Ooh sweet travel day, how we have grown accustomed to thee. 3 trains later (one of which we was the wrong train that we accidentally got on) and zero euros (thanks eurail pass) we find ourselves in....drumroll please....ITALIA!! Holy wonderfulness, we are like 2 kids on Christmas morning who just got a puppy and a lifetime supply of chocolate. We feel totally rejuvenated and are so excited for this leg of our trip. Our first stop is Cinque Terre, 5 Italian villages on the Mediterranean coast that have remained essentially untouched since they were first inhabited by farmers who managed to grow olives and grapes on the steep rocky mountains and cliffs here. We stepped off of our train into a dark stone tunnel and we quickly walked the tiny footpath with one side of our backpack grazing the wall and the other side almost touching the train that was about to depart...scary, and definitely not like any modern train station or platform we have ever encountered.
The train did not go directly to the town with the Lonely Planet recommended hostel so we embarked on our first hike, which was really more of a walk...a coastal path "Via del Amore" between Riagimmore and Montoroso with fingers crossed the hostel would have room.
We stared down from our very high cliff paved path in awe of our surroundings. The clear dark blue water here puts any other beautiful ocean we have seen to shame. From the top of a cliff you can stare down at every rock on the bottom of the sea floor. The rocky cliffs and mountains above with a crisp blue sky made for the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. We literally gasped as we turned each curve at the view that awaited us. We will get more into the scenery tomorrow but it is literally indescribable, we understand why Jenny's friend Christie said she still has dreams about this place. We made it to our village and got off the coastal path for a steep steeeep climb up the one road of Manorola to the old church square. Behind this church we found the Eco friendly hostel Lonely Planet had told us about. Hostel success! They had space only for tonight but that was better than nothing...we would figure it out tomorrow.
Our room here has some real quirky Canadian characters. A lady from Montreal lay in her bed and told us about all of her greatest rebellions from never paying for trains to working illegally in Australia to cutting lines in the Vatican...she was not our fave and Jenny decided she was obviously a witch, she did have a gnarled walking stick. Her redeeming factor was when she told us she ate at a world famous gelato shop and 15 minutes later went back for another cone.
"It's the worlds best gelato, it would be dumb not to have it twice," she said...and this witch had a point afterall.
We walked through our quaint seaside town and along a cliff path to the seaside. Up on a cliff we discovered an empty wooden playground and hopped on a seesaw. As we flew up in the air we laughed and laughed thinking about the whim that has brought us here and how it is the most amazing thing that we are in Italy atop a cliff in an empty old wooden playground in Italy. We knew that we were in the right place at this time in our lives.
Sunset, reflection, there is so much more to life and the universe than just us. We want to capture this moment and keep it forever. We sat seperately on the stone boat dock surrounded by beautiful mountains with tiny towns on them gazing out into the vast deep dark blue ocean with an aqua rim at the horizon as the giant orange sun slowly fell and disappeared. As the sun vanished a huge distant mountain range appeared on the horizon...we know this sounds strange (and it was as we had been staring at this spot in broad daylight and taken dozen of pictures and not been able to see this huge area of land) but it was the most amazing and epic sunset ever. We were captivated by this appearing land, we just couldn't wrap our heads around it and neither could our cameras as we can't see it in our photos. We smiled a we remembered the last amazing sunset we saw on our last night in Samara - how circular things sometimes feel.
As we walked back up the cliff to the village, we decided we are proud of ourselves. We feel accomplished and happy. We mutually agreed that backpacking and it's struggles and triumphs has been our biggest accomplishment of our lives in many ways.
Pesto is famous in Cinque Terre so we decided to share a bowl of pasta and pesto and a caprese salad in an outdoor covered restaurant full of locals and visitors from all over the world with the bright pink and orange and indigo sky as our backdrop. It was delicious!!
Kel experienced some awkward eye contact with a woman a few tables away at dinner. The staring lady then approaches Kelly and says she is just so beautiful and would like to take a picture of her face in order to paint a portrait of it. We wish we could see the finished masterpiece but we realized we have no way to ever contact this woman again. Keep your eyes peeled for a painting of K.P.'s sexy mug guys! That bad boy is priceless for sure! Kelly, who is always awkward when complimented must have reacted strangely because the woman later apologized for embarrassing her. Oops!
Back to our hostel well before curfew...yes, we have a lights out heads down curfew here, which we don't mind a bit as Cinque Terre is a place for the day and as it is reminiscent of being at a summer camp. We each used our shower coin, which provides exactly 5 minutes of water showers. As the old church clock outside out window struck midnight we were already half asleep.
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