Welcome to Cinque Terre!

Today my new friends will arrive from Rome and I’m excited because a) they are going to experience Cinque Terre for the first time and I get to be a part of that and b) now I will have some companions with which to explore some of the niches of CT that I didn’t before. Really, it’s a win-win.

The L’Abri peeps have scheduled three nights in CT, giving them only about 2.5 days of sight seeing. Based on my previous experience, I intend to recommend they spend the first day and a half exploring the towns by train and the last day hiking the towns. That way they’ll be able to see all they want to see of each city and when it comes time to hike, they won’t be tempted to loiter in any given city (the hike is about 7 miles from start to finish and a tendency to explore would only prolong the approximately 4 hour trip).

And this is exactly what I tell Philip when he arrives that afternoon. He had been more excited about the prospect of CT than the others and, in turn, opted to take an earlier train. Everyone else would arrive in the early evening, but the general plan sounded good to him. As he got settled in, we swapped stories over the last few days (me with my lousy picture taking of David and he with a blitz tour of Rome) and then I took him on Rick’s self-guided tour, alla me. His reaction to CT was pretty much what mine had been originally: eyes popped wide, jaw permanently dropped, simply unable to absorb all the beauty. (Seriously, if you haven’t been, you really must come visit.)

Before long it was time for everyone else to arrive, so we headed back down to the train station. After a brief wait, Matt, Ellen and Patrick showed up on the platform looking tired and a little bedraggled. Turns out it had been a long day for them and the only thing they wanted today, was a little rest before dinner. That seems fair enough. Patrick decides he is game for a mini-tour of a city, so he, Philip and I set out to see Vernazza and plan on meeting Matt and Ellen* in Monterosso for dinner.

The walk in Vernazza is a brief one, but the boys can see that it is a city with quite a bit of charm. For me, it’s like coming home. This is where I not only met my traveling twin Erin, but where I spent the bulk of my time alone in CT. It’s silly, but I’m nostalgic.

We pop into a foccaceria for a little sustenance before dinner and explore all around the breakwater and “beach” (a.k.a. huge rocks on which one can lay in the sun). Before we know it, it’s already time to catch the train for dinner and we’re on our way.

After the two-minute ride, we head back to my favorite pizzeria (where I had been skunked the night before), this time to happily discover it is open for business. Unfortunately we don’t see Ellen or Matt anywhere…perhaps they missed the train? We settle in and order two pesto pizzas and one 4 cheese. Mmm, delicious! From there we venture over to one of the bars and chat over some bevies.

Eventually we head back home and learn the others did indeed miss the train (bummer) and settled for pizza from a nearby shop. Then the five of us huddle on two beds around one small MacBook and watched Anchorman. I haven’t watched tv in almost a month, but was nice to have a little mindless entertainment. By the end though, I’m completely exhausted (as are the others) and we call it a night.

On the whole, they don’t seem rapturously overcome with the wonderful magicalness that can only be attributed to Cinque Terre. They’re just tired. (Pshaw! What gives?) This perturbs me a little bit, but they have been traveling all day, so I decide to give them the benefit of the doubt. (Even though all I really want to do is shake them and say, “Are you freaking SEEING this!?!”)

Perhaps tomorrow the scales will fall from their eyes…

*Metsker, I just realized that it sounds like I’m talking about you and your mom – hahhah! That didn’t occur to me once in real time – probably because this Matt is from the UK and has a cute accent and they mostly call this Ellen “Keller.”

**Second photo courtesy of PBJ