the most frustrating challenge. People are more than willing to work with you, but no one ever fully understands one another. I am working on my Italian pronunciations and key words. The letters j, k, w, x, and y are not true members of the Italian alphabet.
-There are more cars here than I was expecting. People ride bikes and mopeds as well. No one obeys the rules of the road and it is scary riding in a bus when people try to make two-lane roads into 5 lanes. The traffic signs are red and blue and are hard to see. There are also a lot of traffic circles, which are rare in Texas.
-Everything here is based on the metric system. Military time is used, as well as kilometers instead of miles and celsius instead of fahrenheit.
-All the meat here is served raw. Bacon, Ham, etc. When you buy water, you have to say mineral or no gas.
I do not have enough time in the day! I am working on uploading and sorting ALL of my pictures to an account so that you all will be able to look at them. That should be done by Wednesday evening. I went to Padova today and will talk about it in a later post. I am busy planning my travels with a different group to Florence this weekend. I appreciate all of your comments and want you all to know that your support and love makes this time in my life all the more special.
Ciao!!
