Cinque Terre and Our Long, Extended and Thorough Trip to Pisa

This Last weekend 9 of the girls in our group went to stay in La Spezia and to visit Cinque Terre, which is located North of Siena and borders the Ligurian Sea. Let me just begin by exclaiming, “my goodness gracious!” Or, more appropriately, “mamma mia!” Cinque Terre was absolutely breathtaking.

Cinque Terre consists of five separate little towns, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore built on the rugged coast on the Italian Riviera. Each town is separated by mountainous terrain, and takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours of hiking to get to. When first built, each town was so different that they each had their own dialect of Italian! There is a train that connects each of the cities for those wishing to visit, but unable (or unwilling) to hike the trails.

On our first trip, we hiked the longest portion of Cinque Terre, from Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza- a two hour hike! The passage is at times extremely narrow and admittedly pretty dangerous! I was pretty scared for some portions of the hike! However, the higher you scale the mountain, the more mind blowing the views of the sea, beaches, vineyards, fields, flowers and other amazing things become. We finished the hike in Vernazza, which is arguably the most gorgeous of all the towns. It is a smaller beach-y little town with vibrantly colorful buildings and boats, narrow streets and flowers everywhere.

Vernazza is most likely what one pictures of an Italian Riviera town. Some of the girls went swimming, but I was quite content sitting in the sun and munching on pizza (and Canella gelato- Cinnamon is my newest favorite!) Upon returning to La Spezia, we encountered some pretty frustrating travel issues because half the group was staying in a hotel in the city common area, and the other half was booked in a hostel about 25 minutes outside of town. Without going into too much detail, the rest of us made our way to the hostel with headaches and exhaustion- but we got there! (Those of us who were not too fed up with the traveling issues ordered a pesto dinner at the hostel, which was beyond amazing).

The next day we woke up, renewed and excited to keep hiking and swimming! We broke into smaller groups and my group began by hiking the most famous of the 4 trails- Via dell’ amore. It was a 20 minute hike (extremely crowded) which took us over spiraling rocks down to the sea, through the “tunnel of love” which was covered in brilliant graffiti and on to the next town. I found my name written on the tunnel as we made our way through it! Apparently, I will someday meet a man named “Vitto” and we will live happily ever after forever? Who knows, but I took a picture of the graffiti for future reference, just in case. (perhaps if the prophecy comes true, “Vitto” and I can make the picture our wedding invitations!)

After the hike, the girls I was with and I decided to relax and go swimming in the Ligurian sea. The water was pretty rough but the deepest blue you’ve ever seen- It took me about 6 counts of “1….2….3…JUMP!” before I actually summoned the courage to jump in, but I did (and there is a photo to prove it J)

La Spezia was an amazing town, and Cinque Terre was a pretty phenomenal experience, and I am so glad we got a chance to go!

On the way back from La Spezia, we noticed something pretty interesting about our tickets back to Siena. They went through the town of Pisa, allowing us to essentially stop in Pisa FREE OF CHARGE on our way home….

Thus begins our visit to Pisa! While I am in no way proud of what we did next, I could never leave it out of this account.

We realized that to get home to Siena by 8pm (we all had homework due the next day) we would have approximately 45 minutes to stop in Pisa before getting back on the train to Siena. 45 minutes in a city? 3 of us confided that all we really wanted out of Pisa was that stupid picture holding up the tower-that was it! So, using our guidebook, we mapped out the way to the tower from the train station and began jogging the 1.5-2miles. (we only had 45 minutes to get the picture before the train!) So we jogged, and fast walked and even had spurts of running through the streets of Pisa until we finally hit the opening where the tower stood. 30 minutes left to take pictures and get back to the train station! We looked like crazy people, still wet, wearing sweaty clothes from hiking Cinque Terre, sprinting through the streets with our cameras ready, checking our watches constantly. We had worked out a system on the train where each girl would get 3 poses with the tower while the other two would take pictures, and then we would switch. Time efficiency was everything!

“Elena- first pose! Got it! Closer to the Tower! Hands higher, lower, perfect! Second pose! Third! Done!”

We repeated this for all three of us and checked our watches- 20 minutes to get back and to our platform! - so we began to jog back to the train station. One of the girls was feeling a little light headed from the pressure and heat (scorching day) so we slowed down a bit when we neared the station. Finally- we returned to the station with 10 minutes to spare before our departure back to Siena. We did it! And we got our Pisa pictures.

Now, I recognize how disrespectful it must sound, sprinting from the train station to the landmark of a city, and back in less than 45 minutes without even looking around to take in the city, but this is how we visited Pisa! I am sure the city is remarkably interesting with museums and restaurants and monuments to visit, and maybe one day I will stay longer and explore…maybe…

Ciao! Next post will be all about Il Palio and the preparations!

Elena Korn

CET Siena Student Correspondent, Summer '10