There was no time for Jules to get over his jetlag (if there is such a thing!) as Friday morning we packed our backpacks and hopped on the train bound for Cinque Terre. It was a pretty standard train ride, passing through many places we had already seen, although passing through Carrara it was interesting to look up at the marble quarries in the mountains.
Cinque Terre is an amazing place. A rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera, it's coastline, five villages and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site.
Over centuries, people have carefully erected buildings on the steep landscape, right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Paths, trains and ferries connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside.
We lucked out and had a great apartment in one of the main streets, the owners Simone and Fabio were really nice and told us we had free breakfast at a nearby cafe and a 10% discount at Ristorante Moretti which Fabio worked at.
Although the sun wasn't out and it wasn't that warm, we were excited to be by the water, so we got changed and went to the beach. Jules and I braved the cold water, but only lasted 5 or 10 minutes before we were back out, each with a second belly button.
With the afternoon not yet over, we decided to board the ferry and head to the fourth town, Vernazza. Anna and I both remembered it being a really great town with lots of bright colours and really clear water, however unfortunately this time it was not to be.
In October 2011, torrential rain caused floods and mudslides which severely damaged the towns of Monterosso and Vernazza, even killing 9 people. Monterosso was cleaned up first as it contains the majority of accommodation and restaurants available and therefore Vernazza is still being restored to its original state to this day.
After looking around Vernazza and getting a gelato (Jules will go on to have at least 15-20 gelato's in the two weeks he is in italy!), we hopped on the train and two minutes later we were back in Monterosso, ready for "birre ore".
Cinque Terre is renowned for its pesto (an original Liguarian sauce), so we made sure we got plenty of it into us!
After a few light refreshments on our terrace, we got changed and thought as we were entitled to a discount, may as well try Fabio's restaurant. It turned out to be a hit. The food was great, we had a great spot outside and Fabio was a great bloke. Anna was absolutely in love with Fabio, the most beautiful man in the world. Fortunately Fabio was as gay as Christmas, so I had nothing to worry about!
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| pesto pasta |
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| seafood risotto |
Once dinner was finished we continued to drink plenty of wine and catch up on old times haha. The night turned interesting when a group of American soldiers (on a two week holiday from their post in Naples) walked past our restaurant and one of them stopped to try and chat up some girls at another table. He had obviously had a few drinks and was not making any progress, so the American woman that was sitting behind us yelled out to him and said "give it a break, your an embarrassment to our country!"
Well well well, did that start some controversy or what! The bloke came storming over to the table behind us and absolutely cracked the shits before he started bawling his eyes out with remarks like "you have no idea what its like in Afghanistan, you have no idea what I have seen and what I have been through." It was quite an ordeal!
After the "soldier" calmed down, we got the bill (with discount!) and went off to a nearby bar to continue sampling Cinque Terre's wine and whatever else they could offer us! Anna then hit the sack and Jules and I stayed on for a few more before joining her (not all in the same bed) as we had a huge walk ahead of us on Saturday.
We got up bright and early, had breakfast and set off on the popular Cinque Terre blue trail coastal walk. In previous years Anna and I had both done this walk starting from Riomaggiore and finishing in Monterosso, so this time we decided to complete the walk in the other direction.
The path from Monterosso to Vernazza is 3km and you are supposed to allow 2hrs to complete it. It was a pretty tough walk, up and down, up and down, up and down, but we weren't in any hurry, so we took it at a fairly leisurely pace.
As previously noted, Vernazza is usually one of the prettiest towns, but with the horrible weather it received last year, the water is still a pretty dull colour. Having said that, it is still a great sight.
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| more evident damage |
The path from Vernazza to Corniglia was still closed, however we were told that if you wanted to, there was nothing stopping you from taking it on....so we did! It was a great decision as there were no old fat people holding us up and the views were amazing!
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| looking back at Vernazza |
This 4km section was our favourite as it contained the best views and many other interesting things to look at such as vineyards, olive trees and even super giant asparagus!
