July 31 – Day 19
I was still sick for a day of transport by train, which was unpleasant. When we arrived in Riomaggiore (~4:30pm) we went to check in to our hostel, and were lead to one of the highest streets in the city, where we are staying in the house that the hostel owners used to live in. It is great to be in a house, but it takes a while to hike up from the main street. After a lie down and a shower, we went our to explore the town. It is beautiful – there is one main street, with houses up the valley on each side. The main street takes about 5 minutes to explore, and after that, it is little winding walkways. Later when we were back in the house, we met Ash and Ben, two fellow Aussie travellers. They gave us a few pointers on places not to go, so we have a few changes to our itinerary to make when we get internet access. I cannot believe how many Aussies there are travelling. We are everywhere :)
August 1 – Day 20
Today we had a huge sleep in. Turns out our room is quite dark. We got up at around 9:45, and got on the train to Monterosso, which is at the other end of the Cinque Terre. The beach there is beautiful – much nicer than the one at Riomaggiore. After walking around Monterosso, we got back on the train, and went one stop, to Vernazza, the next town along. We had another look around here – it is another very pretty little town. We had planned to visit all the towns from the train, but were ready to get in the water, so we headed back to our hostel to get changed. This is a major event – it takes us ages to get up and down the hill! We finally got to the ‘beach’, dripping wet, to find that the sand here is far worse than it was in Nice. These are rocks and boulders. The smallest ones are about the size of my head. Getting in and out requires a dance that only some Europeans can do. Tourists have no chance. If you are me, you hop across the small, burning hot rocks (which your towel is on). Then you get to the water, which is nice and warm. After about a meter of goodness, you get to the rocks that have no waves on them, so are covered in slippery goo. You fall over, and half dive forward to try to get deeper. Once you get there, you get stung by something you can’t see, get out, and go and buy a 660ml beer for 5 euro to get over the ordeal. Next we went to have more drinks at a little place outside the main area, which was expensive. On the way back for another shower and change of clothes (I am dripping wet again) we found the public lift, which takes some of the steps out of our hike up the hill. We had good pizza for dinner (my first big meal after being sick), and Simone found a wine she liked (for a little while at least)! It is a local Cinque Terre white wine, but that is all I know about it. We were planning to do the walk between the five towns, which is 9km, and takes 5 hours. I think we will get a day pass for the ferry instead, and alternate between that and walking.
August 2 – Day 21
We decided to just do the easy bit of the walk, after seeing the state of people after they completed it. If you want to do it, you need to get up at the crack of dawn to beat the the heat, and even then it is pretty strenuous. We walked around to Manarola and had a quick walk around, before getting on the ferry to Monterosso. We explored the main side of Monterosso, which we did not visit the previous time, and liked it a lot. afterwards we went to the beach, which was private, and cost us 15 euro (for a day). You get beds and an umbrella, but it is definitely not worth it. We had a little swim, but the rubbish in the water put us off. We have had bad luck swimming in Italy :) After lunch and some shopping, we got back on the Ferry and went to Vernazza, the next town around. We had drinks on the water there, then got the train back to Riomaggiore. We bought some dinner and took it down to the marina. Afterwards, we went up to the castle on the top of the hill to watch the sun set over the water. I really enjoyed Cinque Terre, but for me, three nights was enough.