Cinque Terra, Italy

Time for a vacation! Following the completion of the assignment that I had been working on since my arrival to the netherlands, I was able to take a few days of vacation. Wanting to relax, but knowing the opportunity to travel would not come often, I consulted my Rick Steves guide book and some friends, to decide where to go. Cinque Terra, Italy, which translates to "five towns", was highly recommended - www.riomaggiorenet.com.Located on the Italian Rivera, these towns are built right into the rocky cliffs that extend from the deep blue sea into the vineyard covered mountains. The towns have only been connected by train within the last 100 years, car transportation is extremely limited. A rugged trail links the five towns and takes 5 hrs to hike from beginning to end. Although I was a little hesitant to make the voyage on my own (which required coordinating a tram, plane, train, and bus ride), my desire to see more of Europe prevailed, and within 4 hrs, I had a plan to visit Italy which included a stop to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Unfortunately, the timing of the completion of my project and Derek's did not coincide, therefore, while I was in Italy, he was in New York working. (But we currently are working on scheduling our next vacation back to Italy together!). Leaving Sunday morning, I started the journey by flying to Pisa Airport. While in Pisa, I visited the leaning tower (pictures below). It was cool to see the tower, although the cathedral and tomb are even more spectacular in design and decoration. It makes you wonder, would people even visit here if the tower was not leaning? As I pondered that question, I jumped on a train to Monteresso (although it says Milan) and started the second leg of my journey. I stayed in Monteresso which is beautiful. The hotel was Lántica Terrazza, which was formerly a school and now was a 4 room bed and breakfast run by Rafaella. She was great and helped me with some of the planning for my trip. I visited the town on the first night I arrived, watched the sunset, and had dinner at a great restaurant, Miky. (if you go, you have to get dessert number 1 – a vanilla tart with fresh strawberries – it was fantastic). On the second day, I awoke at 6 am (which is very early on vacation) to start the hike from Monteresso to Rio Maggorie. I wanted an early start given that the temperatures were pretty hot. It was a great hike, with fantastic views from high within the mountainside cliffs. It was definitely rugged – I wished I have brought my trekking poles with me as I saw others using them. Arrived in Vernazza, visited the town, had breakfast and continued along the way. It was beautiful. I met some great people, Eric and Sara (hi guys, I told you that you would be added to the website!!!). Eric and Sara passed me almost running down the 373 steps from Cornelegia to the train station. I said Hi and helped them take a picture. 2 towns later, I met them again at lunch (this time with their backpacks – so they were not moving as fast). We started talking and it turns out that Sara studied accounting in college, at Butler University in Indianapolis a few years ago. That means that we had probably met during one of our firm recruiting events at the school and although we didn’t remember each other, we knew several of the same people. How cool is that??? What are the odds of meeting someone you are so closely connected to so far away?? It really is unbelievable. Eric and Sara were backpacking Europe after spending a year in Africa as Christian missionaries. They are in the process of returning back to the states where Eric will be the minister of a church in Ohio. We shared lunch together and took off to finish the rest of the hike together. We had a great time getting to know each other and enjoying a beautiful day. I hope my advice on seeing Pisa worked and that they know my offer for them to visit Amsterdam was serious and that they give me a call!!!! Eric and Sara were just some of the great people that I met on this trip. I was able to meet Italian locals and other tourists traveling. I think that I talked to more random people while traveling in Italy then I have while being in Amsterdam. It was really easy to strike up a conversation with anyone at dinner, on the train etc. One lady from Boston was so nice to me that she shared some of her anchovies with me at dinner (as they are a local specialty). The reactions that I received to traveling alone were pretty funny as well. I received the following: that is great, you are so courageous, you go girl, do you want to join us, and my favorite from an older British woman who was standing next to her husband, “I wish I was you, you get to pick what to do, when you want to do it. You are going to get used to how great that is and never want to travel with anyone again” with a classical womanly roll of the eyes at her husband. Now that was funny. The rest of the trip, I spent time exploring the towns. Being so “untouched” there were several buildings, streets, and alleys to see. I went deep sea swimming in the sea (bought a 2 euro raft to help with the floating), ate at several restaurants, laid on the beach reading a novel (had to be careful here due to my intense sunburn from day one), and just watched the day go by from the terrace of the hotel. I was told that in Cinque Terre, the most common sight is the locals sitting along the main streets, outside of their stores, just watching the people go by and enjoying the day. I would definitely agree that this was a great place to relax and participate in this activity…. Now back to work!