Days 18 - The Cinque Terre (Translation: Land of Unending Staircases)

The Cinque Terre (pronounced Cheen-kwah Tear-ay) are a collection of 5 very small towns on the West coast of Italy, a little south of Genoa. They are famous for being nearly inaccessible and, as such, somewhat untouched by the advancement of time. The towns are connected by one rail line and a number of hiking trails, and it's considered something of a mark of pride to have hiked through all five villages. This was our goal for the day.

However, the Cinque Terre is some distance from our home port of Florence, and so we had to get up pretty early in the morning and get on a 7:00 am train to (once again) Pisa. From there we took another train to La Spezia, and finally, a local train to the town of Monterosso, where our hike was to begin. We got there at about 10:30 am.

As a side note, you might be wondering what the Handlers and I did during these long train rides to entertain ourselves. Well, Handler 1 had downloaded a number of books to her iPod and we listened to those. In particular this trip, we listened to The Hunger Games, which is really good. We give it three thumbs up. But I digress...

The Cinque Terre are absolutely picturesque little hill towns, arranged on cliffs hanging out over the Mediterranean Sea. The place is beautiful.


No seriously, it's absolutely stunning. The Handlers couldn't get over how crystal clear the water was.

Here's where we had lunch!

But it's not the easiest hike in the world to get to all these places. We passed a number of tourists who were intending only to go between two of the 5 towns, and heard them complaining that they hadn't though it would be this bad. They were generally surprised when we told them we'd be hiking the whole way, and then returning all the way to Florence in the evening. It was a bit ambitious, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility for what I and the Handlers have done in the past.

There was quite a bit of climbing involved, oftentimes over poorly tended paths. Here's Handler 1 at a convenient stopping place about 1 hour from the town of Vernazza (and 2 hours into our hike).

No really, there are a butt-load of steps.

Unfortunately, we would not be able to hike the entire way as a rock slide had closed the path between two of the cities. We had to take a train for that portion, but otherwise we walked the whole darn thing.

We finished up our hike with the famous "Lovers' Walk", which is a very level paved path where folks who are in love for decades have affixed locks to any place they can along the walk and then throw away the key, showing metaphorically how the the lovers are bonded forever. Knowing this tradition, Handler 1 had purchased a small lock. She had even gone so far as to engrave the Handlers initials on the lock and drag it with us all the way to Italy...only to forget it in the room earlier this morning.

Yes, Handler 1 is an idiot sometimes.

Locks could be purchased nearby, but the Handlers didn't feel that their affection for one another was quite strong enough to support the 9 euro pricetag (Hey, in their defense, that's like $13!). However, they looked for something else they could leave in this spot and determined to attach one of the carabiners they had been using as extra protection against potential camera thieves. They found an out of the way place to hang it and took this picture to memorialize the spot.

We took the first train (well, trains) back to Florence and, arriving late (on a Sunday), were unable to find a good place to eat. Luckily, we'd had a big lunch, and there were gelaterias still open! Once again, Handler 1 was forced to pack up as we were heading to Rome the next day.

Quote of the Day: "Our love is like a carabiner...bought in a two-pack at the Dollar Store...not for use in climbing."