October 26th

The night before we had decided it would be best to take the earliest train out of Corniglia as possible, so that is what we did. We woke up early and made our way down the long winding road to the train station and tried to buy our tickets. As it turned out, the ticket window was closed and the machine that vends the tickets was not working correctly so we would have to chance it on the train in case the conductor did come by, which he hadn't on any of the previous Cinque Terre trains we had been on. When we made it to the correct platform we realized how lucky we were to have chosen the earliest train because all of the other trains after this one were canceled. They decided to have this one run and then one later in the afternoon which would have meant that we would miss our connecting train to Rome, just one of the many reasons we were thankful to have had the idea to go early. We took the train to La Spezia and thankfully no one came by to check tickets because there is apparently a big fine if you do not have your tickets validated, unlike the metra, you cannot purchase them on board the train.

We made it to La Spezia with plenty of time to catch our next train to Rome then to Naples, but as we looked on the screen to see which platform we should go to, we noticed that our train to Roma was canceled. Not a happy site to see, obviously. So we freaked, just a little, and promptly went inside to the customer service to try and see if there was anything that could be done. While we were in line, there was an Italian man in line behind us who spoke very good English who was talking with us about what was going on. As we got to the window, he started talking with the customer service agent for us because he spoke very little English. Long story short, we had to purchase new tickets. First to Pisa, switch trains to Florence, then catch the bullet train to Naples. So after a small headache, we got it figured out and went to the other customer service station to try and get our previous tickets refunded. She said it was possible but we would have to fill out an information sheet and then hope that the Eurorail company would refund Chris. While waiting for our train, we got breakfast of a prosciutto, goat cheese, and arugula sandwich which was delicious.

The train to Pisa was on time and we got onto the train to Florence with out any issues, the issues started arising when the train didn't leave on time. The train from Pisa to Florence takes exactly one hour and in the beginning, we had an hour in between to catch our transfer to Naples. The train to Florence didn't leave until 12:10 and our train to Naples left Florence at 1:10. Tight fit, huh? Well the train left and at 12:45 Chris had the idea to start moving up cars so that if we got there early enough we would already be at the front of the train and wouldn’t have to run as far once the train stopped.  All we had to do was jump off this train and I would run to the next platform to hold the train from leaving. Unfortunately, as our very delayed train arrived at 1:10, we watched our connecting train to Naples leave promptly on time at 1:10. 

We went to the kiosk to try and get our train time moved back to the next train and after waiting 10 minutes in the line, he instructed us that we needed to go inside and wait in a different line to get our new tickets. We rushed inside to the correct line, which was of course ridiculously long, and began our waiting and hoping that we would make it to the next train. While Chris held our spot in line, I went in search of food because we were both very hungry, for some reason half of a sandwich for breakfast didn't quite hold us over. I found the cafeteria area located inside the train station and got us two sandwiches (one the same as our breakfast sandwich and one a ham, cheese, and tomato) a fanta, and some Ritz crackers.  When I got back to Chris we ate while we waited in line and with 10 minutes to spare, we made it to the ticket counter. I explained the situation and the man responded with, "you know that leaves in 10 minutes right?" Yeah buddy, like we had no clue. Gosh, some people, I tell ya. We got the tickets and made it to the train with 10 minutes to spare. Luckily, that was the end of our train troubles for that day. We played cards on the train to pass the time and it was a pretty quick ride considering it was a three hour journey.  After all that mess, we only arrived one hour later than expected.

When we made it to Naples, to say it was raining would be an understatement. It was pouring and luckily for us, we drag our suitcase through the cobblestone streets and try to find our hotel. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. I, of course, took us down the wrong road so we were getting lost and our suitcase was getting wetter and wetter by the second. We stopped by a luggage store and thankfully they gave us some plastic garbage bags to put over our suitcase to stop the water from getting inside to all of our clothes and books that we had brought with us. After a long, long, long walk in the pouring rain, we finally found our hotel and were greeted warmly by the keepers. They are brothers, I am assuming, and they were so nice. We put our stuff in our room and changed our clothes. They gave us a map to the city, all of their recommendations, and even gave us their laptop to use.

After getting all of their suggestions on the map, we headed off in search of the oldest pizzeria in Naples. After finally finding it, we ordered the only two pizzas on the menu and started talking with the people who were sitting next to us. Turns out, we were in the Pizzeria from the movie and book Eat, Pray, Love. COOL! The people next to us were from Australia and New Zealand and had just met earlier in the week. They said they had gotten a long so well that they decided to tour the rest of Italy together before having to return to their homes. The pizza was beyond delicious. It was very plain, but it was still very delicious. Good start to our Naples marathon of pizza.

