Sooooooo on the weekend just been I had the adventure of a lifetime at the most beautiful wee spot on the Italian coastline called Cinque Terre! Its a series of 5 villages built pretty much on top of cliffs looking out over the ocean, and its legitimately the coolest and most beautiful place I have visited in Italy so far. Not only was the views simply stunning but a LOT happened - I mean I think I pulled only 10 hours of sleep over 3 days, so each one was kinda jam packed. Because of that, and cos I have a gazillion photos to add + its already 11.47 and I have class tomorrow, I'mma split the adventure into a couple of parts. Who knows when they'll be finished but this ones number one so here goes!!!
So this was Riomaggiore, the small seaside town the group spent a night in. We arrived at 5.30 am after a very long and uncomfortable night train ride. Turns out trains are only slightly more comfortable to sleep in than planes, especially if no one knows how to find the air conditioning and your sleeping booth basically turns into the sauna. I don't really remember a lot from the journey, mostly because I was super dazed and half asleep, but there was this one moment when I was lying on my side listening to Fjogur Piano by Sigur Ros and watching the stars from the train window. The train was flying through the Italian countryside, with smaller and smaller towns sliding away behind us and I remember clearly counting each breath as it came in and out, and for a moment it felt like I was in some fairy-tale world.
Thankfully, that feeling wasn't just limited to the looooooong as train ride, as Cinque Terre did its best to steal my breath and drop my jaw with every second I was awake. It wasn't really hard with views like this....
Or this....
On some advice from a friendly traveler, the majority of us decided to wait it out to book into our hostel, then hit up some of the other towns. I was kinda gutted about this plan, because it involved a lot of sitting around, but on the plus side I got to soak it all in. I climbed up to this clock tower-esque building with two of the Americans, Jamie and Sara, and the view from there made it all worthwhile.
The other great thing about waiting around was we also got time to hit up the ocean, and I'm all about that! The beach here was super rocky, but the water was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear, sparkling a little and extremely buoyant - what a dream.
We took a boat to the last town, Monterosso, and it was only the best idea ever. As the overpacked ferry crawled out of the bay, the most beautiful view of Riomaggiore unfolded in front of our eyes.
The views continued to be completely stunning as we stopped off at 4 of the 5 towns (one of the middle ones was unreachable by boat because it was on top of one of the hills instead of down in the valleys).
Everyone was taking pictures. We're such tourists!
The last town, Monterosso looked like it was actually out of a dream. Felt pretty #blessed to spend the day here.
It got super cloudy for a bit, and we were a little worried it was gonna rain, but thankfully it cleared up soon after this. Though the stormy clouds sure gave the place a more moody feel which I kinda dug.
We went to this great restaurant, where I had a fantastic pasta with pesto sauce. In Italy I'm slowly trying to get through this MASSIVE list of great Italian food I have to try while in the country, so I was stoked to tick pesto off the list. Dammit Italy, why do you have to have such great food?!
The cafe was right on the beach with the greatest view, so quite a few people had their cameras out. This old guy kept taking pictures of our table though, which was a little weird, so I took one in revenge.
The cafe was right on the beach with the greatest view, so quite a few people had their cameras out. This old guy kept taking pictures of our table though, which was a little weird, so I took one in revenge.
The beach here was like 100000x more beautiful than the one in Riomaggiore, and I got one of the best swims of my life in here!
I also got to try out a paddleboard because one of the Sara's (there's like 5 or 6 Sarah's on the trip haha) had rented one out. I now have to take back every single diss I've ever made against paddleboarders -those things are super hard! I couldn't even stand up on it in the middle of the flattest Mediterranean sea! It was great fun though.
A lot of the beaches here are private and you have to pay for the use of an umbrella and a deckchair. While we weren't into that (students gotta save their $ amiright), I think umbrellas on beaches are the coolest idea ever. Its so very European and very unlike back home - there'd only ever be the odd private one every hundred yards or so, not all symmetrically placed out in rows and files.
We spent the afternoon swimming and lounging around, and waiting WAY to long in a line for drinks at this random bar which played American country music set to Italian music videos. It was a weird combination, and not a place in Italy I thought I'd ever wind up (or for that matter, a place I thought even existed).
Once more I was reminded of how this trip constantly throws things at me I was totally not expecting. You never know how its gonna go until you get there! And that's kinda what makes it such a big adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment