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.