The Cinque Terre

I have noticed that the leaves have begun to change color in Sweden. Suddenly, I feel like I am in one of the college movies, that take place at Harvard or Yale in the fall, where the old buildings are covered in ivy and all the leaves are dancing colorfully in the brisk autumn breezes ... except the buildings here are a lot older, and the autumn breezes here are breezier and crisper, I'm sure.

So let me recap on my travels, which I have been ignoring in fantastic form since my return from Italy. Seriously, I think that month of traveling really wiped me out and I didn't even want to sit down and think about the mind-boggling experiences that I had -- lest my head explode. So --

After Venezia, Lauren and I headed back west to the fabled Cinque Terre, or Five Lands. On the train ride from Venice back to Florence (en route to C.T.), we ended up sitting with a group of very old nuns, who were very kind and pleasant and offered us their sandwiches (but seriously, who takes food from a poor old nun??). They were really impressed that Lauren speaks some Italian (and thought it was funny that I did not -- after all, I'm the one who looks Italian, not Lauren!). And even though Lauren was at first skeptical about sitting with these beacons of faith (being atheist scum that she is, and partially I am), she had a good time talking to them and I have the sneaking suspicion that they blessed us underneath their breath, because for the next week or so we were amazingly lucky.

Somehow, we found our way onto the right train from Viareggio to Riomaggiore, the first of the five towns that makes up the CT. Once in Riomaggiore, we found that the hostel we were planning on staying in was closed indefinitely. So we were without a place to stay. It was wickedly humid, we had our backpacks strapped on still, and Riomaggiore consists of one main street which is impossibly steep up into the mountain-side. We trecked up this hill, stopping and asking at every door that said they had rooms, but everybody was full. We even tried to convince a hostel owner, who had only one bed open for the night, that we "could snuggle" and share the one bed. But I don't think he was buying it. Finally, we found a place that would rent us a double for the 3-nights we were staying -- for only 50 Euro a night! That's 25 Euro each, for those bad at math (like me), and since most hostels at 20-22 Euro a night, it was a deal to get our own room with bathroom and locking door!

Once in the room we immediately got into our bathing suits and went down to the "beach" in Riomaggiore to wash off our sweat and to celebrate our good fortune (we actually called it "nun-luck"). The "beach" was just a bunch of large rocks, and while it was fun swimming around in the waves, I got pretty cut up trying to get back onto the beach.

At night, we walked the "Via dell' Amore" (Path of Love), that wound around the mountain-side from Riomaggiore to the next town, Manarola. It was here that Lauren took me to a Gelateria which blew my mind. Hands down, this was THE BEST gelato in the world, at this small cafe overlooking the small inlet of ocean. We actually did this every single night we were in the Cinque Terre -- walked the Via dell' Amore to Manarola, where we quietly enjoyed the best cantaloupe gelato and watched the sun set and the waves crash onto the rocky coast. Heaven.

We spent most of our time in the Cinque Terre laying out on the beach and getting fantastic Italian tans. The only town with anything resembling an actual beach (i.e. sand) was in Monterosso, the most touristy of the five towns. We stopped in Vernazza for a little while too, but it was pretty much like the other three towns we had visited, and I thought Manarola was much cuter and less touristy than Vernazza (and with better gelato), and we didn't even stop in Corniglia because it was high up in the mountain and we didn't feel like walking all those stairs or paying for the bus. There wasn't much to see anyway.

Beyond that, there isn't much to report on the Cinque Terre. They were beautiful for a mid-backpacking vacation from vacation. Beautiful views, delicious gelato, and best of all -- no museums, no artwork, no ancient sites. Just pure and heavenly enjoyment.

So from here, I should continue on and tell you about my trip to Rome. Ahh, Rome. This city absolutely blew me away like no other place in Italy or Sweden or Germany had. I think I would have to give Rome it's own lengthy post for all the wonders and surprises it presented to me (including reunification with some old friends). But for now, my fingers are tired from writing papers for my Swedish class, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Here is some Italian for you to learn:
camare -- rooms
cinque -- five
spiaggia -- beach
melone -- cantaloupe