The Freakin' Memories of Cinque Terre!

July 1, 2010

Okay, so from the title of this post, you can get a sense that it was a very interesting day. There are too many memories to document for one day, but I will do my best.

So, my friends and I slept in a little bit this morning and we got up and out into the town by 9:30am. We decided that we would checkout of our hostel, grab some quick breakfast and get out to Manarola, the next town. Unfortunately, this is where we faced our first hiccup for the day. The hostel office doesn't open until 10:30am, so we couldn't checkout when we wanted to. So we took a more relaxing time for breakfast as we waited for the office to open. Time is a very relative to the locals...especially in the small towns of Cinque Terre.

So at 11:00am, we checked out of the hostel and made our way to the first town of the day, Manarola. In order to hike the towns, the trail is a national park and requires a daily pass to hike the trails between the towns. So we purchased our passes and we made our way to the "Via dell' Amore". It is a walkway of lovers and everywhere you look, there are locks on all the chain fences. Supposedly, lovers are supposed to walk this path together and lock their hearts with a lock anywhere on the path. Cinque Terre is a huge honeymoon destination so that might explain the thousands of locks we found on the walk. :) This was the easiest walk of the day. It only took us 30 minutes to get to Manarola.

The next town was Corneglia. It was starting at this town that I realized that I was not fully informed about the hike to the 5 towns. In order to get to Corneglia you must hike up 382 steps. Now, these steps are now equal distance. Some are tall and some are short. Some were close and some were far. It was truly an unexpected hike. This walk took 1.5 hours. We decided to take a lunch break at Corneglia. I was so tired that I wasn't hungry...so I just bought another huge bottle of water. I think I consumed 5 1.5-liters bottles of water the entire day. That's A LOT of water!


So, the day definitely got a lot more interesting on the way to Vernazza. The hike to Vernazza should take 2-hours at a brisk pace, and I believe we would have made it if we didn't have a major snafu. While we were hiking, probably an hour in, I asked to take a break to drink some water. While we were taking a rest, LaCona took off her backpack off to rest her shoulder. Now, what happened next is a strange mystery. Somehow her backpack started rolling and it got close to cliff. I could see the whole thing happen slow motion. We both saw the backpack roll off the cliff. I think we were just in shock because neither one of us ran for the bag. Now it would be bad to lose a backpack...but it would have been devastating to lose the contents of THIS bag. It held both our wallets, our ship ID, and our Passports. We would not have time to get a replacement before our next port, which means that we would have to somehow meet the ship at our next port in Naples. Thankfully it's the same country so it wouldn't have been as devastating as having to meet the ship in a new country.

But anyway, I digress. So we tried to go over the ledge to get the backpack, but it had fallen too far and the rocks were not stable enough to hold any adult's weight. So, we waited to see if anyone hiking behind us had anything that we could use as leverage. A kind British gentlemen came by and asked if he could help. He had some rope, but it wasn't long enough to be any use. He was heading to Corneglia and offered to get us help from the town. At the same time LaCona offered to go to Vernzazza to get assistance. We were literally in the middle of both towns so we waited to see who would get into town first.

While Kevin and I were waiting, several tourists walked by trying to see what the commotion was. One such group was a family of German tourists. They also had some rope and they tried to tie it to anything for support. However, the item that saved the day was their umbrella. The beach umbrella they had had a hook at one end, and the pole seemed long enough to grab the bag. Kevin got on the other side of the rail and we all held onto him. I think we had 6 people holding him during this incident. He was able to get the bag and there was an anthem of cheers from all the tourists around us. After profusely thanking our new German friends we made the trek to find LaCona. Thankfully we found her within 20 minutes. She had found someone who interestingly had a very similar contraption to our German friends. We walked to Vernazza with LaCona's "friend" and offered to have a snack at his restaurant. Again, I ordered another large bottle of water. After that fiasco, I really wish I drank.... ;)

Finally we got to Vernazza, and it was so beautiful. There were umbrellas everywhere and the buildings were so colorful. LaCona and Kevin went to the beach for a well-deserved dip while I wrote postcards. It was nice to just rest under the shade and be thankful that everyone survived that little incident and that our passports and wallets were safe. :) We saw our German friends in Vernazza and offered to buy them lunch or drinks. They had already eaten, but they did take a picture with us so that we would never forget this memory.

From Vernazza, the plan was to take a boat to Monterosso. We had been informed that the hike to Monterosso was a little more rigorous than the hike to Vernazza and that there wasn't much to see. Unfortunately, we missed the boats because were delayed in Vernazza, but I think we were all okay with that. While we were just thoroughly exhausted from our day, we decided to just take a quick tram ride to Monterosso to just say that we went to all 5 towns. When we got there, it was a bit disappointing. Other than the beach there isn't much appeal. The other 4 towns had so much character and amazing atmosphere. I'm glad that we only had 15 minutes there before we had to leave to get back on the ship in Cittavecchia.

It was a day of crazy. Not only was I not prepared for the hike. We were definitely not prepared for the many adventures of the day, which is why I will always remember the freakin' memories of Cinque Terre.