After pizza we went in search of the suggested gelatoria but it was closed. And that was particularly annoying because every time we asked someone where a good gelatoria was, they kept suggesting the exact same place. So after walking around for a while we bought a bottle of wine and decided that if all else failed, we would just go back to the hotel room and enjoy the bottle of wine. We walked along the coastal road in search of gelato, but didn't find any. When we decided to turn back and start going towards the hotel, we walked near an old castle and through a more modern part of town. We found a nice cafe that ended up having the best gelato and the world's largest scoops. I got armarena and nocciotuella and Chris got fragola and caffe. They let us watch the Napoli soccer game with them at the bar and then we headed out after a little while. We made our way back to the hotel but were both too sugared out to drink the wine so we put it in the fridge and decided to save it for the next night. From all the walking around and stress from trains, we were pooped.

October 25th

We woke up early and decided that we would start our day with city one and then go to city two. With heavy rain in the forecast, we knew it was going to be a wet day. After leaving the hotel, we discovered where the 400 steps were and took them down to the train station. We took a quick train to Riomaggiore, city one, and looked at the murals that are right at the station. They were really pretty and a little creepy because the paint was starting to peel away in large chunks and so some of the faces weren't too friendly. We walked through the pedestrian tunnel to the main street in town and bought a large umbrella right away. Since it was raining so much already, we knew our hoodies would not provide enough protection (despite them being of great Indiana quality). I made sure we got a large one instead of two little ones so there would be mandatory cuddle time as we walked.

The first interesting thing we saw in the town was their museum about the history of Cinque Terre. They had a lot of really cool pictures, stories, and rusted tools inside of the museum. It was not only a break from the rain but it was also interesting to see the history of the towns, their wine, and a brief snippet of their culture. We walked around the town and made mental notes of the different things that we wanted to get as souvenirs. Looking through our third wheel's book, we decided to go to the most suggested restaurant that was, of course, at the top of the hill of the city. After walking all the way there, we discovered that it was closed, even though it was the middle of the lunch hour, and decided to go to a place that we first saw when we entered the main drag of town. We made it down the hill slowly to the restaurant where we were greeted warmly by the waitress.

The restaurant was very cute and nautical themed.  There were Michigan fans there so of course Chris was skeptical of if we should eat there or not, but his desire for food was more important. So thankful for that because I got spaghetti with Cinque Terre pesto and Chris got a fried seafood dish (Misto Mare). Mr. Marshall, your suggestion was a wise one. The food at this restaurant was so delicious and flavorful. I am so glad that we decided to get a type of seafood with just about every meal. While in the shelter of the restaurant, it started to rain down harder and harder, so much to the point that the ceiling began to leak on the unlucky patrons at the table next to us.

When we were finished with the meal and the rain appeared to be letting up, we went back out onto the main drag and went to buy the souvenirs we had seen earlier. Unfortunately, a few of the stores we had seen were closed down because of the rain and the lack of tourists. We found an open shop and I got some pesto because A) the one on my pasta was so delicious and B) pesto was invented in the Cinque Terre region. Once we were done with our shopping we went down to the train station to buy our tickets to city two and barely made it out. The rain started to come down so hard and the power kept flickering. We purchased the post cards that we liked the most and then the lights went out for good. This posed a problem because the trains are run off of electricity so we began to wonder if we were going to make it out of the town that day. As we crossed the tracks to the other side, we watch the lighting and rain over the ocean which was super cool because of all the different colors in the ocean. As the storm moved closer to the little city, a few of the bolts came down quite close to where we were. Although the train was about ten minutes late, we were still able to board and go to the next town. Right before boarding the train though, I stupidly dropped the pesto under the train. Thankfully Chris is quick on his feet, reached down, and grabbed it. Only later would we discover what happened to the jar after I dropped it.

Reaching Manarola was a very quick trip because these two towns are closest in distance out of the five. We hopped out of the train and made our way down to a restaurant where we were told we would be able to get free sciacchetra if we had our Rick Steves book with us, it was in the book by the way. With the power out, we go to the restaurant and the woman looks at us like we are crazy when we ask her about the free drink. She gets upset with us and complains that this is not a bar, and if we would like food, we can order it but that she refused to give us the drink unless we ordered something. Chris was saying he would buy desserts with the wine, but she wanted us to buy a full-out meal.  So, with our tails between our legs, we walked quickly out of the restaurant and into the pub that was located right next door.

