Europe - Day 5 to 11
Hello Friends
Post number 2 from Europe. I believe I left off last time having just arrived in Monterosso, Italy. Monterosso is town number 1 of the 5 cinque terre towns. Cinque Terre is on the west coast of Italy, between Genoa and Pisa. As the name indicates it's made up of 5 towns along the coast; Monterosso, Verrazano, Cornigila, Manarola and Riomaggiore. There is a train that runs between the 5, but the better way to see them is to hike. The main "blue" route is a hilly 11km from Monterosso to Riomaggiore.
I spent the afternoon wandering around Monterosso and taking photos. I stopped for a glass of wine in the sun in the main square and started chatting to a friendly American couple about my age. I was asking them about the hike, as they had just done it and there was some confusion about which trails were open. The woman at the tour agency told me that the Blue trail was completely closed so if I was going to hike, I would need to do all the longer back trails. I didn't mind that they were more challenging, but my preference was to walk along the water. So I asked this American couple, who advised that although the trail is "closed" you can still do it anyway - heaps of people were on it. Also suggested that I don't bother paying €20 for the hiking pass - since the trail is "closed" there are no ticket inspectors. It turned out that the guy is the son of travel guru Rick Steves, so I figured I could trust his advice.
The other interesting thing that happened is that a free small carafe of wine turned up at my table. The waitress informed me that it was from the guy "over there". I didn't think that actually happened in real life - someone sending a drink over and waving. I thought he was going to come talk to me, but he didn't. Maybe his English wasn't good - he looked quite Italian.
Anyway Monterosso was very cute. I quite enjoyed wandering around. It's the biggest of the 5 towns so it had the most restaurants and shops. I had dinner at a casual cafeteria type place which was recommended on trip advisor. It was no frills, but the food was excellent. It was quite quiet, so the owner came out and sat and had a glass of wine with me and we spoke for ages. He told me all about life in Monterosso and the ups and downs of running a business. It's always nice talking to the locals.
I was up early the next morning, and started to hike around the "ungodly" hour of 9am. Thr French and the Italians really don't do mornings well. Nothing is open before 10, maybe 11 - cafés serving breakfast included. It did mean though that I had the path to myself. Didn't see anyone until about 45 minutes in, coming the other direction. Anyway, the first section of the hike between Monterosso and Vernazza was the most challenging section as it was quite hilly, but I didn't find it very tough. There was a sign that said, "trail closed," but obviously that is meant to be ignored. The scenery was spectacular; I stopped so many times trying to get the perfect photo. I was in Vernazza by 10:15, so I stopped for a drink and a quick look around and then carried on. Cornigila was about the same distance on, and it took me about an hour. Once again I wandered and decided to get an early lunch.
The 3rd section was properly closed - as I was walking along there was some sort of, "do no proceed - falling rocks" sign which someone had unceremoniously torn down and tossed aside. I'm sure the park authorities had no idea what they are talking about when they put that sign up..... I was going to try to find another route, but then an older couple came by me and said "no problem - it's ok," so I followed them. Sure enough, there was a bunch of other people on the trail. About half way in though, we hit "the landslide" - an area where the path was completely washed out by a landslide (which appears to have happened months ago; probably in winter). It was a large section of loose rock. Once again, I debated turning around, but then a 70 year old woman crossed it without much difficulty, so I figured I would give it a go. It was fine - no drama. But it did get the heart rate going a bit.... scrambling along loose rocks over the ocean! Here is a picture looking back on it.
I thought that was the end of the drama, but no. There was also a tall locked gate at the end to compete with (with mountain on one side and a drop off on the other). I guess it was locked in a failed attempt to keep people out from the other direction. Thankfully, someone had used bolt cutters to clip a hole in it (they think they can keep us out with their silly metal gate) and I was able to climb my way through buy going down and under and pulling myself up. Had I known it was actually going to be quite treacherous, I would have just taken the train, but when you are more than half way along, you want to avoid turning back if possible. The rest of the trail itself was fine.
The last town, Riomaggiore was just 30 minutes away and no drama. From there I took the train to La Spezia for the night, which was ok. Compared to cinque terre, it felt like a dirty old city, even though it wasn't. The next day I took the ferry from La Spezia to Porto Venere, which was beautiful. Porto Venere is not technically part of the cinque terre, but it's just down the road. Taking the boat in was a nice way to see it, as you get the full perspective. There wasn't too much going on in the town itself though, so I caught the next ferry back to Riomaggiore and from there took the train back to Monaco.
On Friday I was a bit sick of the train, so I took the bus to Nice, which is only about 25 minutes away. I didn't have much of an agenda, so just wandered the older part of town and the seaside. Also went to the museum of modern and contemporary art, which is my favourite type of art. The museum was free and I really enjoyed it. I like looking at the modern art and trying to figure out what it's supposed to be/mean or laughing at the pieces which are just ridiculous (an entirely white canvas with one black dot in the corner??). There was also a rooftop which had spectacular views of the city in all directions, so that was nice as well. Nice was nice, and I just spent most of the day walking around the old town, along the beach and looking in shops.
Speaking of wine, on Friday night I went out with Liz and her friend and we had a thousand glasses. They all finished a finance exam at school (they are all doing the same masters program) so they were celebratory drinks. This whole weekend has consisted of a lot of eating and drinking actually. Saturday evening Liz and Raph were having people over for a BBQ, as they just bought one. We spent most of the afternoon looking for propane (it was surprisingly hard to find - gas seems to scare the French) and preparing for the guests (of which there were 13). It was a big success and everyone was really nice. It was a bit hard for me at times though, as most conversations were in French. I could understand some people quite well, but others I couldn't get a word. I guess it's the different accents. Liz is the easiest to understand as she speaks the slowest.
Sunday Raph's family invited me over for Easter lunch, which was nice of them. We had fish; salmon and something called monkfish. I don't know if we have monkfish in Canada or Australia, but it was very good. Raph's brothers girlfriend is Ukrainian and Russian, so she brought some Russian cakes, and we cracked hard boiled painted eggs against each other, which is apparently the Russian way. So it was a very multicultural affair. It's interesting seeing how the holidays are spent differently in different countries. This was another mostly French affair, so once again I wasn't able to contribute much. I wonder if my comprehension is improving at all.
I have 3 more days here in France and then I head up to London on Thursday.
SH
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