... That's what's in my calves right now. This past weekend we went to the Cinque Terre, a strip of five tiny coastal towns built into the valleys of mountains. Needless to say, it was gorgeous, since everything in Italy has been thus far.
One of the major things to do in the Cinque Terre, besides lie on the beach (it was too cold anyway), is to hike from one town to the next, something that can be accomplished easily in one day. Being the active young students that we are, of course we decided to do it. Why bother going all the way out there and not at least attempt? Around 11am we headed out from the first town, Riomaggiore, which was where our seaside apartment was (also amazing, you could hear the ocean throughout the entire building and see the marina from our front window. Also, our house is on most of the postcards that you can find of Riomaggiore. Sweeeeet!!!). The first part is called Via Dell'Amore, Lover's Lane. In all honesty, this part of the trip was a joke. Practically perfectly flat, no issues whatsoever. What we did not know is that you have to pay to walk from one town to the next, a 5 euro cost that was completely pointless. These people must be making a fortune off of all the people who want to walk here. It's insane. Via Dell'Amore was literally jampacked with tourists, they had to have made millions just in that day. Anyway, enough with the rant. We got to the next town shortly thereafter, since the hike was both short and easy. However, the normaly trail from Manarola (town 2) to Corniglia (town 3) was closed for repair. There were two options, either take the free shuttle from M to C, or hike up a mountain and down again to get there. Guess which one we chose? You guessed it, the mountain.
I have never seen so many stairs in my life. We must have walked up hundreds upon hundreds of stairs. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing gently, and there was a neverending line of stairs leading into forever. Turn the corner, more stairs. Turn another, more stairs. Turn again, no stairs but an upward ramp. My legs hated me. Either way, we got up to the town whose name at the moment I can't recall, but starts with something like a V and probably means "holy crap you climbed a lot of stairs to get here." We sat for a few minutes, gulping down water and sweating up a storm, then decided to head on to Corniglia. The scenery was beautiful, I haven't seen anything like it. There are these sheer drops that go down in giant steps to the ocean (this country has an obsession with steps) covered in grapevines. It was gorgeous. Once at Corniglia we took a quick lunch break, then forged on our way.
Unfortunately, somewhere in the wilderness and stairs I lost my ticket, or Jane's ticket, we're not really sure who lost what. They also check the tickets at every town to make sure you aren't gipping them out of the money they stole from you. Jane thankfully talked us through that point, and the one following. The walk between Corniglia and Vernazza was less strenuous, just exceedingly long. I don't remember much of Vernazza, all I know is I got some delicious gelato there.
The last stretch, now pushing well into hour 4 of just hiking, was ridiculous. Again with the stairs, first going up, then going down, the sun was starting to go behind the clouds so it became chilly, the ground was wet and slick from the rain the night before, and the trail was so narrow at some points that you had enough room for one person to shuffle past. One step to the left and you were off the mountain. It was fantastic.
By the time we were done, we had been gone for about 6 hours, and had hiked for a good 5. We were tired, sweaty, and probably smelled horrid, but it felt like such an accomplishment to actually make it all the way across, something that most people just don't do. We caught a train back to the first town, a ride that lasted all of 20 minutes. I think I ordered the biggest dinner of my life, and we all pretty much just collapsed at the end of the day.
A presto.
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