Cinque Terre

In the third week of our stay here in Siena the group decided, minus Tim, to take a trip to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, located in the Northwest of Italy, is as series of five fishing villages connected by mountainous paths along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To get to Cinque Terre we woke up impossibly early, and four trains later, arrived in the first of the towns, Riomaggiore. After the long series of train rides everyone was eager to get on the trail and explore this truly breathtaking place. The first glimpse of the Mediterranean off the train took our breath away as the crystal clear bright blue water stretched on forever before us. After we took in this first of many beautiful views, we set about finding the trail, no easy task. For the next forty five minutes we walked up and down main roads, back roads, trails that looked promising but were dead ends, until we finally found the sign for the next town written in pen on a torn off piece of cardboard. The trail that normally connects Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore, but due to a rockslide we instead had to climb up the face of a mountain. The trail hit everyone hard but the view from the top was truly spectacular. As we continued on our journey passing through Manarola the views seemed to be getting more and more incredible. In every clearing and at the top of each ridge, beautiful scenes waited. 

We stopped for lunch at a café in Corniglia. We feasted on pizza and pasta giving us new strength to begin trekking once more to the next town Vernazza, where we would be staying for the night. With filled bellies we set out once more climbing steep rock stairs and dirt paths, descending on equally steep paths on the other side. I must have fallen or came close to falling a half dozen times, much to my fellow CETers’ endless amusement. As we turned a corner on the seemingly endless path, however, our goal finally came into sight. Surrounded by water with a beautiful inlet was Vernazza. We hurriedly made our way to the town; I may have fallen again on the way, and met up with the woman who supplied the keys to our rooms. Once everyone had put their bags in the room and unwound for a bit we shrugged off our soiled trail clothes, put on our swim trunks and set out to find the promised beach of Vernazza. At first we, as per usual, had no idea where we were going. After getting directions we were finally pointed to a cave with a fence in front of it with a very clearly marked no walking sign. Fearful our trip to the beach was in peril, Charlotte asked the man working near the cave if we could go through the low hanging tunnel. In typical Italian fashion, it wasn’t a problem. We walked through the flooded small opening and after a few paces came out onto one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen. The beach was covered in a variety of smooth grey rocks, the water was a piercing blue, and as we walked to the water’s edge our feet sank into the small pebbles in the surf. After all the walking that day the small rocks felt like they were massaging our feet, gently wiping out all our aches and pains as we made our way into the refreshing water. That beach was one of the most relaxing and incredible places I think I have ever been to. After working so hard to get there a deep sense of satisfaction was felt by everyone as we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. That night everyone was so tired it is possible that a total of 10 words were said at dinner between the eight of us. Once all the food was eaten and the bill paid, we made our way to rooms pondering the heights of our accomplishments as we fell into deep sleep.
 

The next morning, once more energized, we began our journey anew to reach the final town, Monterosso. We settled back into the routine of our trekking fortified by the knowledge that we had walked so far already and of course the ever present spectacular views. We reached Monterosso emerging out of a trail that ran through several vineyards, greeted by another beautiful beach. We put on our trunks and swam out to some rocks basking in the sun contentedly. As we sat there just offshore I couldn’t help but reflect on just how lucky I was to be having all these incredible life experiences with these great friends. After a time, we made our way in, and eventually to the train station to head back to Siena. Many thanks were thrown Paola’s way for her arranging the trip and everyone was happy about a great weekend, with the promise of more great weekends to come. 

Mike Babineau, UVA