Disclaimer: I would like to say before I add any pictures that I officially despise trains, and train stations, and train conductors.
Yesterday Gina and I went to Cinque Terre. There was a late start to the morning so we were half-running/half-mom walking to the train station. When we got there we discovered that all of the automated machines that take credit cards were "not working". Thank you Florence's Labor Day, thank you. I was lucky enough to have cash and get two tickets to Riomaggiore for the two of us, instead of waiting in the 40-some-person line. It would have been nice to have a direct train there but no, no luck yesterday. We got into Pisa and then waited an hour and a half for the train to La Spezia (still not to Riomaggiore). We got into La Spezia and had no idea where to go from there. An old man took refuge on us and tried to help us, we ended up ditching him, finding where we had to go and then got on the next train to Riomaggiore.
Finally, we have some luck, our confidence was boosted when we found the trails, because we're thinking "Yeah, we know what we're doing, yeah, we rock" (This is where guys would chest bump, but we didn't do that). We walked ALL five cities: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Let me say, starting at Riomaggiore was easy but when we got to Vernazza we were dripping sweat. The trails were pretty narrow, I felt like I needed some carabiners with me to scale the cliffs we were climbing, or at least some of those poker sticks the professional hikers use (just kidding). Needless to say, we made it to Monterosso and conquered all five cities in under five hours.
Now here's more fun transportation stuff. We were supposed to leave Monterosso and get back into La Spezia. We ended up getting on a train going in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. We apparently looked at the arrival monitor instead of the departure monitor, doh... We arrived back into Monterosso, an hour later, now an hour set back from getting home. We got into La Spezia and realized we just missed the direct train to Florence. So, we bought tickets to Florence. The tickets we bought weren't direct trips to Florence, because we were supposed to get off and take several connecting trains, which is what the conductor angrily told us when he came by, quarreled with us in Italian, and then punched our tickets. Don't worry, we made them direct trips to Florence, where we got off and waited for another train when we got to Pisa. We figured if worse comes to worse, we'd just hide in the bathrooms until we got into Pisa. We made it back to Florence, just before midnight, and decided to forget Venice Saturday, we'll do it Sunday.
The pictures though were well worth all of the transportation messes and catastrophes, enjoy, I know I did!
Riomaggiore to Manarola (the first trail)
Via della Amore (the walk of love) This was the only paved part of the path. The walkway itself was awesome because the walls were full of different paintings symbolizing "love"
At the top of Manarola, the city was pretty small and we didn't end up getting a shot of the coast of Manarola.
Corniglia - the houses/apartments were painted each a different color. It was absolutely beautiful.
Coming up to Vernazza
Vernazza, my favorite city. We soaked our feet in the beach water for a few minutes and then kept on treking.
Part of the trail - an arch over a river/waterfall.
One the hike to Monterosso. This hike was the longest, just under two hours but the most scenic.
Monterosso, one of the best sights of the day, also because then we were almost done.
Kentucky waterfall in Europe.
