Trip Date: Friday August 19, 2011 – Sunday August 21, 2011
Cinque Terre consist of five small villages along the southwest coast of Italy. It has breathtaking cliffs and adorable buildings.
All in attendance: Gordon, Ryan, Vien, Carmen, Parth, Jason, Bikram, Kristen
We took full advantage of our gleis7 (Free Swiss transit use after 7 pm) and took the train from Baden to Zurich, Zurich to Chiasso and then Chiasso to Milano Centrale on Friday night. Swiss trains are very clean, very cushy and very on time (for the most part). Italian trains are a bit cramped, a bit dirty and a bit late all the time. They compensate for these less than satisfactory conditions by putting all their money into the train station.
The Milano Centrale train station is a serious work of art. If it wasn’t so blatantly touristy, I would’ve taken at least twenty photos. The beauty of it hypnotizes you and all your traveling discomforts are instantly forgotten
After a quick night in Milan (Hotel Demo, 24.50 euros a night), we continued on to Monterosso.
In Monterosso, the first thing you notice are the bright umbrellas on the rocky beaches, amazing hillsides and a large volume of tourists. We decided to hike/walk to the next village, Vernazza.
The thing about the trek between the five villages is that if you go in one direction, the whole way is uphill. The other direction, of course, would be all downhill. For quick reference if you are ever to visit, the direction of Monterosso to Riomaggorie is the uphill way. Mid-thirty degrees partnered with a cloudless and windless day and climbing up hundreds of cliff-side stairs results in one big sweaty group of Canadians.
It also makes the gelato in the next village taste a lot sweeter. (My favorite combination of flavours all weekend was kiwi and amaretto)
The group split up and I took the train to the last town with Gordon and Carmen instead of hiking it. Gordon and Carmen actually had legit reasons for not hiking (such as injuries) but I was just lazy and wanted to go swimming. The five villages are very close together by train and it costs just 1.80 euros to go to travel from first town to last town. We received keys to the hostel (Cinque Terre Holidays, 30 euros a night), which was right near the ocean, and then swam and sun bathed all afternoon.
I honestly need to get out more because swimming in salty water under the hot sun still has such a special appeal to me. It's the near-freezing-lips-turning-blue mountain rivers and lakes that I usually associate with swimming in natural water sources.
For dinner I got fancy seafood risotto. Maybe it’s a combination of living in a landlocked Canadian city and that everything in Switzerland costs 3 times as much as it should but everything on the menu felt very reasonably price (10 – 15 euros) - especially considering this was 'tourist pricing'. The fresh fruit sangria I drank also put my orange juice and red wine rendition to large shame. I promise to no longer do this and make proper sangrias or none at all.
The rest of the trip can be summarized in the following three words: sun, gelato and swimming.
We also watched the sunset and star gazed for hours on the beachline because Canadians are the romantic type.
Overall Cinque Terre is very pretty to see. A 'once in a lifetime' definitely. Probably best to go in the spring where it's not too hot or busy. I would've like to have another full day in Cinque Terre to go snorkeling but you wouldn't really need more than 2 days here. I'm glad my first trip was somewhere very touristy because now I'm eager for something different.
Italian Words I learned: Si No Scusi Grazie Per favoure Uno Gelateria | Things I learned: A ‘latte’ is hot milk I can swim without drowning You pay cover for restaurants in Italy You don't tip in Italy |
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Things I wish I did:
Rent a kayak (5 euros) or row boat (8 euros)
Go snorkeling (10 euro to rent equipment all day)
See the other two towns (Corniglia and Manarola)
Buy/Try the Cinque Terre wine
Eat fresh figs
Buy a jar of fancy pesto
