Cinque Terra, Italy
October, 2011
Thursday, October 13 Nice - Cinque Terre
We were up 4:30am to take a taxi to Nice Railway Station. We got to the station so early, it was yet to open, so we took the footy out, and had a kick in the car park. The first train was to Ventimiglia, which was about an hour away. We had to wait 90 minutes there, before taking our next train to Cinque Terre, which was 4hrs away. Once there, we had to walk to our hotel, with our luggage. It was just over a km, and we finally found it after asking for directions a few times. There was nobody in reception when we arrived, so another person staying there called the owner, who drove from her home to greet us. She saw that we were exhausted, so she gave us each some bottled water, and showed us to our room, talking to us in semi-Italian-English the whole time.
We had pasta for lunch, in a local restaurant, then walked back to the train station hoping to take a train to Pisa. When we asked the guy in the ticket office for some tickets to Pisa, he laughed at us and said we had better come back early tomorrow morning, as it was a three hour train ride! Instead, we took a train to Riomaggiore, the first of the five small towns in Cinque Terre. The place was built centuries ago as a hiding place for the pirates. The views were amazing, and there was a stony beach in a small cove, where zeke and Jamaica took off the shoes and got wet. We trained it to the next town, Manarola, which was similar to the first, but this time had a rock pool where people were swimming. Looks like we’ll be coming back here tomorrow!
The third town was just a hike up 400 steps overlooking Corniglia… it was a good workout. Our final town for the day was Vernazza, which was the most beautiful of them all. There was an amphitheatre overlooking the harbour, that was filling up quickly so the crowd could view the sunset. It was spectacular, and drew a standing ovation once the sun went down. Zeke and Jamaica missed most of it, because they were having too much fun jumping on the rocks. We took the train back to Moneglia, had a real Italian pizza and hit the sack… exhausted!
We were up 4:30am to take a taxi to Nice Railway Station. We got to the station so early, it was yet to open, so we took the footy out, and had a kick in the car park. The first train was to Ventimiglia, which was about an hour away. We had to wait 90 minutes there, before taking our next train to Cinque Terre, which was 4hrs away. Once there, we had to walk to our hotel, with our luggage. It was just over a km, and we finally found it after asking for directions a few times. There was nobody in reception when we arrived, so another person staying there called the owner, who drove from her home to greet us. She saw that we were exhausted, so she gave us each some bottled water, and showed us to our room, talking to us in semi-Italian-English the whole time.
We had pasta for lunch, in a local restaurant, then walked back to the train station hoping to take a train to Pisa. When we asked the guy in the ticket office for some tickets to Pisa, he laughed at us and said we had better come back early tomorrow morning, as it was a three hour train ride! Instead, we took a train to Riomaggiore, the first of the five small towns in Cinque Terre. The place was built centuries ago as a hiding place for the pirates. The views were amazing, and there was a stony beach in a small cove, where zeke and Jamaica took off the shoes and got wet. We trained it to the next town, Manarola, which was similar to the first, but this time had a rock pool where people were swimming. Looks like we’ll be coming back here tomorrow!
The third town was just a hike up 400 steps overlooking Corniglia… it was a good workout. Our final town for the day was Vernazza, which was the most beautiful of them all. There was an amphitheatre overlooking the harbour, that was filling up quickly so the crowd could view the sunset. It was spectacular, and drew a standing ovation once the sun went down. Zeke and Jamaica missed most of it, because they were having too much fun jumping on the rocks. We took the train back to Moneglia, had a real Italian pizza and hit the sack… exhausted!