Beach Bum

When I woke up this morning I still thought hiking was a good idea. There were some shorter treks I could enjoy between Manarola and Corniglia and up N in Monterosso. I also wanted to do some laundry as it was free. There were only 4 words on the washer indicating wool, cotton, mixed and delicates. Everything else was in pictures that weren't all that descriptive I thought. I put in the clothes and soap, selected a temperature and it started to work. The mystery was how long it was going to take. After a half hour it was still washing. At an hour it was still going. After an hour and a half I knew the clothes had to be clean and it had just finished rinsing and spinning for about the 4th time. I managed to get it to stop and unlock the door. The hostel cleaning person had left 3 bed covers on the line and I didn't see the clothespins out there. Not wanting to lose my clothes to the street below by having them blow away, I hung them in the room. By the time I gathered my things together for the day and took the train to Monterosso I realized the flaw in my plan: I was way to tired from yesterday's hike to even think about walking up any hill today. Since I didn't spend much time in Monterosso village yesterday, I decided to wander the two part town and get a feel for it.

Monterosso stretches eastward from the sea into the hills. Like most of the other villages it's full of shops selling all kinds of food, beach wear and souvenirs. I paused in a church to get out of the warm sun. It had an interesting nautical theme [notice the hanging boat at the top center]as you can tell from the picture. A bit further to the N and divided by the train station coming through the mountains is Fegina. This town clearly has a focus: the beach. A wide walkway above the beach along the shore guides you to the town. In this region of the Mediterranean, beach means small, smooth stones. This seemed like a great place to chill for a while and eat some lunch. Kids ran all over seeing how close they could get to the chilly waves before getting wet. In Europe when you go to the beach and it's still a bit cool to wear a swimsuit around, the solution is to leave your pants on the beach and go about in your underwear. Everyone lounges about soaking up the sun and chatting about this and that. This was a very easy way to spend a couple hours--and I'm not really a beach person!

I had hoped to be back to the hostel around 2pm to try and meet up with Hannah who was coming in to town. I ended up staying at the beach until about 3pm. When I got back I noticed there were clothespins which was fortunate as most things were still quite damp. Still looking for something else to fill my time and slightly refreshed from my relaxing beach time, I thought I would try to walk to a nature center out on the point of Riomaggiore. I wound my way down to the marina and around the coast to a small cove beach where people were stretched out on the rocks. This was when I realized that it was a nature point, not a center like the map implied. Not feeling the need to walk up and around for the view I walked down to the beach and sat in the sun. There was a little boy with his dad and grandpa wandering the shore nearby who was throwing and then writing on rocks. Very cute.

I made my way back to finish off the rest of my rice and pepper dinner and to pack up some things. Two Australian girls who had arrived last night were back from hiking the Blue Trail so we chatted for a while about the hike and where our journeys would lead us next. Fortunately all my clothes dried out in time and everything fit into my bags. Italy has been fun, but it's time to move on to a new country.