21.03.2009 - Saturday

In Vernazza...the 'cove'

Vernazza behind me!!

Cornigila in the distance...
Town of Corniglia
Corniglia in the background
Manarola
Close up of Manarola...I love all the colors!!


Picture of the popsicle sticks!! Ha!!
In between Manarola and Riomaggiore
These rocks are crazee... :)
Beth and I at the playground in Vernazza

This morning I got up at 9am and we were all ready to go by 10am. After walking down the 200 steps, we went to this one bakery to grab some breakfast, so I got this walnut something or other…ha, not sure what it was, but it was good. When we walked into the bakery and looked where the ladies bake…there was a little girl, like 5 or 6 years old rolling dough!! It was the cutest thing because she had a long apron on and a bakers hat, standing on a chair so she was able to reach the counter…so adorable!! :) As we ate our ‘bfast,’ we walked to the train station but before reaching the train station, you have to walk under this really cool tunnel that has mosaic tiles of all different shapes/sizes/colors on one wall – its really funky and it goes on for the duration of the tunnel. The ceiling is dome shaped and blue with lights shinning on it, as if it is the ocean, it was really cool. From the train station, we caught the train to Vernazza where we walked around the small town and as we were walking towards the water, there was this random cut out on the left of the street which leads you to a little cove where you could skip rocks on the water, or whatever, it was fun and the view was of a bunch of rocks, all leading into the water, it was really pretty. After hanging in the cove for a bit, we walked over to the water and sat on a ledge where we chatted with some American girls for a bit and then decided to go buy our hiking tickets and get going. The tickets were only 5euros to do the entire trail. Unfortunately the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza was closed, due to mud-slides, so we hiked first from Vernazza to Corniglia which was 4km long with LOTS of stairs in the beginning, and then once you were above the town, the stairs turned into the side of the mountain and was mainly dirt. The view was incredible…once we were above the town, we saw the entire town and blue water surrounding it. This hike was the longest and took us about an hour to get to Corniglia…there was one part of this hike where the trail was kind of lost, so we had to do some climbing, it was a lot of fun. Going from Vernazza to Riomaggiore – it is the hard way to go because it is mostly uphill and that is the hike we did!! :) The five of us girls wanted to not only view the scenery during the hike, but get a workout out of it as well. :) Once we got to Corniglia, there really wasn’t much to do in this town, so we found the signs to get to the next town which was Manarola (1km hike). The beginning of the trail was dizzy-like. You had to go down these stairs which from the top, had a zigzag effect, but once you are walking them, you go faster than you think because of the slant, so you end up going round and round lots of stairs. After the stairs, we had to hike up the mountain to get to the next town Manarola. The girls were hungry when we got there, so we stopped in this one restaurant and I ended up ordering a waffle at 2pm!! :) It was great…I have been missing my bfast meals, so I happy to know that at ‘Bar Enrica,’ they serve waffles with syrup on them!! :) It was funny because when she brought out my waffle, there were 4 popsicle sticks, one in each corner. I guess you are suppose to cute the waffle and eat each one like a popsicle? Ha, if not, I did it wrong…that’s what I thought they were for, so I ate it like a popsicle!! HA!! After lunch we ended up finding the trail and we walked to Riomaggiore (1km) and it was REALLY short, it was like a straight shot and we were told it only takes like 10 minutes to walk. It was basically a straight walk and at one point we were walking through a tunnel which was full of graffiti – graffiti is everywhere here in Italia!! It’s insane, on one hand I really like it because it’s colorful and different, but on the other, where is the management? Ha, Poppo!! After the tunnel, we had to hike up a bit of the mountain and then it flattened out again. While we were on the mountain, there was a point where we were able to hike down the mountain, so Jenny, Amy and I hiked down and we went all the way down to the water where we saw clams. After hanging out down there for some time, we hiked back up and finished the trail and meet up with Beth and Cassie. After our hiking adventure, we took the train back to Vernazza where we saw a playground we wanted to play on. We ended up playing for a while and taking pictures and then I found a Cinque Terre lighter for my collection. :) After a few hours, we headed back to Riomaggiore where I bought a slice of cheese pizza (like Asiago bagel) and a slice of pesto pizza. I ended up eating the cheese slice first and I saved the pesto piece. Once we got home and walked up the 200 stairs, we sat in the room for a bit and then the girls were hungry, so they went back to the same restaurant we went to last night. I wasn’t hungry and still had a slice of pizza, so I didn’t eat. Cassie and I sat there with them while they ate and we both got charged a sitting fee!! Haha, it was funny…we didn’t even touch the silverware or have water or anything and we got charged 3euros to sit there. O well, we enjoyed talking with the girls and writing our letter to ELLEN DeGeneres!! Us 5 are going to get on her show by the letter we send her, we just know it!! :) After dinner, we came back home and got ready for bed and again, I was in bed by 9pm!! :) It was great!! Wow, today was wonderful day…I saw so many beautiful views and really enjoyed the hike!! Hope you all enjoyed my pictures!!

LOVE and MISS you ALL!!

CIAO!! :)