Italy Day Six: The Hike

Today was probably the first day we all got to sleep in. It was wonderful and amazing to get a full 8 hours of sleep. Haha. I woke up while everyone else was in the last stage of starting his or her day. As such, I told them to get breakfast without me as I got ready.

It was awesome.

I got to be lazy and take my time getting ready and showering. It was nice to have no sort of rush or anything.

By time everyone got back it was around noonish. We started on ‘The Hike’.  Straight line distance wise, it is about 2 miles between Montarosso (where we are staying) and Vernazza. In reality when not taking the direct route and having to walk around a huge mountain/hill…… this turns into a 2 and half hour hike.  With thousands upon thousands of stairs **dies**. It was a hell of a work out.

 Lemon trees all over the place up there~~  :)

Side note, for some reason there were a TON of Germans on this hike. Young couples, old couples, and school groups. I have not heard so much German in my life. It was kind of awesome.

After the hike from Hell I arrived in Vernazza……

around 25 minutes prior to my crew as I decided to get a ‘head start’. So then I had the ‘rest of a lifetime’ on a small bench in one of the alleyways. There, I was adopted by a stray dog that decided to have a peeing contest with another owned dog (Pomeranian). (You go stray dog, stick it to the man.)

After the crew got back together, food was in order. I hadn’t had breakfast and after a few hours and millions of calories burned, I downed a plate of Lasagna like it was my last meal on earth. (It would have been a worthy meal; everything here is delicious). I followed that up with a triple scoop of gelato.  I am now convinced; my favorites are Black Cherry and Coconut. Phenomenal texture and taste.

Then we decided to hit the subway as we couldn’t hike to the next city due to a mudslide. The walking trail was closed due to …well….no trail being there any more. It was just certain death at that point. So we caught the train to the next town, Corniglia.

How to describe our adventure here.

Mom…if you are reading… stop. Cuz you’re going to yell at me….for sure….for being stupid….   LOVE YOU!

Well, we had heard of an interesting tale. We had done research and heard of a hidden beach. This beach however is located after a terrifying tunnel trek in complete darkness if you do not have flashlights.

Let me just say, we were appropriately terrified. The tunnel was an abandoned subway rail and after turning around the bend, it was completely pitch black.

No, none of you need to tell me. It was probably not one of our 'brightest' ideas ever. Not to mention there was a hut at the end of the tunnel that we dubbed the ‘crack shack’.

Then another discovery, it was a nude beach. Let me tell you, yes, EVERYONE there was naked. Hahahaha. Except us that is, talk about feeling over dressed…..for real. It was gorgeous out there though.

No worries... I had on enough sunblock to drown a small child....

After about an hour at this attraction we decided to do a quick hop through the next town of Cinque Terre. And by hop, I mean we leaned out the subway and clipped a picture of the Manarola sign.  HAHA

Then we headed to the last city of the 5, Riomaggiore.

This place was probably what I would describe as the most ‘upscale’. It had expensive restaurants, nice markets, beautiful clothing. Pretty much we looked around and ended up eating dinner at a nice restaurant close to our subway ride home.

At the restaurant we had some delicious food and ran into some exchange students from the good ole U.S. of A. They had been studying abroad and Spain and after graduating, decided to go on an Italy trip.

We all chatted for a bit and finally decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel. I ended my day by eating the 2 plums I bought from the produce market there. They were delicious as well.   :D    I’m becoming a food glutton here. Haha.

All in all, a good day.

- Too chill of a day for a quote of the day -    :D