What a day. I have so much to tell you and I don't want to bore you, so I will make it fast.
10am we board the ferry to S. Fruttuosa after being told that ANOTHER ferry will take us to the cute town of Portofino (highly recommended by all). We gladly hop aboard looking forward to the beautiful ride around the peninsula to the next town (rather than taking the super cheap route and hopping on the train). As we arrive at S. Fruttuosa we were told by the boat driver that the ferry to Portofino was canceled and to get off and we can pay three euros to get on in an hour when they return to get back to Camogli. We hop off just as we were told (with our bags) and stand there hopelessly. It hits us. We are stranded in this tiny little village. No bus. No train. Nothing but a super cute billion year old monestary. We wait. And wait. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the ferry ride was so rough and stinky from the fuel that Ryan and I both nearly puked on the ride. The swells in the sea (beautiful blue water I must say) were over 8 feet high. The ferry actually had to nearly stop so the waves did not crash clear over the bow. Needless to say, we were in NO hurry to get back on the ferry and head back to the town we just left.
Ryan left me with our bags temporarily to check out the walking trail to Portofino, but realized it was incredibly steep. It wasn't possible while carrying bags and Kate was wearing Dansko's.
Luckily, the Camogli ferry returned and we hopped on it.
After that we decided to skip Portofino and head to Cinque Terre. We hopped in a train and made it to the cute little town just an hour away and ran into loads of English speaking folks. A drastic change from where we had been visiting.
I have not mentioned this yet, but the streets along the Riviera are incredibly steep, not to mention loaded with oodles of steps. Exhausting! Ryan needed to do some laundry so we asked our hostel if they have a place to do laundry. Sure enough, he gave us a key to a dorm room and sent us up a steep stair case.
I could hear girls voices in the room and I was concerned with just barging in. I knock and two English girls answer the door. I told them we were sent there for laundry. They let us in and offered us a cup of tea.
We sat and chat for over an hour. It was fun. The highlight was when they asked us if we lived in a wooden house? If our house was actually made of wood. They giggled for a bit. It was a hoot.
We saw this restaurant on the cliff edge when we got of the train and thought it looked nice, likely expensive.
we then sat next to a couple on the cliff edge after finding out that this incredible view of a
restaurant was a wine bar with antipasta only. Super yummy too! This couple was from Vancouver B.C., Adrian & Stephanie. Nice folks for sure. Then another couple they had drinks with the prior night showed up, Phil & Sara, (farmer and his liberal wife near our age) and we were also introduced. They were from Indiana.
We later met up with them, had a drink or two on the balcony of their fantastic rental. The ugly part of the evening was that the lady that lived above claimed she had called the police on us for being loud at 12-midnight and we headed to our homely hostel. Kind of a wild day. I didn't want to meet the police so I bolted immediately and
Ryan was left behind. My intension was that I may have to bail him out rather than us both be in jail.
Ahh, we are having a great time. I could do without the police scare, but all in all, Italy is awesome!
amazing crepes to start the day. Delicious! Crepes laced with lemon juice and sugar, stuffed with strawberries and bananas. Oh, and I also want to let you all know that Ryan is drinking an espresso every morning while I drink the best cappuccino each morning. I pretty much drink cappuccino twice a day since they are so gooooood and cheap.
With a full belly we headed out on the 7 mile hike through the five towns. Basically paved, it was going to be a cake walk. They recommended 5 hours and we were not going to let that stand. We were making really good progress, passing folks with large and small backpacks, hiking boots, tennis shoes, leather dressy shoes, trekking poles, zip off pants...basically every kind of serious hiker gear you can find. Ryan and I on the other hand threw on some chaco and hit the trail. We had one German guy (in ascent boots) look at our feet and become very disgusted and tell his wife how ridiculous it was that we were wearing sandles.
when we told him Oregon, he said we have the best Salmon and took 1 euro off our purchase. After Vernazza Ryan and I noticed that our Chaco's were starting to rub a little on our toes. We then had to climb and climb AND CLIMB. The decent was super technical. I was shocked to see so many older folk out there. Lots of German's out hiking. At many points in the trail, we had to shuffle past one another and it was a little bit of a fall if you missed a step. We finally made it to the 5th town, Monterosso al Mare. Beautiful! And yummy gelato. Earlier on the hike, Ryan said he was feeling up for heading back on the trail. He changed his mind later and I was super happy about that. I was pooped.
We finished the day by heading by train back to our town, grabbing some food at a market, meeting Scott and Terri (celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary) from Texas and watching the sun set on a cliff edge. What a day! We are turning in early.
What a day. I have so much to tell you and I don't want to bore you, so I will make it fast.
I have not mentioned this yet, but the streets along the Riviera are incredibly steep, not to mention loaded with oodles of steps. Exhausting! Ryan needed to do some laundry so we asked our hostel if they have a place to do laundry. Sure enough, he gave us a key to a dorm room and sent us up a steep stair case.
restaurant was a wine bar with antipasta only. Super yummy too! This couple was from Vancouver B.C., Adrian & Stephanie. Nice folks for sure. Then another couple they had drinks with the prior night showed up, Phil & Sara, (farmer and his liberal wife near our age) and we were also introduced. They were from Indiana.