Cross this place off my bucket list!

Monday- April 9

Today we had an early morning because we were going to Cinque Terre, which translates to five cities. It's about three hours north of Florence. This place has been on my bucket list, and I decided to not go with my friends a few weeks ago because I wanted to go with my family.

My alarm sounded off at 6:15, and no one was awake. Mom said last night she was going to wake up at 6 to shower, so I went into her room to wake her up. I laid back down until 6:30 when it was my turn to shower, and then Ali and Jon did after.

I had to research yesterday what times the trains were running to Cinque Terre and how much they were because Lydia had told me it could get a little pricey because sometimes you have to switch up to three train lines to get there. 

Somehow I found a train that left at 7:45 and went directly into the five towns, so we would only have to go on one train. I also needed to look into trains to see how often they were running because I was told that the trains weren't running as often because it was a holiday, which was why I didn't have classes. 

We left in time so we didn't have to completely book it to the station. We got there in time to get our tickets, find the platform and hop on the train. The train was pretty crowded, but luckily we found four seats together that Jon spotted. 

The train ride seemed to take a while. There was a group of teenage boys, probably about Jon or Ali's age, who were really loud, but kept laughing. They were in mom's eyesight and every time I looked over at her she was laughing. 

Thankfully about halfway through the ride they hopped off, but unfortunately another group of teenagers got on. After that stop, so many more people kept getting on at other stops. It was so busy that there were a ton of people standing. Never have I ever seen it so busy. I guess a lot of the Italian families and couples and teenagers decided to take a day trip to Cinque Terre too for their holiday. 

I knew we were nearing the five towns because we passed the last train stop before the first city. After we left that place, we went through a mountain and when we came out on the other side, you could see the beautiful coast and blue waters crashing into the rocks. The entire car of people immediately said, "AHH!" which made me look out the window. 

It truly was a beautiful sight. We went in and out of another mountain and every time we came out we all looked out the window to see the view.

A lot of people got off at the first town, Riomaggiore, but Lydia and others had told me to go to Monterosso because it was the only one with a sandy beach. It was the last stop of the five towns, so we waited to to go through the next four stops. Every time I saw a view, it was just gorgeous. 

When Monterosso came up, we hopped off of the train. Mom needed to go to the bathroom, so she went down to where the restrooms were where there was a tremendous long line. 

In the meantime Ali, Jon and I waited near a cafe. Jon was playing with a toy that he bought the other night. It was one of those squishy toys that's filled with liquid and every time you throw it down it looks like it splats. It was really funny when he bought it because I told him my friends and I always laugh at the toy because no one ever buys it — of course he does. 

Anyways, he was playing with it and throwing it on the ground. All of a sudden I hear Ali laughing her butt off. I looked over to Jon. He must have thrown his toy on the ground like he had been doing, but this time it popped. Ali said his face was priceless because he was so shocked and upset that it broke. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself either. Other than that, I felt kind of bad for him.

Of course when mom came over to us, Ali decided she needed to use the restroom. She couldn't have made this decision before when mom went before? Of course not. 

Mom started telling me about the bathroom, and I was really glad I didn't have to go to the bathroom anytime soon. She said the toilet was literally a hole in the ground. You can imagine how you go to the bathroom doing that....

I've heard of those toilets here, but I've never experienced them, and I hope to keep it that way!

After Ali came out of the bathroom with a disgusted look on her face, we walked down the stairs of the station and it dropped us out on the main road of the little town. The view of the beach was gorgeous. It wasn't the prettiest day outside, but I was still thrilled to be here.

We walked along the road that led to a sandy beach. Ali noticed there was a sculpture that was carved into the rock at the end of the beach, which was really interesting to see.

While we were observing the view, a tiny, tiny puppy was running along the beach with it's owner playing with it. It wasn't the cutest thing Id ever seen, but it was so cute to watch it run in the sand and fall because it was so tiny. 

Mom was hungry so we went on a chase for food. We stopped into one place, but they were only open for coffees until 11:00 when they would serve lunch. We had a half hour and mom was hungry, so we decided we would go find something else. 

We found a place that seemed busy, and we walked inside. It smelled delicious and I saw bread everywhere. Mom and I got what seemed like pizza bread. I had olives on mine and mom had green olives. The were SO good.

After we ate, we walked around for a bit and then Jon and Ali were hungry, so we went back to the restaurant we stopped at the first time. It was after 11, so they were serving more than coffee at this point. A really nice guy led us to the back porch for us to sit down. It was a beautiful view, with it being right on the beach. Despite the fact it was a little bit chilly, the view was wonderful. I will always be a beach girl at heart.

Mom ordered a cafe latte and I a cappuccino, but Ali and Jon got real food since they hadn't eaten yet. Since we had gotten there before Italian lunch time, it was pretty empty, but towards the end of the meal, the restaurant was hoppin. I felt bad because it seemed like there was one waiter and one runner, but the waiter kept himself together and still helped us.

After lunch we started walking up the hill towards a tunnel we had seen. We were curious of where it would lead to because people were coming in and out of it. Along the way we saw this massive rock that a lot of people were climbing.

 I looked and watched the water crash into it. The water was a beautiful sea green, something I've always dreamed of seeing. Greece was beautiful with it's water, but this was something different. 

