We arrived in Sarzana around midday on May 4th, and grabbed a cab to head to our hotel. Hanna had made a reservation at a hotel she thought was close by Cinque Terre - it ended up we were staying at a really quiet hotel villa, basically in the middle of farming fields and about 20min walking distance from the nearest village. We were so used to be central, this was initially a shock to us, but we stayed positive, grabbed some lunch at the hotel (wow, expensive…), dropped off our stuff, took a quick nap and started our trek to the nearest village. I should note, this hotel uses skeleton keys, which are almost impossible to use, and they ask for the key back before you head out. Very concerning, but we chose not worry about it.
As we walked on small back roads, we got a great view of the surrounding mountains, and some beautiful old and derelict farm buildings from ages ago. It ended up being a beautiful walk, even more so once we arrived in the village of Fiumaretta di Ameglia. A small fishing and vacationing resort town, nestled on both sides of a river that opened up into the Mediterranean. We strolled along the beaches and walkways, and eventually made our way into the village to find something to eat.
We ended up realizing a lot of the businesses were seasonal, and most of the village was vacation properties, so we weren't sure if we would find a place to eat. I ended up seeing a couple of cooks working on the 2nd floor of a building, and went in to investigate. We were immediately welcomed warmly by 4 people, it seemed like we had stumbled into a family pizzeria, which was a better result that we could of imagined. Authentic, amazing pizza, with a welcoming environment, and as we ate the place filled with family, friends, and all sorts of locals. We stuck out. We were the only tourists, but the best part was, nobody seemed to care. If you are ever considering buying a villa, this is the place to buy, just to eat there regularly. We ended up finishing 2 pizzas and a salad, plus some prosecco and I had a huge pint of beer, which I'd be looking for.
We ended up walking back to our hotel, through the darkened farming fields and back roads, huge thanks to Google Maps and the flashlight on my phone. We got back to our hotel, recovered our key, and relaxed. I ended up flipping through the channels on TV, it was an experience. I counted at least 15 shopping channels, at least 20 get fit fast channels, and another 30 or more just selling the cheapest sex you have ever seen. Wow.
Also, why is it that all music is in English? Even when the movies are on, the music is in English, every radio, every bar, all English. Just seems odd to me.
We crashed out knowing we had an adventure in front of us tomorrow to get to Cinque Terre.
In the morning, this is May 5th now, we ordered a taxi to take us back into Sarzana to catch the train into La Spezia, which would link us with the rail lines that connect the 5 cities of Cinque Terre together. We were so excited to see the sights that we ended up hopping off the wrong stop, in La Spezia instead of La Spezia Centro - initially we were pretty upset!
As we dived into Google Maps and information to figure out how to make up for our mistake, we noticed a couple of people who seemed to be traveling together and had made the same mistake. We proposed sharing a taxi to get to the station we needed to get to, and hoped we had time to make our connection. Our new friends ended up being from South Korea, and the craziest part was that one of them had lived in Winnipeg for 2 months when he was in middle school, so his English was pretty good. He spoke warmly of playing hockey and the winter, which being a Winnipegger, I found pretty interesting! Someone loves our winters (I was less surprised about them loving hockey, haha)!
Our taxi got us to La Spezia Centro within 10 minutes, we quickly said goodbye to our South Korean friends and ran into the station to hopefully catch our connection. We ran to platform 7, only to realize it was the wrong train, so we quickly checked the board - and then sprinted through the station's subway to get to the right platform, literally stepping onto the train FIVE seconds before the doors closed and the train started to move. The passengers in the car shared a good laugh with us, but we were mostly relieved to be back on track to visit Cinque Terre.
Our first stop was the town of Levanto, and I quickly bought an English tour book, with some maps in it to hopefully figure out where the hiking trails were. Our parents had told us of the amazing sights, and we were aware that the hike would be intense, but well worth it. We strolled through the town (which is not officially part of the 5 towns, but is within the National Park itself) and ended up down on the beach, and we loved what we saw. Until it started to rain, of course.
I had it in my head that we could hike from town to town, but after seeing the rain, and the distance to Monterosso - we walked back to the station and grabbed a ticket to take us directly there. This ended up being a blessing in disguise, as you'll find out later.
We walked off the train about 10 minutes later into an amazing town, with villas and buildings nested into the peaks that lined the coast of the Mediterranean. We strolled along the walkways, high above the beach and rocky coast below, visiting an old fortress as well as some old World War II defensive installations, which I snuck into to take some pictures. As we came around a cliff, we encountered the historic part of the town, with a beautiful beach and coast area and as we saw this, the sun started to peek and break through the clouds. This made for some amazing photos. But the best photos were yet to come.
We decided to hike the trail between Monterosso and Vernazza, which looked to be about 4mi, and we were told as we entered the trails and bought our hiking pass, that it would be about an hour. We didn't think to refill our bottle of water. Mistake 1. Hanna was wearing a dress. Mistake 2. Within a few moments, we were climbing narrow, rocky stairs through vineyards and within the first 20 minutes were worried we may of bit off more than we could chew. The sights around us however, kept us motivated, as well as the knowledge that we would eventually find some water. We hiked and hiked, up and up, on narrow pathways of rock, no wider than a foot or two, with hikers traveling either way. Not to mention, there is a distinct lack of railings and barriers, there were many times we were inches from an incredible drop, varying in height from 100 to 200 meters.
For someone like me, who is uncomfortable with heights and no safety gear, this was a bit crazy. Add in hikers trying to pass you as you hug the cliff, it was even more harrowing. Add in that I was exhausted and carrying a bag that affected my balance, it was more than intense. But we pushed through! And ended up standing high above the cliffs below, looking out over the Mediterranean. If the heights weren't breathtaking, the sights definitely were. I'm looking forward to reviewing the pictures we took with the SLR when I get home.
About 2 hours later, we began our decent towards Vernazza, which from the distance looked like a paradise, both by looks, but also because I knew they had water. At this point we were parched, and exhausted. My fitbit ended up recording at least 107 flights of stairs and about 6mi - I am pretty proud of myself, but it does reinforce some other things I've realized as we've traveled.
The town of Vernazza was busy, filled with tourists, shops and restaurants - we immediately grabbed water and drank heaps, and after resting for a short period, walked down to the beach and docks to take some pictures. The town was amazing, exactly as I had envisioned it when I first saw pictures of it on reddit - and it was very cool to replace my Facebook cover with my own picture of the place, instead of the one I had found on reddit. Good feels for sure.
We decided at this point we were pretty tired, and to head back to Sarzana to grab dinner and some sleep before a 5am wake up the next day to catch the train to Sorrento. We strolled around Sarzana and settled on a Cantina nestled under an old building. We were the only ones there, but had a great meal of seafood, pasta and steak with a fantastic red wine. Dinner being finished, we grabbed a taxi and headed home to pack up and sleep.
We are now (May 6th) on our train headed to Sorrento - the 530am alarm was jarring, but with a 4 to 5 hour train ride ahead of us, we didn't mind too much. The last few days of our trip will be much more relaxed, with 2 day trips planned - one to Pompeii (which I'm incredibly excited about) and one to either Postino or Capri which Hanna is very excited about.
Until the next update.