Sorry it has been a few days since my last post. I havent had access to the Internet. I'm currently enjoying some baguette outside of Villa Fabulite and thought it would be a good time to start updating you. Since I am on my phone, I will upload pictures and format later when I have access to a computer.
From Florence, we took the train to Pisa to see the leaning tower. After walking pretty much the whole city with our huge backpacks, the tower appeared before us. It was exactly as we had pictured it...probably because we have all seen thousands of photos of people posing with the tower and pushing it over or holding it up. It was quite entertaining to see countless people trying to position themselves correctly with their arms outstretched to get a good picture. After doing exactly that, we relaxed on the grass for a little while before our trek back across town to the station. On the way we picked up some delicious sandwiches. Italian food...oh man.
Back on the train to our next stop, Riomaggiore; one of the five cities of Cinque Terre. The train ride there demonstrated a big transition in landscape. It was very hilly and picturesque. When we got off the train, the first thing we saw was the Mediterranean sea. The steep and hilly landscape of Cinque Terre makes for a very interesting and beautiful layout of streets and houses. The main road, via Columbo, is one huge uphill path (well, if you are at the top then it's downhill, but we were at the bottom where the train station was). The apartments and stores were all different colours from the outside, and were surrounded by narrow alleys and up steep staircases. It is pretty fascinating. Guaranteed, people that live there have some crazy leg muscles. We took some time to freshen up in La Casa di Venere, our home for the night. Looking out the window, I saw so many clothes lines and heard random Italian outbursts. It felt so different from the tourist overflow of Rome and Florence. I also enjoyed watching and taking pictures (in a non-creepy way) of the little Italian kids enjoying some play time outside.
Since it wad already evening, we knew we couldn't do the hike from one end of Cinque Terre to the other, as we had originally planned. However, we did want to do some sort of hike to see the spectacular views we had seen on Google! With a somewhat aimless approach, we headed uphill...as high as we could go...until we hit a dead end. The lack of footpaths and people should've been enough of a hint that we were headed nowhere. Either way, we eventually came to our senses and headed back downhill to ask for some direction. We then followed some people, who knew what they were doing, to a spot by the shore with an amazing view of Riomaggiore. We took some time to enjoy the sights with our feet in the Mediterranean.
After 8pm, access to the national park, which includes the path connecting all of the cities, becomes free of charge. So, since it is good to think economically at times, and since we got to Cinque so late, we decided to do a mini hike to the next city, Manarola, at sunset. The trail was called Via del Amore; the walls were filled with sketches of hearts with initials, and the fences had ribbons tied on them in the shape of hearts, and locks that couples had put up during their hikes. How sickening and sweet. Once we got to Manarola, we had to find the path to the top of the hill so we could see another amazing view. We asked a local that was sitting on a bench, and he led us to the pathway. He actually ended up being out personal tour guide and hiked up with us and a few other people. Poor guy was just chilling on a bench and next thing you know he is climbing a butload of steps. Anyway, once at the top, we saw another phenomenal view of bunches of colourful block-shaped houses scattered around a steep and hilly landscape right along the coastline. I especially loved how it looked when it got dark and the houses were lit up.
It was time for a late dinner. Each meal is something to get very excited about when in Italy. We had built up good appetites from all the hiking so we ate an amazing dinner in Manarola before heading back to Riomaggiore. Sana and I are not big seafood people, but we decided to be adventurous and we ordered some seafood-ish dishes. The mussels were the highlight...so tasty! Having left Italy only today, I am already missing the food dearly.
On the dark walk back to Rio, we got to enjoy a beautiful starry sky; something we rarely see back in Toronto. It is so special to see. We sat down for a few minutes in the dark just to appreciate the sight of stars and sound of waves crashing on the coast. I had never seen a shooting star before that night, and in the 10 minutes we sat there, we saw 3!
Before calling it a night, we hung out at the bar where we met some locals, some Canadians, and a South African. That experience has made for some good laughs. Via del Amore will remember us.
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