Friday April 8th - Holy hiking

Today we would hike Cinque Terre through all 5 towns (Riagimmore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Montorosso) a 5 hour hike in all if taking the coastal paths...most of these were closed due to recent landslides so we mapped our journey up on the longer mountainous and much more challenging trails instead. Our hostel owner told us that it would take 3 hours to hike from our town, Manarola, to the next one, Corniglia, and we would have 3 more to navigate to after that. He told us that although the coastal paths were officially closed, we could most likely use them from Corniglia to Montorrosso, although he said they were "a little eeeh," not sure what that means in Italian but it's probably okay... Our paved walk from our train station to our hostel last night had not been a good indication of our hikes today. We embarked on our journey and faced a shocking uphill incline straight from the start - our bums were going to be more sore than anticipated. We can't explain Cinque Terre. It is the new love of our lives, crisp salty fresh air and gorgeous blue sky meets crystal clear aqua water meets gorgeous rocky cliffs and sprawling meadows and forests upon steep mountains. It is the quintessential point where sky land and sea come together on the unbelievable world that we are all a part of. We never want to forget this day, what it meant to us, and what it represents in our world. Beauty aside, the hike we took was insane, and we mean iiiinsaaaane! Leaving Manorolo we began by climbing 400 steps (if you can call rocks jutting out of a green mountainside steps...) up to the mountaintop town of Veronza, on the way to Corniglia. Up in the tiny village of Vernoza we entered an empty church built in 1204.It was silent and peaceful (well except for Kelly putting her pipes to use as she envisioned an echoing choir singing here) and we both lit a candle and stood in reflection for a moment before it was back to the hike. Bums burning we were surprisingly dying to continue, we could not take in enough of this place. Every time you think you have seen the most beautiful view of your life, you hike around another mountainous alcove and find an even better one waiting. It is literally like walking around in a postcard. As a pair who are no strangers to exaggerating, we can tell you without an ounce of truth stretching that our hikes took us up enormous mountains above the clouds where the paths were unfenced and just wide enough for a typical person. Looking down at birds flying hundreds of feet below was a reminder of the fact that a trip or stumble would be less than funny up here. After hiking for just over an hour, finding incredible vantage points where we sat overwhelmed by our surroundings, we were edging around a particularly narrow part of mountain trail when 2 American boys came up behind us, knowing their country of origin from the totally epic USA bandana that one of them sported around his mop of hair. Zack and Jonny were quite the pair and we ended up in a lengthy convo with them as we all climbed further and further up this mountain wondering when we would be heading down. The guys were studying in Rome and were really using every spare second to explore Europe. They were as infatuated with Cinque Terre as we were...well except maybe for Jonny who was more focused on the possibility of plunging to his death at any moment and the potential need for the first aid kit he carried in his backpack. Since we felt the need to stop and take pictures as we hiked down to Corniglia, Jonny and Zach beat us down. We stumbled back across them at the bottom where they sat munching on pringles and chocolate. Since we were all headig the same way, the four of us decided to hike together. We were stuck with these stage 5 weirdos! Just kidding guys :) Vernazza was our next destination and 4th town heading north. The coastal path we hiked here was nothing like the paved sidewalk from the train station last night. This was no joke of a hike, but still breathtaking. We managed to run past a few groups of older folks and kids on the narrow trails, flipping coins and making guesses about which direction to go every so often. Part of what made this hike so cool was stumbling down right into the next busy little town off a rugged path and out of the woods. This was a cool town and we decided to take a snack break and enjoy the view. We sat with our new pals, on giant coastal rocks, munching on pesto covered foccacia. we had one more town to hike to, where we would finally be on a sandy Mediterranean beach! Monterosso was a ways away but we had managed to climb a few barriers and make use of the landslide paths so far. 2 crazy French woman with a tuny dog had been hiking at about our pace and disregarding the signs saying the paths were closed. We decided to follow their lead as they headed toward the closed path to Monterosso. After hiking it uphill for a while we came to a huge pile of bags that were full of boulders. The crazy French ladies managed to climb over this so we did the same....this probably should have been the time we decided to turn around. A Canadian and his American girlfriend were attempting to get on the closed hike as well. We hiked straight uphill for abut 20 minutes through the forest growing on the mountain until we got to a barb wired barrier blocking the rest of the trail. Zach decided he didnt like the way this tragedy sounded ....5 Americans, 2 French women and a Canadian die in landlside after ignoring the clear warnings of danger" and we all agreed and hiked back down to the train station to get to Montorosso. Train it was, and we made our way to the beach in the first of the 5 towns, Montorosso. We were determined to take a dip in the super clear ocean but after sticking a toe in we decided we would remember it more fondly if we didn't. Instead we simply lay in the sand, zack and Johhny bitching about not having a towel (wimps) soaking up the sunshine and breathing the gorgeous clean air of Cinque Terre with the amazing cliff and mountain views around us...heaven on earth. We had consulted our lonely planet book before we ventured out and it raved about a family owned place in Montorosso that made 15 kinds of amazing foccacia daily. Johnny consulted his phone to try to find it and we of course just put our wandering skills to work. We found this place and were not so impressed with the focaccia selection (bogus rec lonely planet) but the pesto lasagna looked delicious! We all got some to go and sat on a park bench scarfing down before the 2 of them were off to Rome and we were off to find somewhere to live (homeless again as our hostel was full for tonight). We left and said see ya, loving the simplicity of random travel friends, a great day together and then no fuss with the goodbye. We took a train to Riommigore and hiked the last part of Cinque Terre, the coastal path to Manarolo before getting back to our hostel and remembering we were homeless for the night. We managed to catch the last train to Pisa so we could wake up and see the tower and head to Venice. We were honestly both heartbroken to leave Cinque Terre. We know this is somewhere we will both see again and we cant wait for that day!