Cinque Terre

Originally posted on my Tumblr travel blog, A Roman Spring with IES, in 2008.

This past weekend I attended a “field trip” with IES to the quaint villages known as Cinque Terre. These five towns are nestled into the steep hillsides off the northwest coast of Italy. Our group was about 50 kids from IES and we departed from Rome by train. The train was 4.5 hours to La Spezia, a city just south of the Cinque Terre.

The train ride up was fun. I got to hang out and chat with people that I wouldn’t normally have done that with. The big event of the train ride was a round of the card game uno that lasted about 1 ½ hours. It was really intense and I almost won five times, but only to lose in the end. Anyway, the people that I played with liked it so much that they now call me “uno”.

We arrived in La Spezia around 630pm and found our hotel. The reason we stayed in La Spezia is because the Cinque Terre are small and are technically part of a national park reserve. There is lodging there, but it would be small and I don’t think there would have been enough rooms for all of us. Anyway, we stayed in a hotel called the Jolly Hotel. My roommates were really cool and neither of them snored, which was great!

That night we headed to a restaurant in town for a private dinner. They served local seafood dishes, a seafood gnocchi and fish fillets. It was alright, but the fish fillets had a ton of tiny bones in them, so it was very hard to eat. After the meal, we all had to walk home in downpouring rain….bad time to forget an umbrella. Lucky for me, my friend Sindhu was nice enough to share.

The next morning was the big event. We got up and prepared for our hike into the Cinque Terre. We took a train to the first town, Riomaggiore. From there, we hiked along a beautiful path called Via dell’ Amore which connects it to the next town of Manarola. We didn’t spend much time in this town. We then hiked onto Coniglia and had time for lunch. Sindhu, Christine, and I went for pizza and gelato. You can never go wrong with pizza and gelato. Sindhu’s and Christine’s pizza was a little different though. Cinque Terre is known (food-wise) for its white wine and pesto sauce. Their pizza was covered with pesto sauce! Quite interesting if you ask me.

After lunch, our group took the two hour hike to the next town Vernazza. This hike was the only one I remember really well, probably because it was really rocky and there were a couple times I was scared for my life. I couldn’t believe some of the older people that were out there hiking these trails! One of the girls in our group decided to wear flip-flops on the hike and our tour guide made sure that she stayed right by his side. It was quite comical.

We arrived at the fourth town, Vernazza, quite tired. I think this was the best of the five. It was beautifully place on the coast and had very nice shops to look through. But we only had a small amount of time left and we decided it was best to push on to the fifth city. So we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. This town was better for the beach lovers. It had some nice beaches that some of the people actually used. They did say that the water was very cold though. As for me, I went to buy some pesto and white wine!

From here, we took a train all the way back to La Spezia and had dinner in our hotel. I took a stroll with some of the girls around La Spezia and got some frozen yogurt. The city was kinda dead and it made me glad that I was studying in such an exciting city.

The next morning we were up early to jump on our bus to the city of Lucca. It is located in Tuscany, just an hour away from Florence. It’s not well known, in fact it has been that way for centuries. Our tour guide was telling us that no one conquered this town and it was a prosperous town due to being at the end of the silk trade. It was a very pretty city and was awesome to be in such a pretty landscape, with mountainous terrain rising up around the city. We got a brief tour of the city and went to a huge lunch. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in my life. There were three courses; a plate of some kind of rice and vegetables, a plate of pasta, a plate of meat, and of course dessert. I wouldn’t have eaten that much, but the girl I was sitting next to forced me to eat all of my food. I felt so sick but oddly satisfied after finishing.

After lunch, we hopped on the bus and started the four hour trip back to Rome. All in all, it was a great trip. It reminded me of the orientation trip with first took at the beginning of the program. Only, this time, people weren’t so focused on introducing each other and finding out where they went to school, but rather they were more comfortable with each other and we could all just have a good time and enjoy each-others company. The views were great of Cinque Terre and I would love to go back and spend more time in the towns.

This weekend I am off again, this time heading to Venice. I will be back next week with a new post!