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Published: December 8th 2013
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The GC
The Grand Canyon 2012 It was time to leave The beautiful country of France and head back to some what familiar territory, Italy. This time to the coast -our destination Cinque Terre.
Alice was very prepared and had Pre- booked all our accommodation, train tickets etc, but we weren't so prepared for what came next. The train drivers were on strike and all trains were cancelled. So our 5 star, first class train ride wasn't happening so we settled for a 13 hour overnight uncomfortable jam packed bus to Milan instead, and from here a train to Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre, wow. What a beautiful part of this beautiful country. It is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera, in the Liguria region. “The five lands” as it translates is made up of 5 villages.
The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Part of its charm is the lack of development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside.
After staying in hostels, and shared dorms it was nice to have our own private place, it was like an apartment- self contained. We were quick to dump our bags and back out the door in search for a supermarket.
Since we had left school Sam had undertaken a cooking apprenticeship and become a qualified chef, so I was very keen to try his food. The Sam I once knew did make a mean salami, cheese and tomato toasted sanga.
After much confusion we were on our way back with 2 pieces of Salmon for the girls, 700gms of Eye fillet for us, broccoli, beans, zucchini, garlic, potato,2 bottles of red wine,5 long necks of beer, peppercorns and cream in hand. Which came to a total of 50 Euros.
After catching 2 trains and walking up 382 stairs I had a beer in my hand and was watching Sam make dinner.
I still Couldn't get over the fact that he was a qualified chef, and yet in year 11 we both did a Hospitality course and did cooking, the teacher quit because we gave her grief.
27-06-10 Email to family:
“ I don’t know if I was missing a home cooked meal or it was really really really good, or a mixture. But the meal was so amazing. I’ve taken many photos of it, which I’m sure you will see. We had Eye Fillet-Medium Rare, with a creamy red wine and peppercorn sauce, Mashed potato, and the vegies- broccoli, beans, zucchini and garlic. It was so good. The vino washed it down perfectly .
After dinner, the girls offered to wash up because we went and got the groceries and cooked (yeah me to). Sam and I went exploring and taking photos. We got some really amazing ones. It is just so pretty here. You will see thme all at some stage.
Me Sam and Rhiannon went and got cheese and wine later on. Alice stayed home as usual..
Tommorrow we are doing the walk from one end to the other, which is about 5hrs worth. 10-11 kms.But have been told it is very much worth it.
Sleep time for me now. You guys will be updated by the end of Cinque Terre. Getting to be like a journal. But I enjoy it.”
The walk in Cinque Terre starts from the little village of Monterosso, we got a train to here and started. We had heard that the walk to the first 2 villages was the hardest-They weren’t wrong. I was sweating the past couple of months beers and wine out of me. There were some very narrow and uneven paths. Probably not the best terrain to be wearing my thongs (So Australian). The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza is the steepest,there is over 250m of climbing over very uneven rocks, nearly 750 'steps' , it winds through olive orchards and vineyards and the ocean views are breathtaking . The paths are narrow, with a very real danger of falling 12 to 15 feet if you lose your footing. Vernazza was beautiful, definitely worth the walk. No car traffic definitely adding to its sheer beauty, it remains one of the truest "fishing villages" on the Italian Riviera.
From Vernazza it was onto Corniglia (Where we were staying). This hike was very uneven and took around 2 hours. It was already a bad idea wearing thongs, but I was about to find out another reason why. I stepped down onto a sharp rock and took a nice chunk of skin out of my heel, there was lots of blood. Sam was on standby by the camera and was getting lots of close up photos. Luckily we were nearly in Corniglia so I could patch up my foot, put on some sneakers and keep trekking on. Next up was Manarola. This was close to the beautiful blue water and an easy walk only taking about 30 minutes. It is the second smallest town in Cinque Terre and the oldest, adding to its beauty. The last town coming up was Riomaggiore . This was also an easy walk, referred to as ‘Lovers walk’. Half way down the paved path we came across ‘The lovers lock’, which is a place to seal your eternal love. Then onto the ‘love seat’- this is in the shape of a male and female locked in a kiss, where many couples pose for photos, as did Sam and I.
We had completed the trek and got the train into La Spezia back to the supermarket. This time we purchased 400gm of scotch fillet, zucchini, broccoli and beans, beer and vino.
28-06-10 Email to Family:
“Well I had my 5-10 mins at the tops rest. Then WE started cooking. Yes yes I cut up some stuff and crushed some peppercorns etc.
400gm scotch with a red wine, garlic and peppercorn sauce with broccoli, zucchini, green beans and garlic. Got some good photos of it. I didn’t think I would eat it all. We had to have a separate plate for the vegies, cause there was so much. I pushed through and got it down, the vino helped .After dinner we did F- all. Had a few beers. Sam and I went for more photos,"
After another day or two in this beautiful Place, at this stage my favourite of all. It had been a great few days- combining my favourite things, sun, laughs, drinks and the beach. Cinque Terre would always leave a fond memory in my mind. Such beauty.
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