1.5 hours after leaving Vernazza, we arrived in Corniglia and well earned lunch.
After tucking into some amazing chicken sandwiches and plenty of soft drink, we went and got gelato's, walked around town for a little while and had a look at some shops, took in the view from the panorama terrace and then continued on.
Corniglia was also the town where our hopes for a free dinner were dashed as Collingwood beat Adelaide and therefore Jules' multibet didn't get up haha.
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| there were no fanny's in sight at this shop |
We didn't spend too much time in Manarola as we were planning on spending the day there swimming on Sunday, so we took off on the last 1km from Manarola to Riomaggiore.
This part of the trek is called Via dell'Amore (lovers walk) where couples are supposed to seal their eternal love.
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| Jules wanted some love as well |
We were pretty stuffed by the time we reached Riomaggiore, so we enjoyed a well earned swim and relax before getting the train back to Monterosso.
That evening we had more beers, pesto and pringles on the communal balcony, played some scrabble and met an elder English couple who were real gimps.
Walking back to the train station, we noticed a restaurant where you could look in the window from the street and watch the action in the kitchen, quite interesting to watch the chef's go at it!
We missed our train by a bees dick, so we had to wait 25 minutes for the next one. There was only one thing to do to pass the time, more beer!
Dinner was pretty good, but nothing mind boggling. Anna had the pasta with clams, I had the pasta with prawns and Jules again went for the seafood risotto, not nearly as good as the night before!
We had a few more drinks after dinner at the only bar on town and I ran into an Irish bird that I met in the same town 4 years ago, she was only here for the weekend, what are the odds! Lucky I was with Anna so i didn't have to talk to her for too long!
Suddenly we realised that we had to check when the last train was leaving. A mad dash back to the train station and luckily we just made it otherwise it would have been a hair-raising walk home haha!
Lucky for us, the sun came out on Sunday and we made the most of it! We spent the majority of the day lying on the rocks in Manarola, lapping up the sun and enjoying the water and the surrounds. Jules was particularly interested in the very very brown girl sun baking in front of us who was wearing a g-string haha.
There was a great spot for cliff jumping in the area we were situated and when a few people started jumping off it, I was eager to fuel my cliff jumping passion. Unfortunately Anna and Jules were promising to make my life very difficult if I did it and so REGRETFULLY I stayed in the water taking photos of others doing what I think is just so much fun!
After lunch we caught the train to Riomaggiore for the rest of the afternoon where I was able to find some rocks that were more 'suitable'.
We stayed in Riomaggiore for a while, soaking up as much sun as we possibly could and just watching life unfold around us. I took a liking to the massive seagulls that were flying around, Jules enjoyed staring at the girl with the great arse (captured beautifully on film), whilst Anna thought the guy in the boat looked like an Italian version of Santa. I kept yelling out "Buona Natale" (Merry Christmas) but he didn't seem to care.
We decided to fork out a little cash and get the ferry back to Monterosso that afternoon. We could easily justify it seeing as we hadn't bought a train ticket all weekend! It was great to see the towns from a different perspective as we sped along back home. A few dolphins popped their heads up for a look as we cruised by which was pretty cool.
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| Riomaggiore from the ferry |
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| dolphins! |
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| Corniglia from the ferry |
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| nice shorts! |
We had enjoyed Cinque Terre so much, that we asked Fabio if we could stay another night. He was more than happy to accommodate us, so we were back out on the balcony fore more beers. If Fabio had known that Jules was going to cause a mess though, he may have said otherwise!
We had another great meal at Fabio's restaurant, it was pretty quiet so he basically stood and spoke to us the whole night (I think he liked us as much as we liked him!) which ended up with him giving us free coffee and deserts, plus the 10% discount!
We told him that we would tell anyone we could about his apartment and restaurant and I have potentially already got two different people staying with him over the coming months!
Sadly, Monday was the best day of the all weather wise, but we had plans back in Florence, so we needed to make a move.
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