Cinque Terre

Catherine and I woke up around 4:50 AM, ventured off to the metro and were on our train to Cinque Terre by 6:10 AM. The train was empty for the majority of the ride and of course the seats next to us get occupied on the first stop by two nigerian men. Which were friendly, until we all fell asleep of course. We chatted up our neighbors for a bit, and I got to tell them that I lived in Nigeria :]. It's funny because before we even spoke to them I immediately knew that they were Nigerian. It was just a sense that I had, no specific reason...I just knew. The man next to me was listening LOUDLY to his iPod, so I asked him what he was listening to...turns out it was Diana Ross and he let me take a listen for a little bit hahaha. I couldn't help but giggle a little on the inside. Okay...
We got to La Spezia around 10:00 AM, I think. Got breakfast at the train station, and waited for our connecting train to Cinque Terre. Which I believe was around 11? I don't quite remember...
As a bit of a background, Cinque Terre is 5 towns that are connected by hiking trails or 2-3 minute train rides. It's a touristy area, but it still maintains this natural, italian beauty about it. The five towns are: Corniglia (where our hostel was), Vernazza, Monterosso, Manarola, and Riomaggiorie.
We arrive in Corniglia, and we were instructed by the owner of our hostel to "take the green bus, and find the yellow building"...yes that's exactly what she said. Yellow buildings are, erm, common in country side Italy hah. Okay so we find the green bus, and to make a long story short about the green bus we were not allowed on the first one because the driver is less than sweet. So we waited for the next bus, and Catherine tries to step onto the bus (same driver, mind you) ... as she's getting on the bus the driver yells ATTENZIONE! NO!...and she wasn't allowed on, until he turned the bus around hahaha. We had some occurrences with the bus driver from then on...it was a hoot.
Corniglia was a cute little town, with not much to do...but it was my second favorite after Vernazza. Our hostel was adorable! I'm trying not to make this post too long, so I'll get to our day.
We took the train to Vernazza because (due to rain) the hiking trails from Corniglia to Vernazza, and Corniglia to Manarola were closed. So we arrive in Vernazza, and of course we had already had Gelato by that time, and then we sight see for a bit in the town, and are already thinking about FOOOOOD.
We enjoyed some pesto bruschetta, and pesto gnoochi...Pesto is what Cinque Terre is known for, so we went a little pesto crazy.
After that we decided it was time to begin our hike form Vernazza to Monterosso. It was about a two hour hike, and said to be the most intense...which it was. Catherine and I were definitely struggling through the first 30 minutes because it was all up mountain, and basically just endless amounts of steps. It evened out once we got to the higher part of the mountain, and then it slowly started to descend. The steps leading down to Monterosso were extremely wet from the rain, and I felt bad for anybody that had to walk up those steps. It was rough walking down! The view from the hike was unforgettable, you could see the coastline, and everywhere you turned it was just beautiful greenery and endless skyline.
Monterosso wasn't our favorite town at first, because we didn't realize you had to go through a tunnel to get to the rest of it! Then we walked for a bit, found a bar with a shoreline view, and sat down outside had some drinks and bruschetta, and chatted for a few hours. It was a bonding experience for Catherine and me. <3 ... we had some laughs, and just really felt relaxed with the view, and the drinks and the experience that we were in...I honestly have never felt so relaxed in my life. It seems like Italy just does that to me. Hah, Italy is good for my stress...so very good.
Oh I can't forget that while we were in Monterosso, we got our pesto! We had a free little tasting at a local shop that selled pestos, jams, wines...pastas, etc. who knows, and allll of the little tastings they had were amazing! it was really hard for me to decide on getting just a pesto jar, and a red pesto jar. I knew I'd use them both...
We then headed back to the train station to catch a train to Corniglia, we had to wait about 30 minutes but we met an adorable couple on their honeymoon and talked with them while we waited. The "green bus" in Corniglia stopped running at 8, so we found ourselves at the bottom of the mountain, with the city at the top..and our only hope was the 382 steps uphill you can take to get them. YES! (sarcasm)...we were exhausted at that point and hungry, but we trekked through it. And then we went and had dinner at a bar/restaurant that I think my father would have absolutely loved to go to. The vibe was his kind of place, they had some bluesy music playing, and it was just a very relaxed, small bar. Very local. The food was wonderful, as always.
Saturday we took the train from Corniglia to Manarola, and we spent just a few minutes in Manarola...we got gelato there too. They are stingy about their gelato in cinque terre! The gelaterias do not give you as much gelato as they would here in Rome for the price they make you pay...and it was pretty good gelato, but not as good as back home <3 haha. Anyways, we then took the Via dell'amore walk from Manarola to Riomaggiorie. Which is the a very easy 20 minute walk that is famous for all the locks you can find along the way. Basically couples go on this walk, with a lock of some sort (like a masterlock) and they "lock" their love away on these fences that border the trail. It overlooks the ocean and of course it probably one of the most romantic places you could take a girl. Luckily I experienced it with Catherine, hehe. We both wrote little "love" notes on the walls of the via dell'amore :], but I can't tell you what I wrote of course haha. but it has to do with love!
Riomaggiorie was another cute little town, where we got our lunch. HAWAIIAN PIZZA!!!! yummy. and then we also got two desserts haha. a chocolate cake and some sort of caramel gelatin type thing.
Once we got bored with Riomaggiore, we decided to go back to our favorite town Vernazza.
The trip to Vernazza was, uhh, detoured by me. I thought we were getting on the right train and I made the mistake of telling Catherine to "trust me", which she made the mistake of doing...so we hopped on the wrong train, and luckily it stopped at Monterosso, so we immediately hopped on another train and we were in Vernazza, probably 30 minutes later than expected haha. maybe less. Vernazza was were we bought our souvenirs! I got my first little ceramic bowl, not typical ceramic that is painted, but it had stone enamel in it or something. It's beautiful. I'll take a picture....and I got some more pasta that was locally made...as well as a little postcard that had a cat on it because cats were ALL over Cinque Terre! They had so many cat oriented souvenirs, but somehow I managed to resist that temptation to buy any of them...because I don't need a cliche cat souvenir....nope I don't. We dipped our feet in the water at Vernazza, and just enjoyed the rest of our relaxing day in Cinque Terre.
Now I'm back in Rome! Slept for over ten hours last night...I was thrilled about that.
Claudia and I just went to the store to pick up ingredients for two separate recipes we are making today :]
one is torta di ricotta con gocce di cioccolato, which is basically a chocolate cake dessert...I'm excited!!! and then the other is a risotto dish with asparagus. mmm mmm.
The other girls went off the Marino Wine/Grape festival, but I'll be staying in enjoying my lazy sunday, full of yummy food :]
(not to mention the york peppermint patties that liat's mother soo graciously brought for me back from America!) I think I'll already had like...six today. Not good.

Tanti baci,
Kate