Italian gem

One of the best parts of backpacking is the element of surprise; nothing is written completely in stone, the schedule is flexible, so you never know where exactly the train will take you on your next leg of the trip.

Nic told me that I absolutely had to visit Italy; and she wasn't referring to Venice, Florence, and Rome, instead to a small north coastal locality that I'd never heard of before: Cinque Terre.

Needless to say, I didn't insert Cinque Terre into my rough traveling route - until Salzburg.  Here, I chatted with an American backpacker who pleaded with me, showing me all of his pictures on his camera, to go to Cinque Terre.  It was his favourite part of Europe so far, and I was surely going to love it as well.  He had me sold.

After Naples, I took a train to Rome, Genova, La Spezia, and finally, to Rioimaggiore.  Cinque Terre is not a city; it's a "rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera."  It is composed of five tiny villages built on the coastline, on high mountains, and make up the Cinque Terre National Park.  It's completely overrun with tourists (Americans, Aussies, and a noticeable number of Swedes!) but has a delightful charm due to the fact that there are no fast-food chains, coffee shops, etc. It appears to be as natural as it might have been hundreds of years ago, and is just plain old cute.

Most backpackers just spend a few days here, with the goal of completing the famous Cinque Terre hike, from the first village to the last village. It takes 6-8 hours, depending on your physical ability and amount of time you stop at each village along the way (come on, you have an opportunity to have five gelatos in one day!), but it really is a hike!

I stayed at a strange hostel, one that operates private apartments throughout the village of Riomaggiore.  Luckily, my apartment room was near the bottom of the huge mountain hill, so I didn't have to climb for so long every day.  It was a bit cramped, with 6 of us sharing a small space, but the benefit was that I got to meet some nice fellow travellers and explore the villages with them.

Julie, from Germany, and I tackled the hike together. We started off with the shortest and easiest of the four trails, from Riomaggiore to Manarola.  This is called Via Dell'Amore, or "Lover's Walk."  I forgot to mention that if you have a tough time dealing with being alone while traveling, then don't come to Cinque Terre! Almost every tourist here is with his or her spouse.  Anyway, this trail was flat and took only 15 minutes to walk.  Then, Manarola to Corniglia.  The popular, "easy" trail was blocked because of a landslide, so Julie and I had to make a decision: wait 1 hour for the next train to come to bring us to Corniglia and then continue the hike to the next village, or take on the longer, more difficult trail to Corniglia that was open.  And we chose the latter, which was the best decision we made that day!

Climbing higher up the mountain gave spectacular views of the water and of the villages nearby. We walked through magnificent olive gardens, vineyards, and lemon trees.  It was so beautiful, so breathtaking.  After 2 hours, we nearly collapsed when we finally arrived in Corniglia.  But, it was only 11 a.m., not yet time for lunch. So we figured we might as well finish 3/4 of the hike before lunchtime. Onwards to Vernazza.  This was also difficult, but shorter, and we were pumped.  We had a great lunch in Vernazza; I got to taste the famous Pasta Genovese (Genova is famous for its pesto) and we had a well-deserved after-lunch nap on the rocks, hearing the sounds of the waves in front of us.

Our last trail to Monterosso was steep and for me, difficult, probably because I was tired from our earlier trails.  But with steep climbing, you are rewarded with views of the entire region. Eight hours later, we finally reached Monterosso, the largest of the villages, and dove straight into the water for a refreshing swim. Not bad for one day!

During the rest of my stay in Riomaggiore (3 days total), I explored the villages and mostly soaked up the sun. Apart from the hike, the best thing to do here is find a nice spot (anywhere) close to the water, read a good book, and relax.  The sunset isn't too shabby here, too.

I do not regret stopping in Cinque Terre, and highly, highly, highly recommend going here. It's gorgeous, and you'll remember this little gem forever.  

Napoli

Following Dad's departure, I headed further south to Napoli to meet with Angie.

