Cinque Terre

Rector, thank you for reccommending this place to me. The five little towns that make up Cinque Terre have a breathtaking hiking trail running through them along the western coast of Italy north of Pisa. Coming down from Nice, I stopped in the northern most town to inquire about the trail. My hope was that I could hike the trail, come back up, pick up my bag, continue down to Pisa, and then to Rome in a day. There were a couple of problems with that: first, I have a lot of unplanned free time (like two or three weeks of it), so I'm not sure why I was thinking I had to be so rushed. Second, I didn't arrive in Cinque Terre until about 3:30pm, and the woman at the information desk though it was too late to start the trail because I wouldn't be able to make a train back up to Monterosso to get my bag (she said the trail takes about 5 hours). So my plans changed and I figured I'd stay the night somewhere, but apparently I still couldn't pick up my bag later. Being the glutton for punishment that I am (and everyone I know at Clarkson can attest to that), I decided to hike the trail with my backpack.... You'd think that'd have been a mistake, but not so much (Barcelona was a little worse). I found that carrying the day pack in the front balances the weight more.

The trail, starting in the north, begins with a grueling climb up a lot of stairs, then down to the next town, and back up over a hill. Towards the end it gets much easier (and paved, even). So I was glad I got the difficult part out of the way first. As for the sights... no words I could say could really do it any justice. I'm just in awe. The deep, rich green mountains rise quicking from the Mediterranean while the waves crash into the rock and coves. It seems endless and timeless. And, as I walked, each little town revealed itself, subtle multicolored buildings and stone stairways draped over a hill. Wow.... I just wish I had had a better camera.

Interestingly, while I was hiking, almost every hiker I passed smiled or said hi. They stood back to let me through or thanked me for letting them by. They stopped to help someone who had fallen. And above all they shared a deep appreciation for the scenery. We shared something in common; we knew the struggle, the task, and did our best to make it easier for each other.

Contrast this with the towns who set up a set of toll boths to ensure that each hiker paid his dues before he could take the journey. It just seems so absurd. We're all here together (on this planet, in this universe), we all know the struggle that each of us is undertaking, and yet we hardly help each other. Travelling around Europe is really fun, but everywhere I go, no one really wants to help me enjoy myself, to help me get the best experience possible. Instead, they seem to position themselves between me and that experience to extract every little cent from my hand that they can.... it is the capitalist way, but it's extemely frustrating when on a budget, especially when I know they've already made enough of a profit from me to offer the services or experience free of an additional charge.

Anyway, I finished the trail in about three and a half hours to find that there were five or six trains I could have still made back up to the original town. Wet (it was raining part of the time), muddy, and sweaty, I found a decent hostel in Rigomagori(sp?), the most southern town, took a shower, found some food, and headed to the beach. Now I know that I once told some of you that I had always wanted to watch the sunset from an Italian beach. Today, I crossed that off my list of things to do. It was a great end to the day. And I wish I had better pictures (I'll get them up as soon as I can).

Surprisingly, though, the little town had some decent nightlife. Overrun by tourists, my roommates for the night and I actually found quite a few english speaking people at what seemed to be the only late night bar in the town. Beer was pretty expensive, but it was still a good time.