We walked through the tunnel, which led us to the other side of Monterosso. There was a lot more civilization on this side, whereas on the other side we were just at was more of a beach town with restaurants and souvenir shops.  

We walked through the town and ended up stumbling upon a church. Mama lit a candle when we walked in. It was a beautiful church. I could tell it was a gothic-styled church because of how extravagant it was on the inside. Thanks to Rocky, my Italian Art class information was actually rubbing off on me.

We peaked into another church next door and I was surprised to see how a mess it was. The inside had dirt and mud everywhere and seats were everywhere. In October, Cinque Terre had a mudslide that really hurt the towns, but really hurt one of the main attraction towns, Vernazza. I didn't know Monterosso was still recovering too though.

When we walked around the city there were posters on the walls of what that part of the town looked like in October 2011. I couldn't get over it. There was a car standing upside down in mud that was higher than me. I could see the town was still recovering because they had wood planks throughout the roads and there was still dried mud along some of the walls and stores.

After we walked around the town for a bit, we crossed back through the tunnel to get back to the train station because we were going to take the train to Manarola to walk the "love walk" to Riomaggiore and catch a train from there to home.

You could technically walk to all of the towns through hiking trails, but due to the mudslide, it was very difficult to walk from Monterosso to Vernazza because the trail had fallen a part with the mudslide.

When the train pulled up, Ali and Jon got excited because it was a double-decker train. I had been on one before and they were fun to ride. We all walked up to the second floor and found seats.

When passed two towns and got off at the third stop. We walked under a very long tunnel and when we got out, there was a beautiful little town on a hill. We walked up the hill and we saw a little gelato store. Of course we decided to get some. I saw this type of bread sandwich that they could put gelato on. I was intrigued, so I tried it and it was so good. It was a lot different than other things I'd had before, but it was good.

We proceeded to walk up the hill. Mom asked where the "Love trail" was at and I said I thought we had passed it earlier. We decided to keep walking up anyways to see if we could see a view before we headed back down. There were trails above us and I told mom the trails might be like that. She said she wouldn't be able to do it if the trails were that skinny because she would fear she would fall off. I tried to ensure her she would be fine, but she's too scared of heights. 

We also ended up finding a view that was really beautiful. I could see the sea and the little houses sitting on the rocks. It's a really cool thing to think about that these towns were all mostly built on rocks. No wonder it's so touristy. 

Of course, mama sniffed out another church, so she went in to see what it was like. It was a smaller, suburban church. I could tell it was really old. 

We headed back down the hill and saw signs for the love walk, which led us back through the tunnel to the train station where we had started 30 minutes ago.

Ali led the way because she saw signs.

Mom asked if we had to pay for the walk and I said no. However, when we reached the trail, we quickly learned we had to pay. It was only a couple euros a person, but I was surprised we had to pay because I thought it was just a nature trail. I figured though the cities needed the money after the natural disaster, so I wasn't too mad about it.

The love walk — Via dell'Amore—  is just something that Cinque Terre has become famous for over the years. It connects the two cities, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  Many couples will come here with lock with their names on it and hang it off of a rock or a line. There are a plethora of locks that line up along the rocks. It's really cool because it's something different.

There's also a part of the walk with a white wall where people will write their love for each other — mostly initials. I tried finding my friends' writings because they had all come a few weeks ago, but there were way to many. I had come prepared with my red pen and wrote down Kory and my initials, my best friends, and my family's. That way we all left our mark.

The view all over was gorgeous. Poor mama couldn't get too close to the edge to see how pretty the blue water was crashing on the rocks because the heights freaked her out too much.

It would make me giggle when we would get too close to the edge and mom would tell us to not get too close because it wasn't safe, even though I knew we were fine. Moms will always be moms.

The walk lasted about 30 or so minutes. The man who sold us tickets said it was a 20 minute walk, but because we stopped so much, it ended up taking longer.

After the walk ended we were in the town of Riomaggiore, the final town where we would be taking our train home. We had about an hour and a half until the train was coming. We went down to the ticket office to buy our tickets and then we went up to a restaurant we had seen on the hill.

We sat up on the deck, and the sun had finally made it's way out. The view on the terrace was gorgeous and it was a wonderful way to end the day. We enjoyed our time there for about 40 minutes or so. We were all talking about how we couldn't believe they only had one day left in Italy. The time had gone by so fast.    

What a more perfect way to end their trip though with a trip to the beach.

After dinner we ventured down to the train station. Our train was supposed to come at 6:45. We were worried it was going to be super crowded like last time and that we would have to stand for a long time. I went into the ticket office to check the times to see how many trains were supposed to come before ours. When I came back out there was a train there and my family was ready to get on. I didn't think it was our train so I went up to a conductor to ask.

Mom said there was an American family who said they asked someone and said it was the right train to Florence.

I still asked the conductor and he said no, it was the next train. I was glad I listened to my gut. The American family that was on the train already booked it off as fast as they could.

We ended up talking with the for a little bit and learned they were staying with friends in Germany and were visiting Italy for a bit.

Our train finally came and of course it was crowded. We had to stand for 10 minutes of the ride and at the first stop Jon and I pushed through to the seats and snagged some. Mom and Ali sat in a different part together, but we all had seats at least.


It was a wonderful day and I was glad I got to spend my holiday off of school with them.