Cinque Terra
Ok, I'm going to stop apologising for the gaps between posts. I'd like to be posting more but a combination of shitty internet in hotels and generally being busy having a good time seems to be getting in the way.
Note to hotels: The number one thing I want is half decent wifi in my room. I don't understand why that is such a mystery to you.
I last left you in Parma. That morning we work and went to the baptistery that we had missed the night before. It was over priced but rather beautiful. What's the deal with baptisteries anyway? I think we've only ever seen them in Parma and Pisa.
From there we drove to Vernazza on the Cinque Terra where we had three nights in one of the worst hotels to date. Our room's only window faced out onto the platform of the train station. It reminded me of that scene in the Blues Brothers where Elwood takes Jake back to his apartment in Chicago. 'How you do sleep here' I think the line is.
The night we arrived it poured with rain and the forecast predicted nothing but rain for the time we were there but it managed to hold off which was fortunate. Our first day there, once we realised the rain was going to hold off, we set off for Monterosso on foot. It was the next town along and the most northerly of them. What we didn't know at the time was that this was the hardest of the walks.
It probably took us close to three hours as we took things really slowly. Despite being the hardest, it's also one of the most beautiful. Vernazza (where we were staying) is one of the more quintessential of the towns and the walk took in some pretty awe-inspiring views of the port on our sleepy little fishing village. Incidentally, if a walk is described as 'rewarding', you should instantly substitute the word 'gruelling' in your head.
The next day we decided to take in Riomaggiore and Manarola but ended up also taking in Monterosso as well after a bit of a train mix up that I'm pretty sure most of the rest of the train also made. It was only once we made it to Manarola (via Monterosso) that we realised jut how easy the walks between the first three towns was and that we should have just walked them rather than making embarrassing mistakes with the train. Our aching legs from the day before actually didn't mind too much though.
The Cinque Terra is full of American tourists - I'm pretty sure they out number the locals. There was no shortage of Australians either but we found ourselves at dinner every night next to a table of Americans that had only just met either on the trail or just through the happen stance of sitting at adjacent tables. I wish I could put into words what it is that I find so fascinating about the way Americans interact with each other. It's almost a performance of politeness or something like that - I can't quite put my finger on it - but we ate each meal in silence transfixed by the banality of the conversation at the table next to us. Always conducted at ten decibels above the rest of the noise in the restaurant for our benefit.
