Cinque Terre

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Cinque Terre
Julie J Vanover As sigh, the Cinque Terre! The Cinque Terre is five towns on the Northwest Italian Coast that have walking trails to the different towns along the coast line, and it is beautiful. On the way there I met Luke from Boston (but grew up on Bainbridge Island) on the train and we both had our hostel booking at the same address. We arrived there and we were in seperate hostel locations, but we and several people from my hostel met for dinner later. I explored Riomaggiore, the town that we were staying in and walked a little along the coast. It is beautiful, just look at the pictures.

The next day me, Luke and Russell woke up at 9 to go hiking but it was downpouring rain. So we met later, but 2 of the 4 trails had been closed because of the rain. So we took the train to the middle town, Corniglia to walk the trail. About half way into our hike there was a sign for a free beach off the main trail, so we thought why not. It was all the way down the hill side, but the trek down wasn´t too bad. We got there, walked the beach for a while and ran into 4 girls from Canada. So we left and wanted to go up the other direction, so we took the fork in the path in the direction we were headed. We hiked up a little ways and it was definitely rougher than the way we had come, but not too bad. As we continued it kept getting rougher and rougher. Then we got to the terraces. It would be flat for about 6-7 feet and then there would be a wall. Some of the walls were about 4 feet, but some of them were 7 feet tall. By the time that we got to the terraces there was no way that I was going back down what I had climbed up, so I became a rock climber, not by choice. It didn´t help that there had been a good deal of rain the night before, just making it muddy and slippery. The worst wall was a wall of shale, where everyplace you put your foot the ground just fell our from underneath you. So we finally reached the main trail, I had scratches all over my arms and was bleeding. I was covered with mud and had ripped my bag and clothes, but I had survived the adventure. As we walked a little farther down the main train we saw the sign for the real trail to the free beach! Great. So we continued to the next town and ran into some girls from New Zealand that were staying in our hostel. We sat down and had dinner with them, and it started raining again so we headed home for the night.

The next day I set out with a group of guys from my hostel to the beach and some hiking. It had rained a little in the morning and so it was still a little too cold to swim, but we hung out on the beach. Then we went to walk another trail, two of the trails were still closed because of a rockslide. So we hiked the open ones then headed back where we made dinner and played cards. Then I woke up and headed off to Nice. This place is so beautiful and peaceful, words cannot describe it. Just look at the pictures. It was just what I needed after spending so much time in cities. This is a place where I could stay for a month and not get sick of it. I met so many people and saw so much beautiful things and I didn´t even get to walk the whole trail.

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Photos

Riomaggiore
This is the city that I stayed, so I woke up and walked down to this every morning.

The Coast Line
The whole coast line is very dramatic like this. Jutting up out of the blue blue sea.

Sunset on the Cinque Terre
I went down every night to look at the sunset, they were all beautiful.

Battle scars
This is just one side of one arm after my rock climbing/terrace jumping/jungle woman experience up the hill side.

Manarola
This is the second city up from where I stayed, I love the color of all the houses and buildings and how the contrast the rocks and water.

Cat nap
This guys got the right idea!

Comments

[Andrew]

I love you!
The coastline looks absoulutely beutiful I am so jealous you know how much i love the coastline, the town you stayed in looks almost unreal it is so majestic looking, glad you are enjoying yourself!. Love from Andrew

[Mom & Dad]

Not a fun way to learn how to rock climb. Take care of those scratches. We liked the colorful houses and the rock paths along the cliffs. It's amazing how they build houses right on the cliffs. The sunset is gorgeous.