Situated along the west coast of Italy, Napoli has some gorgeous views of the sea and is close to the Amalfi Coast.  When you're walking on the hills and along the water, you feel a wonderful cool breeze that makes you momentarily forget the hot and humid sun that makes you pretty much sticky throughout the day.

Despite the fact that, at 38 degrees, this was the hottest week yet in Naples, Angie showed me a good portion of the city and I had a real Italian experience here!  We stayed inside for a good part of the day, not leaving the house until the early evening, when the heat had cooled down.  In addition to seeing the city's main sites, she took me out for authentic Naples pizza.  It was pretty cool, because it was Angie's boyfriend's sister's husband's friend's restaurant (get it?), as he is a pizza chef.  Since he's a family friend, he showed us how he makes his pizza and tosses it in the gorgeous wood-fired oven.  For me, Angie and her boyfriend said that I had to try the calzone, which had prociutto, cheese, onions, basil and a few other ingredients I can't remember.  All I remember was that this pizza was the best I'd had in Italy.  It was so crispy on the outside, but soft and oozing with melted mozzarella inside.  I also had arancini, delicious mini rice balls that are filled with cheese, then fried till crisp.

One of my highlights of the trip was meeting the grandparents in the family.  They were so sweet and exactly what I'd expect in an Italian family: wanting me to eat until I exploded! Angie's grandmother and grandfather were very sweet, and invited us for lunch that included fresh olives, prosciutto, cheeses, braised lamb shanks, and pasta.  And by the way, when an Italian offers you "coffee," note that this actually means espresso!

Angie, though I was absolutely stuffed from being constantly fed delicious food, also made sure that I tried baba, which is a cake soaked in rhum, and very popular here.  It was pretty good, and can have different fruit or cream flavours.

One thing that I will never forget about Napoli are the crazy drivers here and the garbage.  Narrow streets, cars and mopeds weaving in and out and in every which way - it really is comparable to my experience in Ningbo, China.  It's like suicide trying to cross the street! Luckily, I was in the hands of an awesome driver, though she was pretty crazy herself when driving us around!  Unfortunately, Naples, is very dirty.  Garbage and trash is strewn everywhere, throughout the streets.  It's as if no one cares.  

One day, I took a train to Sorrento, which is located on the famous Amalfi Coast.  It's a resort town, with beaches and nice shops.  However, I didn't actually go to the beach since you have to pay 8 euros to go! And they weren't even that nice, just some umbrellas and chairs squished together on some sparse sand.  The beach.  

I'm not entirely sure if I'd choose to live here; I think I'm a bit too used to living in a low-populated area with a bit more fresh air.  Still, I've very glad that I visited.  Arrivederci, Angela, and see you in three years!

Take me home, country roads

Home is where my heart will always be, even if I have been away for almost a year.  It was such a wonderful feeling descending in Vancouver, seeing the mountains I've missed for so long, and the city I love.

I'm back home now, and enjoying this much-awaited doing-nothing-important break.  In a way, it almost feels as if I never left, since everything is pretty much the same as I left it - apart from the slight rearrangement of furniture in the living room and my parents' new glitzy coffee machine, microwave, and desktop computer.  It's possible I'm going to notice more changes (mostly in myself) in time.

My homecoming turned out well.  Nicola and Kailee, with signs, greeted me at YVR, and also surprised me two boxes of Samurai Sushi. YUM.  My surprise early arrival for my mom also turned out rather well, when the next afternoon she and my dad came to Nic's apartment for lunch; the door opened, and seeing her gaping mouth and shocked look on her face was pretty priceless.  

I'm about seven trips behind on my blog - whoops!  It turned out to be more difficult than I thought to stay on top of things, once my dad headed back to Canada with all of my things, including my laptop.  And of course, laziness also prevailed.  So over the next little while I'll try to write up belated postings on each place, and hopefully I won't leave anything out that I've forgotten.

In the meantime, it's back to the "normal life."  For me, an unemployed grad, that means looking for a job and figuring out where I will live.  Ah, the joys of being out of school (for now)!