Cinque Terre

“Hi,” “Hey,” “Hello,” “Ciao,” “Bonjour,” “Hallo,” Ahoj,” “Hola,” and even an “Aloha.” This is what I heard while hiking through the rugged Italian Riviera bordering the Ligurian Sea as I passed strangers, smiled, waved and said my own “hellos” in return. The five ancient and beautiful villages that make up Cinque Terre (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) bring people from around the world together to enjoy and revel at the dreamlike colorful houses on the coastline. I remember pinning photos of Cinque Terre on my “Wanderlust” board over a year ago (before Italy was even a thought in my mind) thinking it looked like a fictional place, so it was quite surreal to spend two days walking through it with my own two legs.

Kim, Stas, Michela, Sóley (our friend from Iceland) and I traveled to Cinque Terre by train, as it’s only a few hours from Milan. We stayed in the village of Riomaggiore in an apartment overlooking the sea. Talk about a room with a view. After we explored this village and bought gelato (of course), we decided to head to Vernazza, which was one of my favorites. We walked through it a couple of times and then set off to hike to Monterosso. The view of Vernazza from the start of the hike was breathtaking. A couple of hours later, we emerged from the trail just in time for the sunset and for dinner. We found a place on the boardwalk and ate overpriced spaghetti. The view was worth it, though. Then we took a train back through the other villages to the end—Riomaggiore. I attempted to create a makeshift tripod to get pictures of the buildings at night, but it was a semi fail.

The next morning, the girls and I got up and went to a little café to grab breakfast, which we brought back to the apartment and ate looking out at the water. Then we checked out and brought our bags to the Airbnb owner’s house to store and headed for the hills. Corniglia was our first stop of the day and the smallest village, but still quaint and charming with the best sea view of them all. The hike from Corniglia to Manarola was equally stunning, especially the last third, which overlooked the Mediterranean.

Ligurian Sea

After reaching Manarola, we found lunch (pesto of course—the region is known for its pesto), ate some well-deserved gelato, hunted for postcards and then sat with our feet in the water and the sun on our skin watching teenagers cliff dive and fishing boats cruise by. A very happy moment. The Manarola to Riomaggiore trail was closed, so we hopped on the train. After stocking up on fruit and water for the ride home, we grabbed our bags, took one last look at the vibrancy of the village and went back to the train station.

Everything was going smooth (especially for all of the problems we had with train tickets for this trip). But then Stas and I were standing on the platform and heard an announcement through the loud speaker that our train would be 20 minutes late, which was going to be a problem because we had to make two connections. So the train was late, but the next train was late also. Still on track. I kept calculating and recalculating in my head the minutes we had to make our final connection back to Milan and thought we’d have enough, but nope. Stas, Michela and I (Kim and Sóley had an earlier train back to Milan) got off in Genova, ran around the station looking at departures and realized we had missed our train—the train that was also the last to Milan for the night. It was 10 p.m. and the next train was at 6 a.m. At first it was pretty funny. We walked along the sketchiest street, ate more spaghetti, drank wine and then decided we shouldn’t sleep in the train station. We went into multiple hotels and called hostels to find cheap lodging, but ended up staying close to the station for a decent price. It’s a night I’ll never forget. We caught the 6 a.m. train back to Milan with time to spare before class. All is well.