Cinque Terre – Finding Friends

On the third morning, the girls had to catch an early train, so I got up with them, walked them to the end of town and said my good-byes. As they were leaving, and I experienced my first few minutes of true aloneness in a foreign country, my stomach was turning in knots a wee bit. But by the time I got back to our room, I was feeling much better (perhaps it was only gas?). I took my time gathering my things, spent a little time in the Word and just enjoyed the fact that I wasn’t on any kind of a schedule. I wasn’t sure how finding lodging was going to go, but I reminded myself to just take it one step at a time, and I’d figure it out.

As I was heading down the 400 steps out of Corniglia (augh), I ran into our Floridian friends from dinner the first night. We stopped to chat for a bit and as I left, my load seemed a little bit lighter. I had to hurry to catch my train though and with my bag on my back, that was no easy feat. (Oh and did I mention I’m in a skirt and wedges? It seemed like a comfortable outfit when I put it on that morning…I just kind of forgot about all those stairs…) So as you can imagine, I was huffing and puffing and a sweaty mess by the time I was on the train. It’s only about a 3 minute ride to Vernazza, so I was in no better shape by the time I arrived. So I stepped off the train, set all my bags down, and just took a breather. I had nowhere to go just yet, so why not? One step at a time, right?

As I sat there trying to cool down and regulate my breathing, Erin, my new friend from yesterday strolls up onto the platform. We chatted for a bit and discovered we had quite a bit in common. Not only do we both love Jesus (yay!) but we are both traveling for two months on our own, both quit jobs of 5 years because we were feeling restless and the need to move on, both decided to move to a new city after quitting said jobs, but concluded a trip to Italy was necessary first. Weird, eh? The only real difference being that Erin will be touring more of Europe and I’m staying primarily in Italia. Oh and she’s from Virginia Beach and I’m from Bellingham. In any case, what a blessing! So she and I renewed our commitment to dinner plans and parted ways for the afternoon.