While in Florence, we made plans to take a bus2apls trip to Cinque Terra to see the beautiful coast. It was brilliant. Colors, food, rocks, ocean, speedos. All of it. When we got there we had to get on a train with a big group of people..not the easiest thing to do, so naturally we missed the first one and then made everyone else on the hot train uncomfortable when we all squeezed onto the second one. The train would go through dark tunnels and the emerge onto the coast and it was funny to hear peoples’ gasps from the beautiful water scenes. There were people swimming in little rock pools, dads jumping from cliffs with their sons, fishermen, tons of old men in speedos, and a lot of colorful houses on the sides of hills. We started in one town where we walked up a little path that we were able to look back at the town on the edge of the water. We were only here briefly before we were back on the train going to the next place. Same thing here. Brief stop, then movin on. Movin and groovin along the whole coast.
The next stop was for food. We got off here and climbed a bunch of stairs…big surprise..more stairs. Hot hot hot stuff. We opted for some pasta instead of pizza, which I would tell those of you that will follow our footsteps, don’t. The pizza looked soooo good and I’m betting it was cheaper too. But the food was pretty good. I just still haven’t mastered eating shrimp that still has a head and eyeballs. That is shrimp right? There was a nice view down the cliff a little way away from the pasta place, then we were off again to the next spot. This is what we were gearing up for. A two hour hike from one town to the next across a mountain or two. It was probably the same mountain…I know it was, but it seemed like it was three walking through the dips and peaks.
When everyone else made their way to the beach, Russell and I decided to take on this hike. Hot or not, I want the views. There was always the image of the beach with its cool water at the end of the tunnel. The hike was pretty intense. Lots of steps..again…always stairs. These stairs were rocky and dirt. There was recently a landslide in the town that we started the hike in and while we were climbing on the path we saw some homes that seemed to have been hit hard by it. It was sad to see and pretty crazy that we were seeing it. We hiked…and hiked…and hiked..and hiked. It was AWESOME. One of the best choices I’ve made while in Italy. If you have a choice between walking somewhere incredible or riding…walk. Completely worth it. The walk was hard, but the views you got, you couldn’t see them anywhere else. And the water felt all that much better when we finally got to the beach. After the beach it was back to Florence for a quick goodbye where people were watching the soccer game at the park and then off to Roma for one last week.
Again…for efficiency.
