Take a Hike!

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We got up early again this morning and checked out of our hotel. We were a little stressed because the delay in our hiking trip due to yesterday’s train strike caused a problem for us today, we had to hike with our luggage. Mom and Dad had backpacks so that wasn’t awful, but I had my Vera Bradley duffle bag with me. I was not a happy camper when I realized I would be hiking with it all day. It wasn’t heavy, but it is painful to have the weight unevenly distributed to one side of my body for long periods of time. We took the train from Moneglia to Riomaggiore—the last of the 5 towns that make up Cinque Terre. We ate breakfast at a small café and it was delicious. Dad and I ate bacon and egg muffins and Mom had bacon, eggs, and toast.

After breakfast we headed to our first trail, which was called Via dell'Amore—Street of Love. This part of the hike was laid back and fairly smooth. It was along the coast so we had a breathtaking view of the water. People had written messages, names and anniversary dates along the trail on the rocks and fences. For those of you who read my Paris blog, the Street of Love also did the padlock thing, similar to the padlock bridge in Paris. The padlocks were locked to anything and everything along the trail. It was precious to say the least. The Street of Love only took about an hour and ended in a town called Manarola. At this point, the couple we had met the night before had told us to get on a bus to take us to the top of the mountain to start the hike to Corniglia, instead of starting the hike at the bottom.

We weren’t entirely clear on the bus situation so we just started walking towards what we hoped was the trail and ended up hiking up the entire mountain. We noticed right away that the trails were poorly marked by faded red and white paint lines. I put on my bag as if it were a backpack to try to distribute the weight evenly to avoid being thrown off balance (and off the mountain). It worked decently well, but I have massive bruises on my shoulders where the straps were. The terrain on this trail was narrow and uneven. It was hard to keep my ankle from rolling as I struggled to climb up over 200 large steps, but somehow I managed to survive the 4 ½ hours of hiking in one piece! From Corniglia we went to Vernazza, which is where we ended our journey by walking down 385 stairs to the train. We met a lot of people along the way from all areas of the world and it was a fun adventure. In the afternoon we took a 4-hour train ride to Milan.
Milan reminded me of New York City and Madrid mixed into one. By the time we found our hotel (which took quite a bit of effort), it was dark so we didn’t get to see much of the city. We ate at Moulin Rouge, which was very yummy and conveniently close to our hotel! Afterwards, Mom and I set out to find a bakery, but it was too late so we settled for gelato (not that I am complaining!). Communication was difficult in Milan, but luckily a few people spoke Spanish so I was able to ask them questions and get directions etc.

Our hotel room was nice. I thought it was pretty funny that all three of the twin beds were pushed together. Talk about family bonding time. I am getting use to the heated towel racks that the hotels in Italy have. We are leaving here at 6:30 in the morning to walk to the metro, take the metro to the train station, and take a bus from the train station to the airport—which is about 45 minutes away.

Mom did a great job booking the trip! Thank you for being awesome and taking the time to do all of this for us!

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