I am currently on an airplane to Barcelona for my first leg of my spring break! I thought this would be a good time to start writing about my time in Cinque Terre last weekend.
Also for those interested in reading about my spring break, I am planning on writing it in three separate blog posts (one for each leg of the journey). So be on the lookout for that!
Back to Cinque Terre, for those who do not know the Cinque Terre are five small towns in the western coast of Italy. These small towns are built on cliffs on the sea. I was completely taken aback by the beauty of the entire place. However, it was kind of a journey to get there. We took a taxi and three trains to get to Pisa Friday night. Based on the train times it wasn't logical to go to Cinque Terre Friday night. We thought since Pisa isn't much out of the way it would be worth the stop for the photo opportunity with the leaning tower.
We arrived in Pisa and after some stumbling around we finally found our hostel. The cutest old Italian man was running the reception. He was unbelievably nice and went out of his way to accommodate us in the hostel. We chatted with him and he has a sister who lives in California and he knows where Paderno del Grappa is! Not very many Italians know where Paderno is because it is such a small town. When we tell people where we are from we either say Bassano del Grappa (a larger nearby town) or in the Veneto region.
After a great nights sleep we woke up early to grab the obligatory photo and a train to Cinque Terre. Let me tell you, The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not all that great. It is short, it does lean, and wasn't all that impressive. I don't really recommend anyone visit the leaning tower...
After the disappointment of the Leaning Tower we hopped on a train headed to Monterosso, the one of the five towns we were staying in. We got to Monterosso at around 10AM, and were immediately taken aback by the beach and ocean. We attempted to drop our stuff off at our hotel, but they wouldn't be there until noon. We spent the two hours basking in the sun, toes in the sand. I actually found some really cool rocks washed up on shore. There was a lot of green and purple rocks that really grabbed my attention, but the best thing I found in the rocks was glass that had been polished down by the ocean waves and sand. The glass was smooth and clear. I began collecting as many cool rocks and pieces of glass that I could find. I felt like a little kid looking for the coolest rock in my backyard.
After dropping off our bags we took a cheap train to Manarola, another one of the five towns. In this town there were houses all painted beautiful colors built on a cliff! We did a small hike along the grapes growing on the cliffs to get a view of the houses and the ocean. The hike was challenging but fantastic. I would have loved to spend an entire day hiking along the coast. After our gorgeous but exhausting hike we took a train to the next door town of Corniglia. We grabbed a delicious lunch. We randomly chose a restaurant and walked in. I ordered pesto gnocchi and when I tasted it, it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. It was so fresh. I felt like everything on the plate must have been made fresh for me personally after I ordered. I tasted all of my friends cuisines and everything tasted like it was caught today, the cheese was made today, etc. I never thought I would be able to taste the difference between fresh foods and older foods and I was so wrong. I also felt happy because I got to try pesto in cinque terre, the birthplace of pesto.
After some gelato dessert we took a train back to Monterosso. We stopped at the local tabacchi to buy wine, cheese and crackers for dinner (we were so full from our delicious lunch). After snacking on our food and sipping on our wine we ended up checking out a local bar. The night life in cinque terre is pretty slow, but we thought we would get a few drinks and then come back. We ended up staying for a while! The bartender was unbelievably friendly and nice. He made us bruschetta and burgers and chatted with us about Italy and the US. Then a group of Italians walk in carrying a huge branch of flowers. It turns out they were all celebrating one girls birthday and it was also women's day (and also my sister's birthday!). The flowers are called Mimosa (like the drink!). We had a great time socializing with the Italians, and then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
The next morning we woke up a little later than expected and headed on the next train to Vernazza (another of the five towns). We shopped for souvenirs, and enjoyed the harbor. The views were gorgeous and the sun was shining. We spent most of the time relaxing listening to the waves crash against the rocks. We then traveled back all the way to Paderno del Grappa.
Here are a few pictures of the weekend!
I had a fantastic relaxing time visiting cinque terre (even though I missed one city, Riomaggiore). It was fun to be with good people, eat good food, and have fantastic views.
Stay tuned for my spring break blog posts!!
Ciao,
Carolyn
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