The Cinque Terre Hike and PESTO!

On Sunday Brian and I hiked part of the Cinque Terre. There is a very large portion of the trail that is closed because of a terrible flood that destroyed the area last year. They are still rebuilding after the damage. Regardless, it was an amazing experience and we got to see 4 out of the 5 villages along the way. We stopped for a late lunch in one of the villages and I swear I ate some life changing pesto ravioli. We shared a ½ bottle of red and finished our meal off with an espresso. It seems crazy but we really do have wine with every meal here…well except breakfast but those people in Venice are crazy and they do have wine with breakfast.

We hiked until about 4:00 pm, only about 4 hours because we didn’t get started until about noon. The hike started out crossing Monterosso, which is where we stayed. We stayed in a very nice hotel called Hotel Baia with our window facing the beach. It is so amazing being able to sleep with the waves crashing all night long, so peaceful and comforting. All along the pathway for the hike the views continued to get better and better. On view would be completely different just a few meters up. The different perspectives from each stopping point were just amazing. We were literally walking along a path that was made on the side of a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean.

The flowers and plants were just beautiful. We made it to the first town called Vernazza and had to jump on a regional train to go to the very last town called Riomaggiore. Once we made it there we hiked back towards Monterosso, which was through 2 of the towns, Manarola and Cornigila. The area that was closed was in the very middle between Vernazza and Corniglia. We had lunch in Corniglia.

We caught the train in Corniglia to come back to Monterosso and just decided to relax the rest of the afternoon.

Leah text me back about my flight changes. I had text her on Sunday to see if she could call American to find out how much it would be to change my flight and stay until Friday the 11^th instead of coming home on the 8^th. I didn’t get to see all that I wanted to in Florence so I really wanted to go back for a few days. After it was all said and done, she was able to change my flight to Friday leaving from Rome instead of Venice and it was very inexpensive to do so. I decided to go for it since I am already here…and we only live once. Who knows when and if I will ever be able to come back to this part of the world.

So, I’m just relaxing this morning in my hotel café waiting for my train to leave from Monterosso at 12:40 to head to 1 stop in La Spezia. I’ll leave La Spezia at about 1:40 and will be in Florence again by about 4:07 pm.  Brian left this morning at about 4:45 am to catch a train to Rome. His flight leaves for JFK at about 2:00 pm today.

I am so very excited to get back to Florence. I want to go to the Uffizzi, climb the stairs to the top of the Duomo, and maybe even go see the Statue of David again. I have three days to do whatever I want and whenever I want because I have no set schedule now. This will be my vacation from the vacation. While we were on the tour it was just so busy with time schedules and be here at this time, etc. etc. It was very crunched together and we always had to meet far in advance before we had to be somewhere because with 50 people, someone is always late.

With all of that said though, the tour was amazing and we were always on time. It wasn’t bad at all and I will definitely do another one someday before I turn 35 and can’t take Contiki Tours anymore.

I’m out of here….gotta get my bags and walk the 100 yards to the train station. I have to figure out what platform my train is leaving from.

Ciao!!!