We were greeted warmly and were asked to sit down and they would bring us the drink. While we were drinking our delicious sciacchetra, another visitor of the bar came over and started talking with us. She was a woman from Sweden in her 60's I would have to guess and she was as sweet as can be. She talked with us about her children, her husband, and her time that she had spent in America. We talked with her for about an hour and then decided we should start to explore the city before it became too dark and miss our opportunity. We walked down to the water and along the side of the cliff on the path looking at the ocean. It was so beautiful and the colors were amazing. The rain had brought the vegetation of Cinque Terre to life and it is truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We ran into the woman a few more times on our walk and she was happy to see us each time. After exploring just about every nook of the city, we decided that it was time to go back to the hotel and get some rest before the next day's big adventure.

When we got to the train station there was a crowd waiting to board the same train we were and everyone was talking about the storms. We found out that there had been mudslides in two of the cities and that there was going to be limited transportation, especially since there was no power in any of the five cities. We waited for two hours for the train and finally it came. After seeing cancellation after cancellation on the message board, it was nice to actually know we were going to be able to make it back to Corniglia. All the trains were stopping in Corniglia and not going any further because it was too dangerous and the landslides had gone over the rail road tracks.

When we got back to our city we were hoping the little killer bus would be running so we wouldn't have to walk in the rain. It was, but as it continued to let people on to the bus, we wondered if it was a wise idea. There were a total of 20 people on our little 10 seater bus and for real, I thought we were going to tip over. As all the windows were fogged over, the driver cleared a tiny quarter size eye hole to see out of, and yelled, "ready!" which was more of a statement than a question. This bus ride was even scarier than the first, partly because of how packed it was, and the other part was because it was so rainy out. Well, obviously we made it to the city square alive and headed to our room. On the way, we helped a group of students find their hotel office, which actually was in the same building as ours, and then we went to our room to change our sopping wet clothes and decide what we wanted for dinner.

Since the entire city, except our hotel, was out of power, we decided that it would be fun to just get sandwiches and eat them in our room. The first deli we went to that we saw was open didn't have any meats so we decided to not get anything from there. We had asked for some bread but after deciding we wanted to go to a different place and said we didn't want the bread anymore, the owner was not happy and called us "damn tourists" as we left. Oh well, can't win them all I suppose.

We went to another little deli that was across the road and up more towards our hotel and knew right away that that is where we should have been all along. The woman was so sweet and made us sandwiches to go with our other things we ordered. When we got back to the hotel, we downed all of the food we bought. We got tomato, lettuce, ham, and mozzarella sandwiches, spinach quiche, and apricot torta della nonna. It was a delicious dinner and a perfect setting. We had the doors open to our balcony and we watched the rain from the comfort of our room. Finishing the night with a few games of cards, it was an interesting day to say the least.

October 24th

We woke up eager to start our trip to the Cinque Terre and packed for the week quickly. We heard it was going to be rainy so I made sure to pack my bright orange rain boots so I could fit in fashionably with the Italians. We already had our matching Indiana hoodies so we were already fitting in pretty well. We went to the train station to buy tickets to La Spezia before breakfast because we weren't sure of the times for the trains, but they turned out to run every hour.  After buying the tickets, we went to a little cafe across the street from the station and got pastries with coffee. I got a pastry with pineapple on top and Chris got a pear and chocolate chip pastry, we both got lattes.

After finishing, we went back to the station to board the train and it was a smooth transition. Before the train took off we were getting into our seats and a woman came to assist Chris while he was already in the process of lifting our suitcase onto the shelf. After she was finished with her "work" she held out her hand and said we needed to pay her 1 euro for doing the work. We argued with her a little bit and paid her the 10 cents that Chris had in his pocket. She complained to us in Italian and walked away. We spent the first part of the train ride reading about what Rick Steves suggested to do in each of the cities and brain storming what we were going to do on our first day there. Chris mentioned how he was excited to see the countryside throughout the train ride, and then almost immediately fell asleep… When we got to La Spezia, we bought our tickets to go to Corniglia which is the city our hotel was in. We met some Americans and chatted with them a bit while we waited for the train to arrive and I also got a Fanta which was the closest thing I could get to orange juice which I was craving. What type of McDonald's doesn't have orange juice? Seriously? And the small Fanta we got was filled with ice and cost 1,75 Euro… Really wished there was a Euro Menu there…We were a little confused about which train to get on, but the one we had the hunch was correct.  So we got to the Corniglia train station and got onto the bus that would take us up to the top of the hill which is where the city is actually located. Since we had the big suit case with us we didn't want to lug it up the 400 stairs which is the only way that we knew for sure would get us up to the city. We crammed onto the little bus with more people than should have been on there, and the driver took us up the hillside. The little stick-shift-bus-that-could somehow made it up the huge, steep hill with somehow only stalling twice. The road was unbelievably narrow and there were some parts where Chris and I made eye contact with bulging eyes as to say "Are we going to die?" Or at least that is what my eyes were saying (Chris was probably saying “This is Fantastic!” which will be explained later on).

