Cinque Terra

After Florence, a group of us set out to Cinque Terra for the weekend before heading back to Como for two weeks.  It would be the first of hopefully many weekend trips to come.  On the train ride there, the train went through a series of tunnels and in between the spurts of blackness came the breathtaking sunset on the ocean and the cliffs rising out of it.  It was quite a way to first view the incredible series of five towns.  That first night we wandered through the biggest of the five towns and tried the white wine made from the grapes growing on the very hills we were walking on.  It was the best white wine I have had yet, and I have not found it in any of the stores since.  Also, we got our first taste of the great seafood of the area and I had an amazing meal of calamari and shrimp.  We enjoyed a fire on the beach that someone had left seemingly just for us.

The next day, we set out on the trail that started on the Southernmost of the towns, and led along the coast through all of them going north.  It started on the “Via del Amor” and then just went from town to town.  It was amazing.  The sun was out in perfect form, and the ocean was pure blue.  Each town was incredibly different from eachother and yet the same.  They were all buildings clinging onto the cliffs like mollusks or clams.  The cliffs are all different, and this is what gives the towns their own individual feel.  Walking along this trail is a series of breathtaking panoramas one after the other.  We took breaks on the beach playing in the water and sand, and then found our way to the second to last town and into an amazing restaurant with a view out over the town and the ocean.  We had some of the most amazingly fresh seafood I would bet were pulled out of the ocean that very day.  Between all of us, we had octopus, shrimp, scampi, pesto lasagna, bass, and other amazing things.  We had the same great white wine of the area and it was just as good as the night before. 

Then after lunch, we realized that our train was leaving in an hour and that at the rate that we were going, it was going to take us two.  So we put on our serious faces and started to put it to that trail.  We walked fast, jogged a bit, and jumped down the sloping parts as quick as we could.  Through the whole thing, we realized that we were not tired, and could keep going forever.  We were on a high of exercise and activity so great, that we didn’t want to stop even when we reached our destination in only 40 minutes.  Then we had some time to kill, and stripped down to our underwear and hopped in the ocean, much to the disbelief to the Italians sprinkled around the beach gaping at us.  We frolicked and laughed enjoying the cold water engulfing us.  It was refreshing, and was just the thing that we needed after our trail running.  Upon getting out, we had to dry off to our best ability without towels and then put our sandy clothes back on and go hop on the train dripping and full of ocean.