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.

Blue Trail #2

One of the most popular and well known trails in Cinque Terre Park is the Blue Trail which runs along the coastline and weaves through all 5 villages along the way. Total travel distance is 9km (not including exploration of the villages) and is supposed to take 5 hours. I planned to go to the 11am mass at the church just up the hill and around the corner from the hostel and then to start hiking. Mass was really nice for a small resort town. Their chapel is relatively simple though still in classic Italian style with white marble and paintings here and there. The altar was covered with calla lilly flowers among some pink and purple hyacinth looking ones. Everything was in Italian as expected, but I wasn't lucky enough to get one of the bulletins to be able to follow along. I did get half of Jesus in bread form though.

From here I made a quick internet stop, grabbed some lunch and then headed out to hike. I started in Riomaggiore around 1:30pm and on the smooth, paved path easily made it to Manarola in 15 minutes. So much for a half hour! Manarola looks much like Riomaggiore except it's smaller, so nothing really new to report. The next leg of the hike to Corniglia was listed at 30 mins. so I expected another 15 minute walk. This portion was much steeper with rougher rocky terrain and I ran into more slow people. With a few breaks in-between I think it took about 45 mins. When you reach Corniglia there is an unexpected 382 step climb up to the city where the blue trail continues. Oi. That took a while. I decided to wander the city since I didn't want to make the stairway climb again to come back. The town is a bit more stone than some of the others. It's quaint and cozy tucked up into the hillside. I was delighted to find a public bathroom and from there moved on to the third part toward Vernazza said to take 1.5 hours.

A sign at the beginning of the trail mentioned that this was the only path between these two cities up until 100 years ago. Mostly it existed for trade and care of crops in the area. Interesting how self-sufficient and independent towns can be for the most part. The path was mostly dirt and small rocks winding up and down through the ridges and valleys. By now my bag started to get rather heavy and needed shifting to opposite shoulders often. The views were excellent though. With a few breaks along the way and some snackage, I ended up in Vernazza in about an hour and 15 minutes. This part of the trail felt like the longest distance I had traveled. It could have just been how tired I felt at that point. Vernazza is located literally on the water. Half of the town is out on a small peninsula and the other half is back into the valley with the trail crossing in-between them. I pulled up a bench for a good 15 minutes and debated whether to grab a train and do the last portion tomorrow or to just finish it all today. After resting I felt better and decided it was still early enough that if I finished in the suggested 2 hours I would still be done by 6:30pm and have a chance to get back and rest before dinner.

The final part of the trip to Monterosso was actually quite pleasant. The initial part was lots of steps and steep inclines, but about halfway through this leveled out and became mostly downhill. The sun really started to shine brightly and I had to shed a layer and roll up my pant legs. By the time I was within easy view of the city it had cooled off considerably and gotten windy. The weather in Italy has been really manic--up and sunny one hour and down and rainy the next. Bizarre. By the time I reached Monterosso I had no energy to explore the town and so headed right for the train station. I even passed up a gelato shop!

Back at the hostel I ran into one of my roommates named Erik from WA. We chatted for a bit over dinner (more leftovers for me) and I got some good tips on Nice, France where I'm headed next. I headed back to the train station to pick up some internet for an evening chat with my parents which meant I had to sit outside since the tourist office was closed. I was glad for an awning to keep out the rain and a planter to sit on. A busy day, but well worth the hike.