Amazingly, we made it up the hill and into the little square of the city. The street that our hotel was in was at the corner of the square so luckily we were able to find it rather easily; we just had to follow the numbers up the side of the hill. Thankfully, unlike Florence, the numbers were all in one color and only went ascending as opposed to jumping all over the place. It was a super cute path up to hour hotel and it felt as though I was on a movie set. Everything was so beautiful and surreal. We got to the little office of our hotel, which was the keeper's house, and he came out to greet us only after sticking his head out the window to see who we were.

He came out to the little walk way and walked us back down to where the room to our hotel was. It was a little back track but it wasn't too far of a distance. He took us into our room and it was so cute with the most breathtaking views; half of our view was the ocean and the other half was of the mountains. Chris did a great job picking the hotel and the perks only went up from there. After checking the water pressure of the shower and settling in a little bit, we set off to explore the city that we would call home for the next few days. Walking around the city and going down just about every single ally way was perfect and better than what was in the Rick Steves book so we decided to make our own little adventure for a while. After exploring most of the Corniglia (it is a pretty small town), we realized we were both starving so we got some little pizzas at a little corner place that had "gato" in the name. I am pretty sure the translation was the fat cat or something like that but it was a cute little place and so we went inside. Chris got a pesto and cheese pizza slice and I got a veggie pizza slice, both were good but Chris' was better.

We started out on our journey on the road to Vernazza and it was beyond gorgeous. As most of you have already seen the pictures, I couldn't get enough of the views. These are the things that remind me of what an amazing artist God is, how truly blessed we are for him to give us such generous presents. I love it. We met a lot of interesting people on the path and it was always fun to pick out which were the Americans. Chris is a great travel buddy and I am so thankful that we went on this journey together. I think the most amazing encounter we had was with a group of French people. They were friends who had not seen each other in ten years, and half of them were traveling to city 3 and the other half were traveling to city 4. Of all places, they bumped into each other at a random point on the path. We are not sure what they did after meeting again, but I could hear them laughing for a while after we passed them. Another exciting point in our journey is when Chris decided that he wanted to pick the cactus fruit, only to later remember why Rick so strongly advised to wear gloves if you did decide to pick the cactus fruit. He was picking out the thorns for hours and I was picking them out of my hands when we returned to Florence at the end of the week.  If you have time, try to find the photo of Chris holding up the fruit with an air of triumphant accomplishment.  If only he knew at that moment what the next few hours would be like..

We made it to Vernazza through the drizzle and it was a beautiful town. We walked around and went to the ocean. We decided that we were hungry after our hike and went in search of a lunch/early dinner (linner if you will). The first restaurant we went to was closed just as we got to the door so we went to a little place that we had passed earlier on our walk. We got bruschetta with pesto and then a pizza with artichokes and tomatoes. After the bruschetta was polished off, we realized that we should take pictures of our food the rest of the trip, starting with the empty plate of bruschetta. After our delicious lunch we walked around the city a little more near the harbor and watched them bring up the boats out of the water because it was going to start raining harder. We walked into the little church that was there in town only to be told to hurry out by a local Italian woman because they were apparently about to start mass. We then hiked up to the castle that is at the top of the town's hill only to find out that we had to pay to get in. Lame. After our hike down and a little more exploring, we decided that we should move on to the next town.

So we hiked up the main road that would take us out of city four. Trip 1. Once we made it to the top of the hill where the road was we decided that we should have gotten a shot glass from the town so we went back down the main road to look for the shot glass that we had decided we liked earlier. Trip 2. Once there, we decided not to get the glass after all so we hiked back up the road. Trip 3. When we made it to the top of the hill, I realized I had to go to the bathroom and of course the bathrooms at the top of the hill were out of toilet paper so we had to go back down the hill to the restaurant for me to go pee. Trip 4. When we made it back to the top of the hill we realized we were going the wrong way the entire time and that we were supposed to be at the bottom of the city to find the trial to city five, not the top. Trip 5 down to the correct trail was thankfully our last one. We were about to go down one road and I felt as though it wasn't right so we asked a few locals which was the correct path. They said that the path was over to our right, behind a few buildings but that we would be crazy to go because even though our book said it would take 90 minutes, it would really take us 3 hrs. We thanked them and while we were walking away, we were stopped by some Americans who said we would make the trip in 90 minutes but that we would, indeed, be crazy to go at this hour because it would be pitch dark before we made it even half way to city five. As they walked away, Chris being the expert mountain man he is, turned to me and said, "so we are going, right?" After much hesitation I agreed and I could tell that even though I was nervous, this was something that he really, really wanted to do. So with the warnings ignored, we headed up the stairs and began our journey to city five.

