Hiking Cinque Terre and the nude beach

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Today we set out to hike the rigorous, 5 hour hike through all 5 villages. Starting at Riomaggiore, we look Lover’s Lane to Mangola. The walls are covered by people’s signatures, couples that have come to Cinque Terre. It’s also called Lover’s Lane because couples put a lock on the fence and throw the key into the sea.
The path between Mangola and Corniglia was closed, so we hoped a 2 minute train ride. From there, we had to climb over 300 steep steps (so hot) to reach the village. It made me wonder how , or if, people in wheelchairs visit the place. Moving onto the next town, “ BEACH” was scribbled on a rock with sharpie pen, which is a little shady but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into until about 15 minutes into the hike. We realized that the beach was really close horizontally, but far down… translating into a very steep trail. We popped out at a nude beach… my first sight was a naked old man laying on his stomach, enjoying the little waves at the edge of the water. I was just wondering how comfortable the sand would be on the genitals… haha
We found a nook around the corner that was a little bit away. We swam, I sat on a rock for a while that was perfectly situated were the waves would pass over and around my legs. It was one of those moments you wish you could bottle up and revisit later: warm sun, amazing scenery, fun people. I hope that everyone can visit Cinque Terre at some point in their life. It is magnificent.
We scaled up the cliff back up to the trail. Daniel and I wanted to walk the rest of the hike to Monterossa, the last village north, while the others decided to train it down there and wait for us. After gathering some information, Daniel and I estimated that we could make it there in less than 2.5 hours.
The hike was pretty rough. So many elevation changes, up and down. I can’t decide what was worse: going down steep steps was really hard on the knees.
Vernazza was a really cool village, buzzing with people. I accidently walked through a church with only my bathing suit top. I got some weird looks and after we walked out, Daniel mentioned that I probably should have covered up a little bit. I was just so oblivious to the fact that I was half naked.
The last 20 minutes down to Monterossa was a killer downhill. However, along the stairs, there was an old guy selling lemonade from a shack placed next to the trail and hole in the fence. He squeezes the lemons (which he grows) right in front of you, adds water and rock sugar. Amazing. We tried to drink it slow and savor it, but we were so thirsty. At 5:00pm, we realized all we had to eat that day was a croissant, gelati, and a nectarine. We missed lunch somehow.
Finally, we made it to Monterossa. That trek was definitely high five worthy. Were famished, but it was unreasonably hard to find a pizza place in this Italian village. But when we did, it was the best pizza of my life.
We trained it back to Riomaggiore, grabbed gelato and watched our last sunset in Cinque Terre. Mary and I also rain back up to lover’s lane to sign the wall before it got dark. We took a little dip in the water to rinse off, changed, and met up with the crew at the only bar in town for pasta and pizza.
The Aussies taught us a new word to describe what happens when your cheap thong sandals break… a blow out. Yesterday, Victor had a double blow out walking up the street. The horrible thing is, once you have a blow out, your sandals are ruined forever and it is a truly tragic event that will scar your life forever. Tonight, Victor came back from a beer run with good news and bad news: he got the beer, but had another blow out on the other sandal. Probably one of the more funnier moments and jokes of our stay in Cinque Terre.
Mary and I couldn’t seem to stay awake for the second night in Cinque Terre, so we headed back to our really hot room to sleep in our bathing suits for the second consecutive night. We are off to Firenze tomorrow.

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