We are in Florence right now and we're taking a break to update the blog. The keyboard can't be switched to English so my bad if there are severe typos or grammatical issues.
Saturday - Sunday
After the creme brulee and "coffee", we went to the train station in Paris. Our coach had 6 passengers and was about the size of the bathroom at the beach house. It was tight. After the train left the station, a train employee came by to take our tickets and passports. We were kind of nervous about that but didn't say anything because he took them from everyone. Eventually, we turned the chairs into beds, which look like the tiny slats for beds I saw in my friend Nick's fraternity in college. You can't sit up (unless you were in the top bunk). We all went to sleep (or at least tried to) and I held my iphone and ipod with a death grip, just because I was a little nervous too about sleeping in a small cabin with strangers (who were completely harmless but sometimes I get a little freaked).
Evan said he didn't sleep through the entire 8-ish hour train ride and at 4 am started panicking about our passports. The trains don't usually announce when you arrive at certain locations so we set the alarm for 5 am (we were to arrive at 6 am). To our sweet surprise, the train guy came by around 5 and gave us our passports. Phew!! That made us feel much better. We got our stuff together and got ready to get out of the train quickly, in case it was going to leave for another stop.
Shortly after, we arrived in Genoa and caught another train to Vernazza, one of the five towns in Cinque Terre. Here we made a mistake that we would realize a couple days later. We bought a train ticket into Vernazza, but not one to leave Vernazza. I'll get back to that later. We got on the train with no problem, arrived within 10 minutes in Vernazza and proceeded to follow the following instructions to get to our hotel from Evan's e-mail:
And when you arrive in Vernazza please go down the stairs from the train station and into the first wine shop on the left side of the street. the shop is named Sotto I'Arco and is about 20 meters form the bottom of the stairs that lead you from the train station and onto the main street of the village. Once there please tell the owners you have a reservation with "Ivo" and they will give us a call to come meet you right away. We do not live on the property where the rooms are located so it is easier to meet you at Sotto I'Arco to personally show you up to the room.
We went into the wine store, and the woman said, no Ivo isn't here, go to the Pizzeria. Which pizzeria? We weren't sure but felt like we had already bugged her. So we kind of wandered into a cafe and asked about the pizzeria. A young man there told us to go next door and to say hi to Ivo for him. At the pizzeria, someone called Ivo on their cell phone, handed the phone to Evan and a young woman on the other end of the phone said, "Hi, I'm Stephanie, Ivo's english-speaking girlfriend". She explained that the room wasn't ready yet because the staff woman had to put down her young daughter but that she would meet us and take our bags. So we waited and were greeted by a young woman and her daughter (about 4 years old). She spoke perfect english and we assumed she was from the US. We walked up 62 steps of steep, steep stairs, with the little girl, Olivia, leading the way while she played with her piano-toy-book. The room was small but very cute. We forgot to take a picture but I'll find one online once we can post all the other pictures.
We left our things in the room so she could finish cleaning and we went down for a nice early morning breakfast pizza. It was about 10 am but we were starving so we ordered a pesto pizza, caprese salad, and sprite. We probably looked a little strange eating pizza so early but it had to happen. And, in defense, one of the chefs sat at a table next to us drinking a beer. So, maybe we weren't so crazy.
For about an hour, we walked around Vernazza, which has one main street made of different sizes of cobblestones. Supposedly, cars aren't allowed in the town but we saw a few (though the streets were so narrow it was amazing they made it through). We walked down to the beautiful beach and watched as the early birds (aka people) played in the water and sun-bathed on the cement and big rocks. The town is adorable and yes, it's verrry romantical (as I like to say so I don't sound too cheesy). After the short walk, we went back to our room and got changed out of our train clothes and took a short nap. Then we went back to the main street to check out the shops. Up on one of the hills is a beautiful tower made of stones so we hiked up there for drinks. I had a huge gin and tonic (I didn't know it would be so big!) and Evan orderd a glass of Cinque Wine which actually tasted like champagne. The bees were all over us so we finished up our drinks and hiked back down (very carefully). We got gelato for dessert and then had dinner. After dinner we realized we had done it all backwards: drinks, dessert, then dinner. Oh well, we do what we want!
We internet cafe'd a bit that night trying to upload pictures from the camera and iphone, but failed. Oh well. We'll try in Rome where we will be staying with some family.
Monday
On Monday morning we found a place that served "American" breakfast with eggs and toast. We justified ordering it since we were going to go on a big hike. I fell in love with a little store on the main road right after breakfast. A man there makes amazing mixed-media art and jewelry. Loved it. We bought some things there (and went back the next day). We also stopped at the little grocery store market and bought some fruit and snacks for the hike.
In Cinque Terre you can hike from each town (or go by train or boat) so we hiked north-west-ish to Monterosso. The hike was beautiful but dangerous in certain parts. But, we saw lots of young kids, older hikers and dogs as well. The scary parts were where the path would get really narrow next to a cliff and you have people walking in both directions. Most people are pretty corteous and let you pass (or vice versa) but it was often hard to find enough room to do so. We stopped a little more than half way to share an apple and fanta. Yum yum. We spoke to a nice couple from the Netherlands and continued on. It was fun walking by big lime trees, grape vines and homes kind of hidden in the hills. But it was hot! We made a wrong turn at one point but luckily we were close to Monterosso and a woman who worked at the ticket booth yelled at us to turn back (we had only been on a wrong path for about a minute).
We made it into Monterosso which is much more like a resort and a bit bigger than Vernazza. We walked through the town and stopped for lunch at a place that was playing Linkin Park and Evanescence. Oh what a flashback to middle school and high school. The pasta was good and restored our energy after the hike. We walked around some more, almost bought a few things, but instead got gelato. I (Andrea) put my feet in the blue water to cool off and we layed on the boardwalk while we waited for the boat to return to Vernazza.
This is a fun part. The boat has a ramp that has wheels on the end that touches the land (where passengers wait to load). I think there was an older tourist group waiting to get on the boat and they squealed when the waves crashed against the dock and got them a bit wet. It was so hot out that you would dry off in about 3 minutes. Anyway, as the boat arrived, the wheel end of the ramp moved all over the place and you would kind of have to chase it down to get on the boat. It was even difficult for Evan and I, so I couldn't imagine it for the others. We sat on the boat watching as people loaded on which included people in high heels (really??!), a woman with an infant in her arms (yikes!!) and many older people that I was terrified to watch. Luckily, everyone loaded on just fine but it was kind of horrifying and funny at the same time. The boat ride was beautiful and Evan did not get sea-sick. Congrats.
Well, we only had an hour at the internet cafe so I'll leave you hanging about the mistake we made at the train station in Genoa.
Hasta luego!
A + E
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