Very shortly into the journey we ran into younger Americans who were just finishing the trail and asked how long it took them to complete. They said 90 minutes and that we should really hustle if we want to make it there before dark. We made the best use of daylight by speed walking when we could but at the beginning of the trail there were a lot of stairs which slowed us down. It had stopped raining and so by this point in time, the trail was no longer slippery which did help a little. Almost exactly midway on this trail, we met a cat which followed us for a little while, which I named Gato, and he followed us for a little while when I called his name. Once he stopped following, I knew we were going to be all alone on the rest of our journey. It got dark very quick which made the rest of the journey scary especially when it was during the parts of the trail which were particularly narrow. The stairs at the end were especially scary because they were very vertical and uneven, so it was hard to see in the dark when to step. However, after about an hour and 10 minutes, we reached city five and had a victory sit down on a bench near the water. We looked for a place to eat because we were both hungry and after asking a few different people, decided on a little restaurant that looked crowded. We ordered the Cinque Terre wine and what we thought was supposed to be a sardine appetizer but I am pretty sure was a different appetizer dish of mixed sea foods. It was very delicious and we both looked and gawked at all the seafood that other people had ordered. We decided that we would come back the next night because the food looked too good to pass up. Little did we know what awaited us the next day.

After dinner we went to the train station to see when the next train was and met a few people that were from America and they invited us to go get a drink with them. I had my first limoncello and I did NOT like it, Chris finished mine for me. When we were finished with drinks and conversation we made our way back to the train station and made it back to Corniglia with no problems. We walked up the hill to our square on the street because we were unsure of where the famous 400 steps were and figured that we would find those in the morning when we were on our way to the next cities. We made it to the hotel finally and collapsed onto the bed.

October 23rd

We started the morning with pastries and macchiato, which were delicious. We made our game plan for the day which we knew would be filled to the brim with showing Chris the beautiful city that is Florence. After our breakfast, we had priorities meaning that the apartment was out of toilet paper. We walked to the supermarket and then walked around that area, going by the Santa Croce and over to the River. Florence in the morning time is one of my favorites because everyone is still so excited to have the day begin and the morning sunlight casts beautiful colors onto my city. After our tp run, we walked back to the apartment to set down our stuff and then really headed out on our adventure of the day. We went to the San Carlo to show him the church I usually go to on Sundays and then we headed to one of the more pricey markets near me. We wanted to find as many markets as we could and I wanted to show Chris all of them. We decided not to get anything and proceeded to go on site seeing. On our way to the San Lorenzo market, I showed Chris the outside of the Duomo and read to him what Rick Steves had to say. Interesting fact: The dome actually weighs more than the entire human population of Florence. CRAZY. We went to a small sandwich shop which was literally just a hole in the wall run by two brothers. I got a tuna and parsley sauce sandwich and Chris got a spicy salami and goat cheese.

The San Lorenzo market was a great way to spend the afternoon. Chris was able to get the things he wanted and I was able to try on a lot of leather coats. He haggled on everything he bought and seemed as though he was a born haggler, a real natural. We went from end to end of the market looking at all the different things we could but unfortunately we weren't able to go into the food market because it is closed on Sunday. Oh well, we decided we would go next weekend and Chris would be able to see what it was like. We went by the apartment to drop off our purchases, played a card game, and rested before we headed over to the Oltrarno area of Florence.

We walked across the Ponte Vecchio with our eyes plastered to the windows looking in all the jewelry shops and then walked along the back roads to one of my favorite places in all of Florence, the Piazza Michaelangelo. Watching the sunset from that high point is truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed and I am so glad I got to show it to Chris.

We went to a new place for dinner that I had never been before but was recommended by a teacher and it was delicious. We started out with liver pate and then I had macaroni with seafood and Chris had linguine with a Bolognese sauce on his. After dinner we walked around for a while and then, with a unanimous decision, we got gelato at my favorite gelataria in Florence. We walked around the Piazza Signoria and then headed back to the apartment where we hung out with my roommates. We headed to bed earlier because we knew we would be in for an exciting week! We were so excited for travel.