This weekend we traveled to the Cinque Terre (Five Towns), northwest of Pisa. It was a girl trip, and was so peaceful without boys trying to run everything! Kelsey, Marissa and I left on Friday morning and met up with Rachel and Jordan in La Spezia. We took a short train ride and arrived in Riomaggiore, our home for the weekend. We walked through a tunnel that had mosaics all the way to the other side, made from random recycled tiles, stones and rocks. On the other side we found quaint little shops and markets with a hill into the heart of the town. It was pretty clear that we, the Castiglion residents, that is, have been through hill town boot camp. Rachel (from Orvieto) was huffing and puffing all the way up that hill. We found the reception for the apartment we rented, and the woman at the desk kept calling me “love” and cursed like a sailor, “bloody hell!”
After we signed our lives away she led us up stairs and down an alley to a door that she pulled on some twine to open. At this point we had no idea what we’re getting ourselves into. We followed her through the door and went down a few steps in which the rise was as tall as the run was wide. After struggling down about 5 steps, we turned a corner to a straight run of stairs, four flights down, each a foot high. As I began to take each step one at a time, I saw my life flash before me and I envisioned myself slipping on the marble step and tumbling down the entire staircase. We only had to go down one flight to reach our destination, and I carefully let go of the handrail and slid into the apartment quickly.
The apartment we rented for the weekend was awesome. There was a foyer, a huge bathroom, two bedrooms, a living room and a full kitchen. There was even a balcony that overlooked the Riomaggiore marina and Mediterranean Sea. After we dropped off our backpacks and got comfortable, we braved the stairs and slowly walked all the way down to the level of the marina. The other apartments on the staircase were being renovated to we were the only ones in the building and we basically had a private door to the seaside for the weekend! We walked to the water and began climbing on some huge rocks, all the way to the edge of the rock pier. I got my toes wet in the Mediterranean, and we relaxed and caught up with the other girls.
After a while we headed back to land and searched out a market for supplies to make dinner. We decided on chicken, pasta and veggies. Back at the apartment, I was in charge of the pasta and white sauce. We didn’t have all the ingredients so it turned out to be just a milky-yet-slightly-chunky parmesan cheese “sauce.” We sat at the table and talked and drank wine for a long time, then we made the mistake of moving to the comfy seats in the living room. Everyone started falling asleep, Marissa did go to sleep, and at 11pm I went with Jordan to pick up her sister, who has been studying in Spain and is now on her spring break. We stayed up with Mackenzie for a while, and then went to sleep for a beach day in the morning!
I fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the rocks, and in the morning we had scrambled eggs with veggies. We packed our beach bags and slowly made our way to the Via Dell’Amore, which is the first hike between Riomaggiore and Manarola. It was about a 20-30 minute walk between the towns, and beautiful scenery the whole way. The Via Dell’Amore is a flat path built on the side of the cliffs, and there are love locks all over this stroll. Instead of fining people for putting locks on public property like they do in Florence, Cinque Terre has gotten smart and actually sells padlocks in the gift store. There are lots of places to stop and admire the sea, or partake in some PDA, along the way. There are also a lot of stairs built into the cliffs that lead to larger rocks in the water. We climbed down and explored a bit on a couple of these, then kept making our way to Manarola.
When we arrived in Manarola we shopped around town a bit and got a snack for lunch. We sat on a boat entry to the water and soaked up some sun before we headed to the train station to go to Monterosso. Right when we got off the train we walked across the street to the pebble beach. We picked a spot and set up camp. Unfortunately we picked a spot next to the most obnoxious American ever, a girl who was wearing way too little clothing and showing off way too much of her body. She kept yelling (not talking) about herself and smoking and drinking and how she’s really cool. Ohh geez – Americans!
After turning down some African beads and “massagee’s” we got some slushie drinks at a bar and strolled to see what else was in the town. We found a happenin’ square with a church about to have Mass. There were lots of little souvenir shops and boutiques. After indulging in some cheap souvenirs, we went back to the train station to go to the next town over, Vernazza. We got on the wrong train, however, and went all the way back to Riomaggiore. We tried to go the other way back, but apparently our tickets weren’t valid anymore and we got kicked off the train in Manarola. It all worked out in the end, though, because after we couldn’t find a restaurant to eat at in Manarola (ALL were full ALL night), we took the Via Dell’Amore at sunset and had the most romantic walk back, just us girls. [Side note: trains in the Cinque Terre run anywhere from 10-45 minutes late, but at least they’re consistent with one thing.]
In Riomaggiore we searched for a special place to eat for Kelsey’s birthday dinner, and ironically ended up at the restaurant below our balcony. After waiting an hour we were seated and I split lobster pasta with Marissa. It was very difficult to eat, since we didn’t have the things to crack the shell. I had to get my hands dirty and do a bit of surgery to get the meat out, but it was tasty! The restaurant gave Kelsey a delicious chocolate cake that was more like fudge, and we helped her finish it. After we were done, I took some pictures with the head of the crab, complete with eyeballs, and then we went back up our mountain of stairs to our apartment.
On Sunday we cleaned dishes and packed our stuff, and then checked out and stored our luggage for the day. We finally successfully made it to Vernazza, where we had pizza by the water and shopped. We found a store that said “original art and design” on the outside, so we went in to check it out. They had acrylic paintings of all the different cities and different views in Cinque Terre. We found some jewelry at the back that you could pick different charms and choose your chain and how you want it made. We talked to the woman making the jewelry, and her husband happened to study architecture in Florence. He’s the artist now (obviously didn’t do architecture) and she makes custom jewelry. We hadn’t seen anything like this, so we all picked out charms and had necklaces and bracelets made. I have one of the paintings of Cinque Terre on one of my charms, and the painting Venus Rising on the other, because it’s in my room in Santa Chiara and I wake up to it every day.
After rushing back to Riomaggiore to get our luggage, we waited for the train for a while and then began our trip home. In school it’s crunch time, and Kelsey and I are working very hard and making lots of progress on our awesome project! I’ll upload pictures eventually, to prove this isn’t just a vacation.
Tonight before dinner we have someone coming to talk to us about the Holy Week ceremonies that will be happening in town this week. I am so excited to learn about this and see everything they do. The first ceremony is tonight at 9:15pm and lasts about an hour. It should be very interesting!
On another side note, there is the most adorable little toddler with us in Santa Chiara. Her name is Ruby and she is the daughter of the Texas A&M architecture professor. She has learned to walk and is running all over the study center. She will waddle down the halls and stop to look at everything along the way. One of her first words is “statue” because all the halls are filled with artwork from previous students and she loves to stop and touch it. She also loves playing with the turtles that live in our courtyard, and she is always looking for them and poking them. Most adorable girl ever, AND she never cries. I might pack her in my suitcase instead of my clothes.
Cara Marie
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