Cinque Terra

Yesterday Sara, Meredith and I embarked on our final excursion from Florence, to the famous Cinque Terra along the Mediterranean coast. Some people hike all five towns, but we decided to do the less difficult ones. We took the train to the furthest village, Monterosso, and then a smaller train down to a lower village, Corniglia. From there we hiked about an hour and a half along the most gorgeous coastline I have ever beheld until we reached Manarola, and then it was only a half hour walk along the Via dell'Amore to get to the final town. The towns themselves aren't anything special, it's the views that people come to see--sweeping panoramas of sea and sky, water so clear and green you can see the rocks at the bottom ten feet out in the water, flora and fauna quite different from the rest of the countryside (Cinque Terra is a UNESCO site and a protected maritime wildlife area because it has so many species). I enjoyed it so much, it was so beautiful and I felt rather accomplished for having hiked a bit in my time in Italy, even if it wasn't the hardest of the trails. Click on the title for my webshots page, the new one.

We ate lunch in Corniglia, grabbing amazing pizza from this place, La Gatta Flora, which turned out to be in the guidebooks as the best pizza place in town (it was actually my best pizza experience in Italy, no lie) and then chowing down sitting on this staircase overlooking a massive valley. On the way between Corniglia and Manarola, there was a staircase going down hundreds of feet to the water, and we climbed down; at the bottom was a four foot drop and a thick rope to rappel down with! I stayed on the steps since I'm rather afraid of heights, and the girls climbed down onto the rocks. It was still beautiful to be that close to the water, and we met a nice couple from Victoria Island, Canada who were traveling in Europe for a month.

The only minor snafu in the whole day was while we were waiting for the train in the last town. We wanted to catch a train that went to Florence direct instead of having to switch in Pisa, but we noticed that suddenly every train was showing half hour and hour delays, to the abject terror of many American tourists who were crowding around and had no idea how to function without the train system. Also, there were no public buses and not really any room for taxis in this place, so their concern is somewhat understandable. Anyway, we managed to circumvent disaster (I could not imagine being trapped there all night, but we didn't have our real passports, just copies, so we couldnt even have stayed in a hostel) by hopping on the first train going towards Pisa, and we managed, despite delays, to make it home just ten minutes after our original ETA. We were pleased, except for Sara, who abhors Trenitalia for the number of times it has screwed her over. My days on Trenitalia are now officially over, which is sad in a way because it's so inexpensive compared to US trains. Besides Sardegna, pretty much everywhere I've been i nItaly has been on a train.

However, when my mom asked me two nights ago if I regret leaving Italy or if I'm excited to return, I could honestly say that I'm excited. My time in Italy has been amazing and I will never forget it, but I'm ready to come back. Carla is very upset because leaving, for her, means something so different than what it means for me and Heather; we're going back to the men we've been missing, and she has to leave her boyfriend behind. She has a determination to live in Italy again, however, which I can't claim to share. I could never really move here permanently for so many reasons--I couldn't leave my family behind, Sean would never want to live here, and my friends would be so far away. Not to mention that as much as I love Florence and consider it another home, Windsor will always really be home. It saddens me to think that I'll only probably ever come back as just another tourist, but I know very well how little reason I have to complain. I'm so grateful for the time I had here. None of us have or ever had a right to any of this. I try to keep that in mind.